Insight: Four Seasons

Primarily a state of high mountain ranges, valleys, and rich wildlife, Colorado attracts outdoors lovers who enjoy hiking, biking, skiing, and nature at any time of year.

For many people, the winter ski season is the only season in Colorado. Former mining towns-turned-ski resorts swing into action, advertising the deepest, softest, fluffiest snow; gnarliest slopes; and best facilities for skiing and snowboarding. In the San Juans, cross-country skiers and snowshoers make their way from hut to hut; there’s extreme ice jeeping in Georgetown and ice climbing in Ouray, and other oddities; while down in the San Luis Valley wetlands, sandhill cranes stop over on their migrations. Spring arrives late, often bringing the heaviest wet snowfalls. At lower elevations, warmer temperatures swell rivers and wetlands, and courtship and reproduction begin. Prairie chickens perform their odd dances in prairie leks while fawns, bighorn lambs, elk calves, and other youngsters debut. Summer is precious for its brevity and beauty in the Rockies. Travelers on the trails and scenic byways leave behind the torrid low-elevation areas around Grand Junction and Denver and head for the high country to view Rocky Mountain columbine and other stunning wildflowers in now passable mountain basins. Everything races to bloom, reproduce, and set seed before fall swoops in in September. Aspens shimmer gold across the mountain sides and bring out legions of leaf peepers on the passes, trams, scenic railroads, and ski lifts. Listen carefully and you’ll hear bugling elk and head-butting bighorn sheep, heralding winter’s imminent arrival.

Hiking to Flat Top Mountain and Hallett Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park can be cold at any time of year.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

The Winter Holidays

Christmas in the Rockies. It’s a fairy-tale setting of deep white snow, toboggans, horse-drawn sleigh rides, twinkling lights, roaring fires, cozy comforters, ear muffs, hot toddies, and caroling. Estes Park, gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, offers a panoply of seasonal attractions, including the Catch the Glow Parade the Friday after Thanksgiving, caroling, Christmas lights, and visits with Santa. In Snowmass, Telluride, and Crested Butte, there’s a torchlight parade across the mountain side on Christmas Eve. In Glenwood Springs, Hotel Colorado has a life-size gingerbread house, tree lighting, a visit with Santa, and a hotel pageant, while ski resorts like Breckenridge pull out all the stops, turning the entire town into a Victorian Christmas Village. In pretty Durango, kids all get gifts from Santa on the special Polar Express train, which runs to Silverton amid icicles and snowy mountains just like the Swiss Alps. Lights, of course, are aglow in towns throughout the state. The whole of Tenderfoot Mountain in Salida is lit up each year, while in Denver, more than a million Christmas lights adorn the Botanic Gardens.