Family Travel

These Colorado swimming pools make summer vacation a cool destination

“Which way to the pool?” For families with children, certainly for mine, it’s the most pressing question at check-in. Pools can make or break your summer vacation. Despite all the adventuresome, enlightening and awe-inspiring events on your schedule, a water feature can turn out to be the highlight of a trip. Sometimes the right pool can even be your destination. The draw of sparkling-blue, chlorinated water is why we haven’t taken our 6- and 8-year-old girls out of the country yet. (Well, that and we don’t have a few extra grand lying around.) If we took them on a European tour now, I imagine they’d be asking, “Why doesn’t the 18th-century castle we’re staying in have a pool?”

Family-friendly Colorado: Top places to take the kids around the state

When I moved to the Colorado Rockies from New York City 19 years ago, I couldn’t get enough of the new-to-me outdoor lifestyle here. I bought a bunch of secondhand Patagonia clothing, rode my first mountain bike and visited my first national park. Six years later, when I became a mom, I had no intention of ending outdoor explorations of my adopted state. Sure enough, my daughter camped for the first time when she was 2 months old, in a tent in the woods near Leadville. My sturdy son climbed the log ladders to reach Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park when he was just a toddler. I want my kids to grow up appreciating all of the treasures in their backyard — from our high-mountain peaks to our powerful whitewater rivers to our cowboy heritage. Not one to eschew man-made thrills, I...

Come Hail or High Water: Our Family’s Shortest (and worst) Camping Trip

I have tried to instill a love of nature in my kids–just last week we went hiking four times, my daughter recently returned from YMCA of the Rockies’ traditional overnight Camp Chief Ouray and at the end of July they’re both enrolled in Avid4Adventure’s Survival Skills Camp. We are an outdoor-loving family! But my favorite childhood memories are of camping and that is one area in which we’ve fallen short with my own family.  There is nothing like the sense of community at campgrounds, playing with new BFFs, eating tin foil dinners and s’mores, exploring and exploring some more, and telling stories around the campfire. Here’s a recap of our camping trips since having kids. Trip 1: Hadley had just turned 1 and was a horrible sleeper so she wailed all...

Go West: Powderhorn Mountain Resort for Families

Although Powderhorn Mountain Resort celebrates its 45th anniversary this season, many Colorado skiers have never heard of it, let alone skied the mountain. The westernmost resort in Colorado, getting to Powderhorn from Denver requires driving I-70 through Summit County, zipping right by Vail and giving Aspen a pass. So why would Front Range families make the effort to visit Powderhorn? No crowds, no lift lines, an excellent, affordable ski and ride school, and some of the best glades and powder skiing in the state. Generations of western slope families learned to ski at Powderhorn and return year after year. With just one base, families feel comfortable letting their kids roam free,

Crested Butte Mountain Resort: The Makings of an Unprecedented Family Vacation

My family had an unprecedented vacation to Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR). It wasn’t just attributed to the eight inches of fresh powder without a lift line in sight or the glistening Elk Mountains (the frozen equivalent of Shangri-La). But rather, because I skied my first double-black diamond run (Rachels)…and later managed to fall getting off the chairlift as I avoided a wayward ski-schooler. Par for the course in a funky mountain hamlet where you should expect the unexpected. Camp CB Hands down, Crested Butte is my favorite Colorado mountain town (read my summer exploits) and I was positively giddy to ski Crested Butte Mountain Resort for the first time. My family awoke to

Early-season savings for Colorado’s best mountain destinations

This winter, Mile High Mamas will be offering oodles of contests and deals designed to get your families up to the mountains. You may start salivating now. Last week, Colorado’s tourism office released these fabulous deals to get you primed: * Crested Butte 50/50 Package: In celebration of 50 years of skiing and riding, Crested Butte Mountain Resort is offering 50 percent off lift tickets and $50 per person, per night for lodging. Valid November 23 through December 16, 2010. 800-600-2803; www.skicb.com * Glenwood Early Bird Ski, Swim & Stay Package: Ski at Sunlight Mountain Resort, enjoy unlimited swimming at the World’s Largest Hot Springs Pool and stay in the conveniently located Hot Springs Lodge. Plus, kids ski free! Prices start at $100 per person. Valid December 4 through ...

