Vail, Aspen, the names summon images of skiers and snowboarders flashing down steep slopes of pristine, powdery snow, forests of trees covered with Christmas lights, pricey shops, tony restaurants and fancy hotels. Now think summer. Think of hotel rates which may be half those of winter. Think of restaurant discounts and bargains at fashionable shops. Think of carefully groomed golf courses.Think of rafting and canoeing and hiking, concerts and dance and theater. Then think of a drive along mountains more than 14,000 feet high.
The two resorts are 90 miles apart just around the corner in western terms of distance.

The best way of seeing both of them during the summer is an auto trip that takes you through passes as high as 12,095 feet. It goes through Leadville with its history of colorful characters as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Baby Doe and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. It takes you into trendy Aspen with its tree-lined streets and sandstone and brick buildings, then over to Glenwood Springs named for its warm mineral water pools and caves and from there east to your starting point.

Vail is where most visitors are likely to start the trip, since it's a direct, slightly less than two hour drive from Denver via the I-70 interstate.

Vail is beautiful during the ski season, its beauty augmented by the brilliant whiteness of newly fallen powder snow on the dark mountains. In the summer, Vail's beauty comes from the dark greens of the evergreens, the lighter green leaves and white trunks of aspens, the dazzling blue of the sky and processions of cumulus clouds rubbing against the sharp peaks of the mountains.

Summer visitors come to golf on five top-rated courses. Younger and more vigorous tourists come to mountain bike, torturing muscles and lungs by pumping up steep mountain roads and trails or taking a ski lift to the top of a high peak and plunging down its side on two wheels, dodging rocks and holes and small animals, staging a heart-stopping, animated display of why Vail has one of the nation's largest hospitals specializing in sports injuries and rehabilitation.

Older and less vigorous tourists are likely to restrict their athletic activities to hikes, canoeing or fishing on a peaceful mountain lake, viewing the Vail Valley from a hot air balloon, or riding horses through parts of the surrounding national forest.

In the summer, Vail Village resembles a sidewalk sale of skis, jackets and other winter equipment and clothing marked down

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Travel guide for the year-round visitor to Vail and Aspen, Colorado?
We want to hear your view. Write now!