Tag Archives: camping

Crested Butte, Colorado

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An easy town to live in, and a beautiful place to be. Not as glamorous as Telluride, but so much more relaxed.

Skiing: Crested Butte is a medium-sized mountain: smaller than destination resorts like Telluride, and larger than locals’ mountains like Hoodoo. The runs are short but there are many of them. There’s plenty of parking for easy access. The weather feels wetter than it was in the San Juans.

Camping: Multiple forest service roads welcome (or at least, don’t prohibit) ski RVing. The Forest Service brochure on winter recreation has a helpful map that summarizes winter access.

Work: The Old Rock Library has charming vintage architecture, friendly librarians, and cozy chairs upstairs. Since it’s a small building, there are no group study rooms for teleconferences. Rumors coffee house has plenty of plugs, organic coffee and tea, and friendly staff.

Dining: The Dogwood Cocktail Cabin has creative cocktails, appetizers, and desserts. The “absinthe minded” cocktail blends fennel, absinthe, and pomegranate to delicious effect. The Thai mussels are savory with just the right amount of spice. The Sherpa cafe feels homey and authentic. The Momo appetizers are tender and the Tibetan soup is rich and satisfying.  Izzy’s offers great breakfasts and latkes.  One morning while Izzy’s was packed, we wandering into Bacchanale and found the breakfast excellent.  The eggs baked with parmesan, butter, and cream were delicious, as was the vegetable turnover.  Prices were reasonable, and the line was short.

I already miss Crested Butte.  There’s so much more downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, and snow shoeing to be had in the shadows of the spectacular mountains.  And that’s just during the winter …

Park City, UT

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Catching some Spring skiing in Park City. There are 3 ski resorts in town — Deer Valley, Park City, and the Canyons.

For lodging, Jordanelle State Park is within 15 minutes drive. The hot showers and laundry are nice perks after a sweaty day on the slopes. For Deer Valley, the Jordanelle Express gondola is a 5 minute drive away. This gondola area has abundant free parking. Furthermore, the solicitous staff will give you a ride to your car, lift your skis onto the gondola, and offer free overnight ski storage. Katherine skied her first double blue run here — Orion.

Park CIty ski resort is right in town. They cater to families with a variety of terrain parks and lots of “adventure zones” for glade skiing. The adventure zones are marked with cute snow monster sculptures like these.  History buffs will also enjoy the old mining buildings.

Photos from Park City ski resort:

The Canyons is the largest of the three area ski resorts. It feels the most like an alpine resort. While Deer Valley and Park City have high desert plants, the Canyons is filled with spruce trees. If you like intermediate cruiser runs, the whole mountain is open to you. The grading system here felt one notch easier than Telluride.

Logistics

Shopping: The Market at Park City is conveniently next door to the State liquor store. This liquor store has a a good selection of local microbrews.

Laundry: Ying’s laundry in Park City, or the laundromat at Jordanelle.

Parking : All the ski resorts offer free parking for daytime through early evening. The large lots have plenty of room for RVs. Park City also has several city lots that offer 4 hours of free parking.

Telluride, CO

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We’ve been in Telluride for the past week to catch some spring skiing. If you’re going to ski-RV in Telluride, or stay in town longer than a week, a few local tips will come in handy.

Services:

The nearest laundromat, barber shop, or car oil change facility is 40 miles away. High-end salons will do hair cuts, though even a basic men’s haircut is $35. Most large apartment buildings and motels have coin-op laundry, if you happen to have friends staying there.

For fuel and propane fills, we recommend Mike at the country store on highway 145 at the west end of town. He knows propane systems and does a good job. For fresh water, he generously let us use the tap on the east end of the building (near the door to the auto glass shop) for fills. Even in winter, this tap ran. It can be hard to get fresh water fills in Telluride in winter, so we sure appreciated it!

Food deals:

$3 local microbrew drafts every day at Tomboy Tavern in Mountain Village. They make their money on the food instead, so eat before heading over. Recommed the Left Hand Milk Stout on Nitro. The Nitro makes the head super creamy. If you wish to eat, the truffle fries or the Ahi burger are satisfying accompaniments

Breakfast at La Cocina de Luz. The entrees are big enough to feed two. If you’re solo, they’ll sell a half order if you ask.

Parking:

Telluride and Mountain Village are both very walkable, and the free gondola connects the two towns. Plan to park the RV once for the day.

Telluride: Free daytime parking at Carhenge on Pacific and Tomboy. Plenty of room for RVs and larger vehicles. The lot is open from 6 am to 2 am daily. The river trail makes a nice walk to the gondola.

Mountain Village: The gondola garage fits RVs and charges $7 per day.  A grocery store is right around the corner, and the garage has ski in/out access to the slopes.

Overnight parking:

The closest campground that’s open all winter is Caddis Flats outside Placerville. It’s a 30 minute drive from Telluride.

As the snow melts in Spring, forest roads become accessible. They can be muddy, though. The Telluride visitor center has a helpful map of the dispersed camping areas that are near town.

Mail:

The Telluride post office actually answers the phone (hooray!) and accepts packages mailed to General Delivery.

Shopping and Paring Down:

The 2-story hardware store is impressively well-equipped.

Need to get rid of stuff from your RV? The free box or animal aid thrift store accept donations. The thrift store has some great deals on designer clothes and ski gear, too.