Ski towns are better in the summer/fall than they are in the winter (move, best time)

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

The best thing about summer is that your VRBO fits on your back or in your car.

Haha ordinarily yes, but this year everyone in their mother is car / RV camping and it's questionable if your planned spot will actually be available. It's like 2-3x normal crowds so getting a condo seems to be the better way to beat the crowd during the corona times.

Originally Posted by Brill

I still need to make it to Telluride in the summer. Only been there for skiing. Was hoping to do it this year along with black canyon, but not going to happen.

I've never been there either, we always went to Creede or Pagosa to visit the San Juans. You know though, every place I've been recently has left me glad I visited with just amazing scenery and it's not like one place has a monopoly on it. It depends what you want to see, The Elk Range and San Juan Range are known for those post card sceneries and having all the pieces of scenery in one spot.

But for wildflowers, I've seen as good of showings here in the Gore Range this year as I've seen is Crested Butte (and it's earlier). For jaggedness, the Ten Mile / Mosquito range is astounding and there's more history concentrated here. For aspens, it's kind of suprising where they show up though the close ski areas don't have as many of these.

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by Brill

I still need to make it to Telluride in the summer. Only been there for skiing. Was hoping to do it this year along with black canyon, but not going to happen.

I've only been to the ski towns in summer and fall. Crested Butte and Telluride are my favorites for fall color. Telluride is very quiet in late September when the aspens are glowing, and Crested Butte has a number of festivals going on over the weekends at the same time. Great time to visit.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by Gorges

I've only been to the ski towns in summer and fall. Crested Butte and Telluride are my favorites for fall color. Telluride is very quiet in late September when the aspens are glowing, and Crested Butte has a number of festivals going on over the weekends at the same time. Great time to visit.

I've read and recently had this confirmed by a geology professor from School of Mines (that I ran into on the top of mount Elbert of all places ) that the most ideal places in the state for fall colors is the West Elk Wilderness area. It's between Crested Butte, Gunnison, and Crawford, kind of a bit out of the way and not on the most travelled corridor from tourists in the Crested Butte area.

The reasoning is that:

1. This southern area of the Elk range is volcanic so the soil allows for more hues of color
2. There's long runs along the ridgelines to get varying colors from warm on bottom to colder on top
3. The particulars of the weather in this spot make for the most consistent showing

It's not the biggest swath of aspen in the state, (I think the Grand Mesa wins there) but apparently is the most vibrant.

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by Phil P

I've read and recently had this confirmed by a geology professor from School of Mines (that I ran into on the top of mount Elbert of all places ) that the most ideal places in the state for fall colors is the West Elk Wilderness area. It's between Crested Butte, Gunnison, and Crawford, kind of a bit out of the way and not on the most travelled corridor from tourists in the Crested Butte area.

The reasoning is that:

1. This southern area of the Elk range is volcanic so the soil allows for more hues of color
2. There's long runs along the ridgelines to get varying colors from warm on bottom to colder on top
3. The particulars of the weather in this spot make for the most consistent showing

It's not the biggest swath of aspen in the state, (I think the Grand Mesa wins there) but apparently is the most vibrant.

Yep, that's the Kebler Pass area, home to one of the largest aspen groves on earth. It's truly beautiful.

[snowave]

As a ski town resident veteran, most people I've known that live in them (including myself) enjoy fall the most. Sunny, mild days and cool nights... fall colors, light crowds and the anticipation of a snowy winter.

[COcheesehead]

Ski towns like Crested Butte, Telluride are spectacular in summer. Others along the I 70 corridor seem kind of dull in comparison, with Vail being the possible exception.
As far as Aspens, there is a great grove in Piñon Mesa, part of the Grand Mesa NF, but interestingly not on the Grand Mesa. It’s many miles away. Not sure why they created the island like unit south of Grand Junction, but calling it the same name.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

Ski towns like Crested Butte, Telluride are spectacular in summer. Others along the I 70 corridor seem kind of dull in comparison, with Vail being the possible exception.
As far as Aspens, there is a great grove in Piñon Mesa, part of the Grand Mesa NF, but interestingly not on the Grand Mesa. It’s many miles away. Not sure why they created the island like unit south of Grand Junction, but calling it the same name.

