A letter from a local
Champagne powder is a registered trademark. Honestly earned.
Steamboat's snow really is different — light, dry, constant — and Mount Werner's aspen glades are eight minutes from downtown. But this is a ranch town first: Fourth of July has actual cattle drives, and the hot springs that named the place still steam along the river.
Emerald Mountain's singletrack starts behind the courthouse; the Yampa runs through downtown with tube-and-kayak water all summer and trout the rest of the year; Fish Creek Falls thunders five minutes east; and Strawberry Park's hot pools glow under falling snow all winter.
It's the friendliest of Colorado's big ski towns, and the one that still feels like it existed before skiing. Because it did.
— Loret