Steamboat Springs

This past New Year's we were blessed by a trip to Steamboat Springs, CO. We surprised our kids on christmas morning with the news of the trip. Charlie (with a little help from A.I.) came up with a scavenger hunt/riddle to help them discover where we were going.

We ice skated

We sat by the fire pit to warm up

We skied and Abbie killed it at ski school

Our favorite post skiing activities included a visit to Old Town Hot Springs and a sleigh ride dinner to Bar Lazy L Ranch. The hot springs are where Steamboat Springs gets its name. They are a natural hot springs full of mineral waters that have been present at this location (in some form or another) for over 100 years. It was a relaxing and unique experience. The sleigh ride dinner was our favorite activity. We rode in a horse drawn sleigh through acres of ranch land to a family barn. We enjoyed a ranch style dinner and music. It was a lovely, authentic (rustic) ranch dining experience. The ranch has been in the same family since the land was homesteaded in 1939.

Here are my final thoughts about Steamboat Springs....It's a great family friendly ski resort. We chose it because it historically receives good early season snowfall. We don't have any school breaks in February or March, so we are limited to skiing over Christmas/New Year's. We loved the free bus system that took us to the slopes every day. We loved the western/cowboy vibe of the town. We loved the large percentage of beginner and intermediate slopes. In conclusion, we would love to return (in fact, Lord willing, we will go back this coming New Year's). Ski trips can be very pricey. While I can in no way pretend that this trip wasn't expensive, I can share with you all ways that we found to save money. That will be for another time and another post. Stay tuned.