The dull is actually part of the appeal here, because dull means things are real cheap, there's no parking or any other hassles and little traffic. Obviously this only appeals if you are going to get outside and hike / explore around vs going for some related social activity.

I think the western side of the state in general is better for aspen due to lower elevations, warmer temps, but still enough water to support healthy growth.

I've explored both Vail and Beaver Creek this weekend. Vail is what I expected, a high end, high population resort that found a great valley to be CO's biggest resort. I liked Beaver Creek better though, because it's location is just magical! It's as pretty as any top destination in Colorado. The aspen slopes are beautiful, but the warm and wet combination of its location is incredible. It's not just aspen, there's valleys full of serviceberry full of berries to eat, there's cottonwoods all mixed in, every sort of flower, and some of the most huge and impressive fir and spruce trees all mixed in together, and an excellently built town. It's so much better maintained as well, no trash anywhere, the forests are all thinned and well managed, the slopes have no erosion. And the resort backs up to the Holy Cross area, which is some of the most breathtaking high alpine scenery anywhere in Colorado due to the very hard rock creating big jagged cliffs. It's one of the best places in the state in the summer.

[Mike Weber]

I moved to Summit County many years ago for the skiing, but stayed there seven years for the summer and fall. Definitely the best part!

[Bamaman1]

Just stay away from the ski resorts late March until May.

The Spring rains are ferocious, and mud is everywhere.

I too like Lake Tahoe in Summer as well as Winter. After I broke two legs 11 years ago, I hung up my ski's.

[Phil P]

So after spending time up there hanging out at all the different ski towns on I - 70, here's my verdict on them for their summer activity potential:

Depending on how far you want to drive / how long you want to stay and how much money you want to spend there's 3 groups: Winter Park and Keystone, Breckenridge and Copper, Vail and Beaver Creek.

For the first group, I think Winter Park is superior to Keystone. The Winter Park area just has more to do, more bike and hiking trails in the area, and better ski area village. I didn't care for Keystone in the summer; the area was built parking lots first, village second so there wasn't a connected walking experience and it was easy to get dead ended and feel a bit lost. The homes were nice, but the sames true in Winter Park. The trail system was also lackluster, there weren't a lot at the base and going up the road to Montezuma, there wasn't any parking available and you needed 4wd real quick. Winter Park has cooler areas to explore; the middle-Front Range makes like a 4 prong northward facing pitchfork if you look at the satellite view, and each of those prongs has a trail system and are pretty; but no 14er nearby if that's a deal.

For the second group, I liked Copper better than Breck. Admittedly they are quite different, Breck larger and a full town while Copper is not, but Frisco is close enough to Copper. While it's cool that Breck has been able to clean up it's environment, it's still a knock to me that the entire town is essentially built on mining tailings. It's family friendly, but that is both good and bad as it's more roped off and regulated. Copper's environment is more pristine, and the location is just better being the middle of the Central Range (Gore-Mosquito) instead of on the edge, with many trails right out of the base to hike and bike. It's an excellent spot to base out of if hiking is your primary activity. If you have the time to drive a bit further, the Central Range is significantly prettier than the Front Range. The forest understory was covered in plant greenery in the central range while it was sparse and mostly needles in the front range. The were many more flowers and little streams as well, especially on the west (wet) side. The mountains were more jagged and stunning as well due to more glaciation. Things get prettier as you go back to the Sawatch and then to the Elk Ranges, but the Central Range is the best compromise of closeness and good scenery.

For the third group, Beaver Creek wins. While Vail has biggest village and ski mountain with this neat Bavarian theme, Beaver Creek is just in a more magical geography. Beaver Creek is the best planned out ski area IMO, it's so neat how everything is clustered into one central, walkable spot. The climate is better too, being lower and warmer, there's a lot of stuff growing in Beaver Creek that doesn't grow elsewhere, like cottonwoods and serviceberry. The forest in the ski area was excellent, you could look at trees for days here, with huge aspen, douglas fir, subalpine fir, and blue spruce all mixed together in one spot, which is rare. And backing up to the Holy Cross area adds points as this area is just stunning, though still very snowy while I was there.