Colorado

By Brian E. Clark There are vacation rental homes and then there are vacation rental homes.  The luxe Chateau at Casteel Creek surely belongs in the latter category.  This 30,350-square foot manor is located near Edwards, Colorado and is a 40-minute drive from the Beaver Creek Ski Resort. It looks out over the

Story and photos by Neil E. Wolkodoff There are ski resorts and there are ski areas. Many ski hills have transitioned into full-blown resorts in the last 30 years. In Colorado, one has remained true to that heritage of great skiing: Loveland Ski Area. Suppose you have driven west to

By Brian E. Clark When the backcountry hut known as Francie’s Cabin opened 28 years ago in the Crystal Lakes Basin three miles south of Breckenridge, Colorado, its backers weren’t sure how many people would use it. Now, 75,000 overnights later, the 20-person hut named in honor of Frances Lockwood Bailey is

By Brian E. Clark Karen Yule grew up in a village north of Dublin, Ireland, far from the Rocky Mountains.  (Around 4,500 miles away, more or less.) But when she visited the Colorado ski town of Breckenridge in 1994, she was hooked. “And I still am,” said Yule, managing director of the Summit

  By Brian E. Clark On a Backroads bicycling trip that included Havana, Cuba a few years ago, I rode in a rickety, 100-year-old elevator – complete with a human operator. It clanked and groaned to the top of a crumbling, six-story building to get to its five occupants to

By Brian E. Clark In the early 1990s, Robin Craigen was living a nautical dream, captaining the Endless Summer II, a 72-foot Irwin sailboat, in the British Virgin Islands and working with the woman – the boat’s chef – who would become his wife.  “We did that for four years,”

By Brian E. Clark At its peak more than a century ago, 80 passenger trains a day – from six different railroads – rumbled through Denver’s Union Station. In modern parlance, it was a happenin’ place. Likewise, the neighborhood surrounding the neighborhood that’s now known as LoDo – for Lower

Story and photos by Neil Wolkodoff A guest ranch in winter? Vista Verde Ranch (VVR) is nestled right up to the Routt National Forest outside of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It’s enormous, with almost 700 acres plus forest access. It has limited guests in any season, only 51. And, there are

By Everett Potter The continuing rush to escape to the country during this time of Covid-19 shows little sign of abating. The remoter and more picturesque, the better, seems to be the mantra. The Rockies loom large as a place to get away from it all and of course, the

Story & photos by David McKay Wilson When I left Breckenridge after a brilliant three-day visit in late February, I kept my ski bag packed for another trip just four weeks later for spring break at Copper Mountain in Colorado’s Summit County. What a week I had at Breck, part