(Index Stock/Todd Powell)

Stomping around Colorado's famed ski towns during the off season, you feel part of a quiet, state-wide secret: after the snow melts these high-end resorts, ringed by the towering Rockies and fed by countless fresh-water streams, are the perfect base-camps for a downright obscene variety of adventure sporting. Hiking, biking, rock climbing, paragliding, horseback riding, 4x4, backpacking, fishing, or the shamelessly guilty pleasures of a mountainside spa retreat…ah, decisions, decisions. Single-track fiends should head to Crested Butte, which some residents claim to be the real home of the mountain bike, and grind up the killer Snodgrass Mountain Trail. Want to actually get that 4x4 off road? The maze of logging roads outside Telluride in the 14,000-foot San Juan Mountains await discovery. Test your vertical limits? Ascents of 14ers like El Diente or Mt. Wilson will push your technical skills. Then there's Vail, Aspen, Durango, Keystone—oh, yeah, there's also something called the Rocky Mountain National Park, should you happen to exhaust all other options.

Sponsored Results

Travel Interest Guides

More Travel Resources