Region
Ski country & the high mountains
Up in the high country, the towns gather in valleys between the fourteeners. You will find the ski resorts of Summit, Eagle, Pitkin, and Routt counties, the old silver and gold camps that became Aspen, Telluride, Breckenridge, and Leadville, and the gateway towns to the wilderness. Life up here comes with its own rulebook: short-term-rental limits and lodging taxes, wildfire mitigation and snow load, workforce-housing programs, and a seasonal rhythm where the same town feels like two different places in February and July.
The places
Aspen
Silver camp turned ski town and ideas festival, at nearly 8,000 feet.
Open the place page ->Vail
A resort conjured from scratch in 1962, with car-free villages under the Back Bowls.
Open the place page ->Breckenridge
A Victorian gold camp turned major ski town, with one of Colorado's best-preserved historic districts.
Open the place page ->Telluride
A silver camp in a box canyon, now a festival-and-ski town under 13,000-foot walls.
Open the place page ->Steamboat Springs
Ranch country and 'Ski Town, U.S.A.', with hot springs and champagne powder.
Open the place page ->Crested Butte
This end-of-the-road wildflower capital grew from a coal town into a beloved ski town.
Open the place page ->Estes Park
The Stanley Hotel and the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Open the place page ->Glenwood Springs
The great hot springs on the Colorado River, where I-70 meets the Roaring Fork.
Open the place page ->Leadville
The highest incorporated city in the U.S. is a two-mile-high silver boomtown with its history intact.
Open the place page ->Winter Park
Denver's own ski mountain, over Berthoud Pass in the Fraser Valley.
Open the place page ->Gunnison
A high ranching-and-college valley town, gateway to Crested Butte and Blue Mesa.
Open the place page ->Browse by county
Every address in this corner belongs to a county. Start with that county page when a town does not yet have a full guide; it gathers the local rules, rates, and notes tied to the county.
Notes from this corner
The small stories and useful rules tied to this part of Colorado.
Vail started with a seven-hour climb and a view of the treeless Back Bowls
Vail grew into one of the largest single ski mountains in North America, and the story starts with a 1957 climb to a ridge above a string of wide, treeless bowls.
Read the note ->Telluride's ski mountain rises straight out of the box canyon
Telluride Ski Resort climbs from the old mining town into high-alpine hike-to terrain, with a free gondola linking town to the slopes at Mountain Village.
Read the note ->Why Leadville sits where it does: silver, then much more
Leadville grew up around mining in California Gulch, and much of its historic core is recognized as a National Historic Landmark District.
Read the note ->The town of Dillon was moved to make room for its reservoir
The Dillon you see today sits in a new spot because the old town was relocated in the 1960s when Denver Water built Dillon Reservoir over the original site.
Read the note ->Crested Butte, the Wildflower Capital of Colorado
The Colorado legislature named Crested Butte the state's Wildflower Capital in 1990, and the valley's summer meadows back up the title.
Read the note ->Summit County short-term rental taxes depend on jurisdiction
A Summit County short-term rental's tax and licensing duties depend on whether it sits inside a town or in unincorporated county.
Read the note ->The high-country porch kit
Where to next
See the other corners at Explore Colorado, browse all 64 counties and the places with full guides in the place directory, or wander the stories in the Almanac.
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