Overview

The name Winter Park alone is the tip off. This central Rockies town and resort was made to ski on and if there's a snow sport, it's here. But after those magnificent winters comes summer, and the same hills that make Winter Park such a great place to ski come alive with fresh, new life and people ready to explore them.

You can ride a ski lift up the mountain and hike down a trail strewn with wildflowers and populated by deer. Stop and listen for a minute, the silence will remind you of how things should be. If you need a little adrenalin chaser to go with that morning walk, bring your mountain bike or rent one and take on one of Winter Park's many trails.

Be sure to see the Cozens' Ranch House Museum just north of town, the site of a stage stop and post office in use during the 1870s. Pay your respects to Doc Suzie, the area's first woman doctor, and see what it was like to be a healer in the days before modern medicine.

The town of Winter Park is just two miles from the resort. Formerly a sleepy little "one dog" town, it has grown from a few tatty hotels and restaurants to a bustling main drag full of more than 40 shops, hotels, and a wide variety of restaurants.

The Winter Park base area is almost like its own amusement park. Take the Ski Train Saturdays and it will drop you there. Things start heating up in June. Locals and visitors can spend days at the base area, there's that much to do.

Challenge the kids to a round - or three - on the 18-hole Mountainside Mini-Golf Course. The mini-links was built to capture and show off various aspects of Winter Park and the Fraser Valley's history.

You also can play a round of disc golf. Perched at the top of Winter Park, the course's 18 holes wind around the summit for full-circle scenery. The course is free; however all golfers must purchase a $10 Zephyr Express lift ticket and rent a disc at Slopeside Gear & Sport.

Winter Park is 67 miles northwest of Denver (87 miles from Denver International Airport), with the last portion over Berthoud Pass. Your drive will take you through the Vasquez Mountains of Arapaho National Forest, in about 1.5 hours.

The Ski Train, which dubs itself "a Denver Tradition for Generations," is a great way to get to Winter Park. Although primarily a winter operation, they do provide Saturday service the base area in summer.