Things to do in Aspen
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WC3
- Aspen, USA
- Restaurants › Cafe
Next door to the famous tavern in ramshackle Woody Creek, this community center cum cafe is just as groovy but in a different way. Instead of drunken antics and mishmash wallpaper there's local art, a sweet front garden, plenty of indoor seating and healthy, soulful lunch fare.
Choose one of four kinds of curry or tuck into a bowl of gumbo or a panini. The vegetarian soups have earned high praise, and the coffee is tasty too. Plus there's a range of used books for sale. Lots of them. Including a corner dedicated to the Good Doctor himself. We're talking about a terrific selection of Hunter S Thompson's masterworks, including some vintage Rolling Stone issues from the 1970…
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T-Lazy-7 Ranch
Saddle up onto a snowmobile in the winter, or onto a fine steed in the summer at this working ranch down the slope from the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area. It calls itself the oldest working ranch in Aspen. Rides will take you into the spectacular Maroon Bells Wilderness and are highly recommended for families.
Overnight rides ($450) take you all the way to Crested Butte. Snowmobile tours run up to Klondike Cabin in the White River National Forest or Maroon Lake in the Maroon Bells Wilderness. It does sleigh rides in the winter too.
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520 Grill
A (mostly) healthy (kinda) fast-food grill, if there is such a thing. Sandwiches are creative, spicy cococtions. The achiote chicken is grilled and piled on the pita with roasted red peppers, avocado and cheese. The Veg Head is an alchemy of roasted portobello mushrooms and garlic, with a pepper medley dressed in balsamic.
It also serves a good-looking much loved kale and quinoa salad along with epic traditional and sweet potato fries. Locals are devoted to it. The best part? It's affordable!
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Uptown Exchange
A consignment store with some great bargains. Labels are less than glamorous, but it does have everything from affordable denim to stylish shoes to, gulp, fur. There's a decent assortment of dresses too.
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Aspen Mountain
One of four ski mountains within a 15-minute drive from Aspen, one of two with a lift open in summer (the Silver Queen gondola), and the only one that rises directly out of downtown Aspen (elevation 7945ft) to a summit at 11,212ft.
Aspen Mountain, cofounded in 1947 by a couple of the 10th Mountain Division boys (hence the statues on the ski plaza), has 675 acres and 76 trails of ski terrain. Inbound you’ll get a variety of glades, bumps and steeps, and you can always find fresh tracks out of bounds on the backside. The mountain is serviced by eight lifts, including a gondola and a high-speed quad. In the summer it's a haven for mountain bikers. The top of Aspen Mountain, …
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Snowmass
Snowmass (the ski mountain accessed from the small town and ski mall of Snowmass Village) is 12 miles (19km) northwest of Aspen. Not only is the terrain varied and expansive, but its bowl, The Cirque, has the biggest lift-assisted vertical drop in the country. All told there are 91 downhill trails, 3132 acres (1267 hectares) of ski terrain, three terrain parks, a beginner pipe and a new super pipe, all serviced by 21 lifts.
Nordic skiing is available at the Snowmass Club Cross-Country Touring Center, featuring nearly 60 miles (more than 90km) of groomed trails connecting Basalt with Snowmass and Aspen. During the summer, you can hop onto the Elk Camp Gondola, which start…
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Hiking to the Grottos
- Aspen, USA
- Activities › Hiking
One of the most popular summer playgrounds in Aspen, the area is accessed via a complex of short trails (most about half a mile in length) that sprout from old Weller Station on the original Independence Pass wagon road, leading to waterfalls and sculpted gorges. The shortest, wheelchair-accessible trail visits a series of thundering falls and swimming holes on the Roaring Fork River.
On the opposite bank, the Old Stage Road leads upstream to Lincoln Creek, and an offshoot heads to unique water-carved slots known locally as the Ice Caves. These are worth hunting for. Head up Independence Pass east of town for nine miles on Hwy 82 and look for a 'Trailhead' sign on the rig…
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Ashcroft
- Aspen, USA
- Sights › Ghost town
The best access point to the 20 miles of groomed trails in the stunning Castle Creek Valley is the ghost town of Ashcroft, a silver-mining town founded in 1880. What remains are mostly miners cottages (log cabins with tin roofs), a couple of broken-down wagons stranded in the waist-high grass, and a post office and saloon.
At its height 2500 people worked here, but in 1893 the silver market crashed and the town's population plummeted to 100 residents within two hours.
