Aspen, Colorado

The revival came fast and from two directions at once. Veterans of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, who had trained on Colorado snow at nearby Camp Hale during the war, returned convinced Aspen's steep terrain was built for skiing; the Aspen Skiing Corporation opened the mountain's first chairlift in 1946, and in 1950 the town hosted the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships — the first held outside Europe. At the same time, Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke and his wife Elizabeth made Aspen the site of a 1949 international celebration of the writer Goethe's 200th birthday, an event that drew thinkers from around the world, and out of it grew the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. That double identity — world-class skiing wrapped around a serious cultural and intellectual scene, all at nearly 7,900 feet — is still what makes Aspen Aspen.

Aspen's compact Victorian core sits at the base of Aspen Mountain, close enough for ski lifts, the Wheeler Opera House, galleries, bookstores, and restaurants to share the same walkable streets. The Aspen Institute and the Music Festival add a summer calendar of public talks, performances, and students carrying instruments through town. Four ski mountains spread through the upper Roaring Fork Valley. In warmer months, the lifts give way to trailheads, wildflowers, and aspen groves, while the Maroon Bells draw visitors farther up the valley.