7/12/05 -- Just spent last weekend above Aspen, looking at Pearl and Taylor Passes. Pearl is completely snowed in on the Aspen side up at the top, the drift is about forty yards long (estimated thru the glasses) and looking pretty deep. Probably will be this way for at least two/three weeks. Taylor is nice and clean on the Aspen side, you can drive all the way to the top without incident, but it is snowed in at the very top crossing over toward the lake. Drift is about twenty yards long, about four ft deep, could be another 20/30 days for any action here. Talking to some other jeepers, they said that the east side of Taylor, where you cross thru the stream and then turn uphill, has been recently worked on so to make more feasible. Input on this particular topic?, I attempted this route two years ago unsuccessfully because of that particular hill. Looking at the east side of the road from the top of the pass, it was very clean and dry, so the only difficult areas are the above. There were several cross country cycles roaring around. Be advised that there is an abundance of water in the hills, for example, at the Williams Fork two weeks ago, the lake is so full the road around the upper end of the lake is dry due to it being raised above the meadows, but the fence line that runs parallel to the road is completely submerged, only the tops of the posts can be seen. The Colorado was so high even the fish had no idea of where to go. One should check out the proposed Pomeroy trip. Great drive,beautiful area, water and snow might be a factor here this year.