There's a fine picnic area down by the creek, and a series of displays profiling famous residents, and local transportation and communication of the day. Preserved by the Aspen Historical Society, it's well …
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Conundrum Hot Springs
The steaming, healing Conundrum Hot Springs, west of Castle Peak (14,265ft), are the reward for about 9 miles of tough climbing on the Conundrum Creek Trail (USFS Trail 1981). The trailhead is 5 miles south of the Hwy 82 turnoff for USFS Rd 102, west of town.
There are several pools hewn from craters and fed by plastic pipe, some larger than others and varying in temperature from 102°F to 105°F.
No matter which you sink into, you'll have outrageous alpine views, including glimpses of steep avalanche chutes and waterfalls. For obvious reasons, most folks spend the night at the nearby campsite, unofficially called 'The Bluffs'. From here you can either retrace your steps,…
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Buttermilk Mountain
Popular with snowboarders of all levels, Buttermilk was voted #1 by Transworld Snowboarding Magazine Reader’s Poll for best park and pipe. Located just 2 miles (3km) west of Aspen proper, it has 44 trails across 470 acres (190 hectares). With a 22ft superpipe in its golden terrain park, riders who want to jump and try out their bag of tricks can do so to their hearts' content. The resort is also an ideal playground for newbie riders and skiers.
Afraid to climb onto that lift for the first time? Buttermilk has instructors and terrain forgiving enough to get you contemplating snowboarding's toughest black diamond runs before you know it. Mostly a winter playground, there …
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Aspen Center for Environmental Studies
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) is a 22-acre (10-hectare) wildlife sanctuary that hugs the Roaring Fork River. With a mission to advance 'the ethic that the earth must be respected and nurtured,' the Center's naturalists provide summertime guided walks, eagle demonstrations and special programs for youngsters at the top of Aspen Mountain and mid-mountain on Snowmass.
Guided walks on Snowmass depart daily at 10am. In the winter, snowshoe and ski tours are available in various locations, and its weekly slide shows may give you some respite from the frigid outdoors. You can take a self-guided tour of the preserve (with snowshoes in winter, if you prefer) su…
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Rio Grande Park
Aspen's biggest public park runs along the river, and is bisected by the Rio Grande Trail for 2.1 miles. The park is home to an enticing skate park, outdoor basketball courts, a huge athletic field perfect for football or frisbee, an art museum and sculpture garden, and the John Denver Sanctuary.
Set in a grassy riverside meadow and punctuated by boulders that form a natural amphitheater, the sanctuary is a popular sunbathing spot. Some of the stones are engraved with Denver's lyrics including 'Rocky Mountain High.' This peaceful place, with the mountains looming beyond, may even tempt your snarky, protopunk brain to reevaluate the late artist's musical impact. Or not.
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Pine Creek Cookhouse
Now here's your set piece dining. Think gorgeous log-cabin restaurant serving outstanding, fresh fusion fare, set 11 miles up Castle Creek Canyon past the old mining town of Ashcroft. It does an outstanding shrimp tikka masala, a gorgeous grilled quail served over greens, a terrific house-smoked trout, and tasty buffalo tenderloin. The peaks of Taylor, Star and Cooper loom from the patio.
It's closed in October and May, but stays open all summer and winter, when you can get here from Ashcroft on your cross-country skis or aboard the cookhouse's horse-drawn sleigh! The road is closed at Ashcroft when snow falls.
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Hub
Arguably the best of the Aspen bike shops. This place offers a cycling school, sponsors a weekly road race and bike club, and acts as a booster for local talent, pointing out that Aspen is home to some of the best cyclists in the US, including two top-five time trialists and a dude named Lance.
It rents cruisers, full-suspension mountain bikes and carbon fiber road bikes, and will offer advice on the best road routes and single tracks plying Aspen and Smuggler Mountains, the Montezuma Basin, and Pearl and Independence Pass, but staff aren't always sweet about it. Their motto? 'It's not rude. It's the Hub.'
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Jimmy's
Jimmy's is a soulful tequila-, crab- and steakhouse with attitude that attracts a very A-list crowd. Settle into a booth and check out the writing on the wall in the main dining room. No, we're not being cryptic: Jimmy's idea of decorating is covering the walls with guest graffiti – bring a pen. You're paying a king's ransom to dine with the rich and famous, so you may as well leave your mark.
The perpetually packed bar serves a cheaper menu and 105 types of tequila and mescal. Thursday nights are devoted to the crab, with king crab legs going for a song. It hosts a salsa night on Saturdays.
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Aspen Highlands
Aspen Highlands resort, 2 miles (3km) southwest of town, is a web of 118 trails on 1028 acres (416 hectares) of uncrowded terrain that is revered by many locals and accessed via five ski lifts. It offers loads of thrills for the daredevils - at least 75 acres (30 hectares) of expert-level tree-skiing - but also keeps the beginners and intermediates happy.