Fantastic Deal for a Family Getaway at the San Juan Marriott

Let’s face it: Between work, carpools, homework, sports and clubs, quality family-time is limited. Many vacations augment this as kids are whisked away to a separate camp. That’s why I love the San Juan (Puerto Rico) Marriott’s new vacation package that encourages activities and excursions the whole family can participate in together – the “BFV EVR” Package (teen text talk for ‘Best Family Vacation Ever’ Package). And to alleviate further stress, it offers a savings of 20 percent. Starting at just $270 per night for a family of four (less than $70/person), you get a complete four night family vacation package including: -Four nights deluxe city view accommodations -Transfers to and from

Top 10 Family-friendly Rafting Trips on Colorado’s Rivers

I love rafting but I have not been since my children were born because I assumed they were too young. I was delighted to discover I was wrong. Mile High Mamas has teamed up with the Colorado River Outfitters Association to bring you a guide to the Top 10 Family-friendly Rafting Trips on Colorado’s Rivers that includes age guidelines. With more than 20 rivers across eight major basins, Colorado families are discovering the world’s largest water park is right in our own backyard. In no particular order, the top rafting opportunities for paddle-happy families are the following: 1. Ruby – Horsethief Canyons, Upper Colorado River Providing breathtaking views of dramatic western Colorado canyons, this tranquil 25-mile stretch just west of Grand Junction is perfect for rafting, inflat...

Golden: The Ultimate Family Staycation Right in Your Backyard

Golden is where every eccentric person who doesn’t reside in Boulder chooses to live. -Jane, the Clear Creek History Park’s “Chicken Mom” I am all about impromptu living and Golden is chock full of it. Visit the Golden Kayak Park on a Wednesday evening in the summer and you will be delighted to witness an unofficial freestyle kayak competition with free schwag and spontaneous tailgate parties. Drop by Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza at 7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of every month and you’ll see an onslaught of bicyclists congregated for the “Golden Cruise” (all ages are invited). I have spent a lot of time in Golden but truly fell in love during my family’s recent 24-hour-long staycation. With the gorgeously-appointed Golden Hotel as our basecamp, we delved into many family-friendly activities in th...

Nederland’s New Carousel of Happiness Makes for a Happy Family Getaway

Nederland, just 17 miles west of Boulder, retains a reputation for being a hippie town, thanks in part to such well-known, offbeat annual events as the jam-friendly music festival NedFest, happening Aug. 28-29, and winter’s wacky Frozen Dead Guy Days. But today at 10 a.m., Nederland launches into a new era of being not just a hippie town, but a happy town, too. That’s when the Carousel of Happiness starts to turn, the calliope begins to play, and the face of this community breaks into a smile. In 1985, Scott Harrison, a Nederland resident, began carving and handpainting carousel animals, and a year later, bought and set about restoring the workings of an old merry-go-round that long ago graced the Saltair amusement park near Salt Lake City. Since then, with determination, inspi...

Glenwood Springs’ Adventure Park On Top of a Mountain (and Win a Family Four-pack of Tickets!)

CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNER MARY-FRANCES MAIN AND THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED! Take the world’s largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool, add an adventure park built on top of a mountain, sprinkle in the Roaring Fork Valley’s crimson rocks and emerald forests and what do you have? Glenwood Springs’ matchless Shangri-La. Conveniently located off I-70 between Vail and Aspen, my family has driven through Glenwood Springs multiple times and often marveled at the tram that appeared to go nowhere. Turns out, the Iron Mountain Tramway soars 4,300 feet up Iron Mountain to a big ol’ somewhere: Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. The 135-acre park features guided tours of Glenwood Caverns and Historic Fairy Caves, an alpine coaster, 4-dimensional theater, a laser ...

Family Travel: Confessions of a Ski School Dropout at Granby Ranch

I love skiing and even made a living promoting its virtues at a popular Utah ski resort. But I terminated my love affair with the slopes when I had children. Or rather, it fired me. There were a number of different reasons: cost, breastfeeding, babysitter hassles, I-70’s gridlocks and those $400 ski boots that no longer fit because pregnancy had inflated my feet an entire size [insert sob here]. Oh, and my snow pants are too small. But that is a different issue entirely. After a few years of darkness, I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel: my firstborn is old enough to learn to ski! So when I heard about Granby Ranch’s fourth annual Kids’ Totally Insane Winter Blast at Granby Ranch, I jumped at the opportunity. I figured I could swallow my pride long enou...