From Willow Lake we hiked strongly back over Willow Pass down into the flower-filled meadows below nearby Buckskin Pass.  We climbed quickly up to the pass.  In my mind, Buckskin Pass is the perfect spot to admire the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness.  To the south and east are the dark, fractured and striated Maroon Bells Peaks and Pyramid Peak composed of crumbling sedimentary rock.  To the west is Snowmass Lake below the sharp, crystalline and light colored Snowmass and Hagerman Peaks composed of solid granite. With Capitol Peak, Pyramid Peak, the Maroon Bells and Snowmass Mountain, the wilderness area manages to have a collection of 14,000 foot peaks that are some of the hardest in the Colorado to climb.  Fortunately, I was with a group that was happy to just admire them from a distance.