Christmas Vacation (Denver, Colorado Springs, Steamboat Springs: ski resort, spring break, to rent)

[MountainViews]

Would anyone have a suggestion of a good place to escape to with my wife for the Christmas holidays? We get a few days to ourselves, and wanted to spend some time in a smallish mountain town with great scenery. I'm not a skiier (more of an avalancher), so that's not something we will be doing. But we do want to enjoy the snow and mountain views, so we aren't opposed to the ski areas.

Perhaps some place like a lodge where everything is provided. We would enjoy hiking in the snow, sipping hot chocolate while watching the snow fall, and enjoying excellent food. We would love to ride in a horse drawn sleigh in the snow!!

We have about three or four days that we can escape from reality and enjoy the mountains, which would be right about Christmas time.

Thanks!!

[Minx]

Have a look at this website. This place has all you described and more.

Grand Lake, Colorado | Rocky Mountain National Park | Colorado Mountain Vacations

[MountainViews]

Minx, that is a gorgeous looking place. Thank you very much for sharing this with me. I definitely bookmarked the website

Do you happen to know what we might expect the roads to be like in late December? I know it's hit and miss according to the weather, but is it normally a relatively easy drive to get to Grand Lake from Denver?

Thanks again!!
MV

Originally Posted by Minx

Have a look at this website. This place has all you described and more.

Grand Lake, Colorado | Rocky Mountain National Park | Colorado Mountain Vacations

[Neditate]

Are you planning to drive? If so, I'd suggest Crested Butte. It's a cool town and the drive there is not bad. Texans take over the town during spring break. You don't have to be a skier to enjoy it.
If you are flying, you could fly into Gunnison. Or fly into Colorado Springs - about a 3.5 - 4 hour drive to CB. Visit Crested Butte, Colorado
Another suggestion (if you are flying) is to fly directly into Steamboat Springs from Dallas. You won't even need to rent a car. You don't have to be a skier to enjoy Steamboat either. Steamboat Springs Colorado Chamber Resort Association
One thing to keep in mind is that any ski resort area is going to be more expensive over the Christmas holiday. However, I've been reading about a lot of deals to be had because of the economy.

[Minx]

Originally Posted by MountainViews

Minx, that is a gorgeous looking place. Thank you very much for sharing this with me. I definitely bookmarked the website

Do you happen to know what we might expect the roads to be like in late December? I know it's hit and miss according to the weather, but is it normally a relatively easy drive to get to Grand Lake from Denver?

Thanks again!!
MV

The advantage of Grand Lake is that it doesn't get flooded with tourists in winter like a resort does. You still get tourists but it is a mountain town, not a ski resort. You can rent a fully maintained cabin or home and don't need to stay in motels. Most of the homes are 2nd homes or weekend homes of people who live in Denver.

Grand Lake is not really a hit and miss place in terms of weather or snow. It's almost guaranteed to have lots of snow and has some of the best snowmobile trails in Colorado. The drive will take about 2.5 hours from Denver. Berthoud Pass is usually a challange at that time of year. You will need a 4wheel drive. You can also use Home James. They pick you up in Denver and drive you to Granby for $68 per person or $280 for a family. They can carry up to 10 People. Then you don't need to drive it yourself. In Granby you can hire a Subaru 4wheel drive or about $38 / day. May not be a large SUV but it is a 4wheel drive. Once you get over the pass it's pretty good driving. Granby to Grand Lake is about 15 to 20 minutes. If you're there for New Years Eve they have fireworks over the lake and town turns into a carnival atmosphere.

I live there so my comments are from experience.

[Mike from back east]

Yes, Grand Lake is nice and a bit away from it all. If you want to ski, you're a half hour drive to Winter Park, a gorgeous setting.

We've been to the Winding River Resort, in mid September one year, and we loved it. The couple who run this place are tops. They came here from IL a number of years ago; running horses in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter.

Here are a few pix and a link: Winding River Resort, campgrounds and cabins near Rocky Mountain National Park

Going over Berthoud Pass on US-40.

The corral at Winding River Resort.

Grand Lake, CO on a blustery September day.

Wes House of the Resort, a great guy.

[Minx]

Here are some more photos I took.

Driving through Winter Park - October this year



Over Berthoud Pass



Grand Lake from a distance



In town











Christmas Lights





Stopped in at Max & T's for a heart starter



Snowmobiling





Carnival Atmosphere - lots of events over Christmas & New Year



My home

[MountainViews]

Thank you all so much for the great advice!!! I really appreciate it.

Those photos you posted were gorgeous. My wife is a native of Colorado, so she's been to those places. But I have not yet. Her family is in southern Colorado, and in fact we are planning to visit Crested Butte and Gunnison with them in the spring.

A friend of mine has a condo in Granby and has told me it's a great place to visit. And I have had numerous friends tell me how beautiful Winter Park is. The photos you posted confirm that.

I think what we are wanting this year for Christmas is a few days alone together, with the toughest decision to make being do we want dessert and a cup of coffee after dinner. We both love the snow and would love to take a nice sleigh ride sipping hot chocolate. It's something we haven't done in a very, very long time. I think it would be ideal if we could find some place that is somewhat fully contained with lodging, meals, and actitivies all included.

I will definitely look deeper into each of these suggestions. Thanks again!!!

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

[Pogo]

Thanks sooo much! This Thread was just what I was looking for. We want to spend 2-3 days with our toddler in the snow too and just made our reservation at the Winding River Resort for in 2 weeks....thanks Mike! Exactly what we were looking for.

Now Minx, the lady said on the phone the snow is still patchy. I saw you are fromGrand Lake. Can u tell me, what in your experience our chances are, that the week starting dec 8th there will be enough snow to really enjoy things as horse sleigh rides and walks in snowy woods?

[Minx]

Originally Posted by Pogo

Thanks sooo much! This Thread was just what I was looking for. We want to spend 2-3 days with our toddler in the snow too and just made our reservation at the Winding River Resort for in 2 weeks....thanks Mike! Exactly what we were looking for.

Now Minx, the lady said on the phone the snow is still patchy. I saw you are fromGrand Lake. Can u tell me, what in your experience our chances are, that the week starting dec 8th there will be enough snow to really enjoy things as horse sleigh rides and walks in snowy woods?

The lady on the phone is right, 8th Dec is a bit too early to have heaps of snow, but you will definately see snow. It all depends on what activities you want to do. Horse sleigh rides, probably not. Walks in snowy woods, yes. The main street does not have much snow at all right now, mainly due to the traffic on the road but in another 4 weeks you could probably snowmobile down the main street. It starts building up now. You would only need to drive one mile out of town and find at least a foot of snow.

We are expecting snow on Thursday and onwards. There will be more snow on the 8th Dec than in these photos. They were taken a week ago at home so you can see how much there is right now, and I'm 1/4 mile from the town center.