ASPEN • In the forest along Independence Pass, there’s a place of bizarre, swirling rock and roaring water that captures the imagination of drivers who stop by. This was a favorite place of Bob Lewis. “Bob was an educator all his adult life,” says a longtime friend and writer, Paul Anderson, “and he brought that to bear at the Grottos.
” That’s the name of the day-use area marked along the highway close to Aspen — so named for cavernous realms cut by ancient forces and deep time. “The Grottos tell a story of how rock and ice created the landscape of Independence Pass,” reads a sign posted at the small parking lot. The sign is courtesy of Independence Pass Foundation, the stewarding nonprofit that Lewis created in 1989.
Lewis died in 2005 an Aspen legend. The foundation was but one environmental organization he led, among several projects following his years teaching local high schoolers biology, geology, ecology and more. Lewis’ time in Colorado started at Camp Hale with the 10th Mountain Division.
Out of the Army, outdoor education and advocacy back in Aspen would be his life’s calling. Independence Pass, that road scaling several life zones and ecosystems, would be his school away from the school building. And perhaps there was no greater classroom than the Grottos.
“Bob would take his students up the pass and stop at intervals along the way,” Anderson says. “One of his favorite stops was the Grottos, because the Grottos revealed the ancient, fo.
