We just went for a quick trip to see some aspens so,
we decided to do Bill Moore Lake trail which is north of Empire and some of the surrounding area. The best overall view of aspen we saw is probably along the main Bill Moore Lake trail near the main junction where you turn left uphill,
looking north-east to the next small mountain. However, a large majority
of the trees we saw that day were pine trees. There's a few sections of
loose rock and gnarly moguls to get to the lake. Eric's Montero Sport did
surprisingly well with completely open diffs but because he has
no swaybars and 33" tires, his Montero did great. Since Jeff's 4Runner still
has it's rear swaybar on, he had to rely on the locker a couple times in the
moguls. Getting to the lake was a shorter trip than we expected.
But it was still fun and you get to see some great scenery along the way.

On the way out, we took the side road that heads north-east into the next
valley. We wanted to see if we could get closer to the aspens on the next
hill to the east. Well, we missed those aspens, but we still ended up taking
a trail that was totally new to us. The trail kept getting narrower and
narrower. There were several tight spots where there was an inch or two
between sheet metal and a tree. Then there were more off-camber spots with
large rocks and loose dirt. Pretty soon we found ourselves descending into the next valley toward I-70 so we decided to continue on instead of turning around. After a few more off-camber sections, we came out in what I'll call trailerparkville off of I-70 that's a mile or so east of the I-70 Berthoud pass exit but west of Downieville. It would be a do-able trail (and easier to find) by doing it uphill if any of you want to try it. There's definitely some difficult spots along the way and it's not recommended for stock or wide vehicles. I wish I knew if that trail had a common name.