Getting the whole family together for a vacation at this age and stage of all of our lives is quite a difficult thing to do. However, someway somehow it worked out. From all over the country – Texas, Washington, Louisiana and Georgia – we flew to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for some skiing, snowmobiling, and much needed family time. Steamboat Springs is about 3 hours northwest of Denver and is a beautiful, low-key ski town whose natural beauty seems more impressive every turn.
You’re able to fly directly into Steamboat’s airport in Hayden. They do offer some direct flights into the city, but I did have to connect through Denver from Austin. Regardless – it’s pretty easy to get right into the city. From the airport, we took a shuttle directly to our condo. Our entire crew had 11 people. So we got two condos with 5 bedrooms in total. We stayed at Torian Plum, a condo right off the mountainside. Seriously, everyone could basically just ski off the mountain, drop off their skis, and be less than a five minute walk from the rooms. And the view from the balcony – to die for.
The first full day we were in Steamboat people skied. On Saturday, we had plans to go snowmobiling. We used Steamboat Snowmobile Tours and I would recommend them over and over again if I could. Our guide was great and the trails were just challenging enough to make for an adventurous ride. The entire tour was four hours, with a break for lunch in the middle – which they provided! That Saturday was the coldest day of our trip. It was overcast and snowing all day long; and at 6 degrees, us Southerners (used to 80 degree Christmases) were freezing our butts off. The snowmobiles themselves were easy to handle and drive, and had both hand and feet warmers built into the machine. This small detail was a lifesaver for my cold little fingers.
Our guide had us all ride in a single file line and gave us hand signals that we had to pass down through the group so that we were all in communication and aware of what was up ahead. The tour was perfect, and we all came away unscathed. Although, there were a few close calls. Rick, my father in law, accidentally tipped his snowmobile over when going through a snowbank. And I accidentally entered into a game of chicken with Uncle Guy in a free for all open meadow. To my pleasant surprise and utter relief, the snowmobile was actually very responsive to my sharp swerve direction. All in all – the snowmobile tour was a major win. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Skiing on the mountain was also an exhilarating experience. It was pretty much snowing our entire trip there, so we were lucky enough to have some pretty good powder to ski on. However, the skill curve was a bit harsher on this mountain. The easy slopes were extremely easy, and the hard slopes extremely hard. It felt as if there weren’t as many options for people at our group skill level – a solid medium skill level. For example, the blues were hard to anticipate the difficulty. Some were extremely flat, others were steep and icy. Which might have been a symptom of the weather this year, since there was very little snow fall in the weeks before we arrived. But we still had such a blast!
My favorite run ran along the top ridge of the mountain. It was a series of blue slopes called Tomahawk to Baby Powder. Tomahawk was the main artery – and Baby Powder was one of the overlapping runs. It was one of the only places on the mountain where everyone in our group could find a route that challenged them with great views in every direction.
Our final day on the mountain we took it a bit more slow and we stayed together more. It was fun because we’d all be near each other – but then some of us were able to break off a bit and cut paths through the trees. Mainly it was just really fun to ski again.
Steamboat Springs was the ideal family vacation. The views, weather, activities – everything was perfect. But I think my absolute favorite part was that it created a place and reason for all of our family to get together. And I think what I’ll remember most is everyone pitching in and cooking dinner together in the condo, and then all sitting around the table afterwards swapping stories and memories.