At the base of the resort, the Aspen Highlands Village offers many ski and tourist services, restaurants and shops. And no other mountain offers views of the spectacular Maroon Bells from the slopes.
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Aspen Skiing Company
OK, the top winter activity is pretty much a given: snow riding, and lots of it. The Aspen Skiing Company operates the area's four ski resorts. Aspen (or Ajax) is an athlete's mountain, offering more than 3000ft of steep vertical drop. Aspen Highlands has outstanding extreme skiing and breathtaking views. Buttermilk Mountain provides gentle slopes for beginners and intermediate skiers. Snowmass offers mixed terrain and boasts the longest vertical drop in the USA (4400ft).
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Woody Creek Tavern
- Aspen, USA
- Entertainment › Pub
Enjoying a 100% agave tequila and fresh-lime margarita at the late, great gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson's favorite watering hole is well worth the 8-mile trek from Aspen. Here since 1980, the walls at this rustic funky tavern, a local haunt for decades now, are plastered with newspaper clippings and paraphernalia (mostly dedicated to Thompson).
The menu features organic salads, low-fat but still juicy burgers, popular Mexican food including some quality guacamole, and plenty of alcohol. Eleven gallons of margaritas a day can't be wrong.
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Pacifica Seafood & Raw Bar
The newish fish house in town is right on Wagner Park. It has a raw bar and serves creative tapas, such as steamed mussels and elk sausage for light snacks, and eight seafood mains for dinner. The main dishes include classics such as Hawaiian ahi with wasabi mashed potato, grilled ono with black sticky rice, and sea scallops served with white truffle and fava bean purée.
There's a great, albeit a tad preppy, happy-hour crowd in the summer. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Happy hour runs from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.
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Independence
- Aspen, USA
- Sights › Ghost town
Just 16 miles from Aspen at the foot of Independence Pass, this gold-mining boom town turned ghost town started as a tented camp in the summer of 1879, when one lucky miner struck gold on the Fourth of July. Operated and preserved by the Aspen Historical Society, you can see the remains of the old livery, the general store and a miners cabin or three.
After its population had peaked at 1500 residents, the town fell away during the harsh winter storm of 1899 after supply routes were severed due to severe snowfall.
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Pitkin County Steakhouse
The most popular and down-to-earth steakhouse in town. It does prime dry-aged steaks, prime rib and, to quote one satisfied customer, 'the best fucking crab legs in the world!' Set in the basement of a Hopkins Ave complex, it has an open kitchen with tables scattered about the just-dark-enough environs and an iced-down fish selection for you to check out as you glide to your table.
During the low season the dining room is only open Thursday to Saturday, but its adjacent tavern is always open for business.
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Belly Up
Long the top nightspot in Aspen, Belly Up has built and maintained its street cred by bringing in the best live acts to the Aspen people. That means everything from local bluegrass bands to hip-hop globalist K'NAAN, to Chrissy Hynde's brilliant new band, to LCD Soundsystem DJ sets and intimate, up-close throwdowns with all-timers such as Jane's Addiction (although, those ain't cheap).
No matter who you see, the room will be intimate and alive with great sound. Easily the best venue this side of Denver.
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J-Bar
- Aspen, USA
- Entertainment › Bar
Once Aspen's premier saloon, back when the word 'saloon' had its own unique meaning, this bar was built into the Hotel Jerome in 1889 and remains full of historic charm and packed with everyone from local shopkeepers to Hollywood stars. Order the signature cocktail, the Aspen Crud, if you're in the mood for something sweet. It's a delicious blend of bourbon and ice cream.
The more tart J-Rita is equally delicious. The menu features gourmet American pub fare that's nearly as tasty as the drinks.
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Aspen Brewing Co
Tibetan prayer flags fly from the rafters, two flat-screen TVs strobe ballgames, the shelves are stuffed with board games, and reggae sings from the hi-fi at this groovy streamside microbrewery.
Six flavors are brewed directly behind the bar. Literally. You can get a pint for just $2.75, and a flight for $7 if you want to sample them all, from the flavorful blonde to the peachy Independence Pass Ale (its IPA signature), the mellower Conundrum Red Ale and the chocolatey Pyramid Peak Porter.
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Theatre Aspen
A nonprofit theater and drama school that hosts classes, workshops and periodic productions (mostly in the summer and early autumn) from its gorgeous, tented complex in the heart of Rio Grande Park. Matinees include bonus views of the nearby mountains, evening productions play beneath a starry sky. Check website for details of upcoming shows and see one if you can.
Expect to see productions such as Tony-award-winning romantic comedies and deliciously subversive musicals.
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