City: Boulder, CO

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (970) 726-5514, (303) 892-0961

Address: 677 Winter Park Drive

Description: Winter Park operates on USDA Forest Service land, as do most Western American ski areas, but it is unique in that the city of Denver owns its assets, which are run by a nonprofit corporation. It is Colorado’s fifth-largest ski area in terms of skier visits. Skiers and snowboarders can move among four interlinked mountains: the original Winter Park, Mary Jane, Vasquez Ridge, and Parsenn Bowl. Twenty lifts, including seven high-speed express quads, access 1,414 acres of skiable terrain. Children’s programs are exemplary, including day care for youngsters ages 2 months to 5 years and ski instruction for 3-year-olds to teens.In recent years, the price for a one-day lift ticket was approximately $59 to $79 for adults. Discounted tickets are available at Front Range grocery stores and ski shops.If you don’t know how to ski or snowboard, January is a good month to learn. Winter Park offers instruction ranging from $40 to $70 per lesson. Discovery Park, a mid-mountain learning-area slope with its own slow-moving chairlift, is like a ski area within a ski area, where novices can practice comfortably.Winter Park is also well-known for its disabled skiers program and is the site of the National Sports Center for the Disabled, located at 677 Winter Park Drive (970-726-1540). Founded in 1970, the center has 39 full-time employees, including instructors and coaches, and 1,000 volunteers who work with people with many different types of disabilities—cerebral palsy sufferers, amputees, paraplegics, and others—and provide nearly 11,000 private, customized lessons each winter. The center has expanded its scope to include snowboarding and snowshoeing lessons as well as a substantial program of adaptive summer sports.