Summer Vacation in Colorado (beginning)
Today, your storyteller will be me, Levy, and as T.S. already wrote, I am her son-in-law. With her permission, I decided to share my impressions of our trip to Steamboat this summer. I’ll say in advance that the story turned out to be quite long detailed, in two parts.
Why Steamboat?
First, a little backstory, why Steamboat. I have been skiing since I was 14, I love it, and when I came to America, I decided to “hook” the whole family on skiing, especially since Valentina also wanted to ski (she generally loves to spend her free time actively), and Mark was not against trying. Naturally, we first decided to scout our state for skiing. T.S. wrote about this at the very beginning in this story. We went to Pinetop 8 more times after that, staying in different places, but we were not particularly impressed by the place or the service. In reality, it’s not bad, but as they say, it depends on what you’re comparing it to.
So we turned our attention to neighboring states, as we have 3 of them nearby that have world-class ski resorts: California, Colorado, and Utah. We have been to all three, in winter and summer; T.S. wrote about our summer trip to Utah earlier. In winter, this February, we were in Alta and Snowbird without her — stunningly beautiful places. I might still tell you about California and winter Utah, and we were in Colorado last winter in Steamboat (this is our second winter trip there; the first time we went without T.S. two years earlier), about which she has already written. In July 2018, we were in Avon in Colorado. But we had never been to Steamboat in the summer, so we decided to go and explore the area and get to know the town better, so that we could navigate winter (which is much easier to do in summer).
Preparing for the Trip and Packing
“Our hotel” was fully booked because it’s not a hotel but a timeshare :), and as I already mentioned, they primarily focus on their members, and then sell the remaining available spots. This makes booking quite a challenge because they don’t always have spots available in advance; they reserve them for members, and close to the dates, everything can already be booked, so you need to “catch the moment” when the timeshare opens sales for regular people. This time, circumstances aligned such that we were looking for a hotel 2 weeks before the trip, and, of course, Wyndham was booked. Valentina takes a very serious and thorough approach to searching and booking hotels; she has her own tried-and-true method, and considering our specific requirements (full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, etc.), the search area was limited. After an afternoon of intense searching, a few apartments and a couple of houses remained as options. After another hour of discussion and reading comments, we decided on an apartment found on Airbnb.
We were lucky; the apartment had just been posted a few days ago by the owners, there had been renovations, and no one had been there before us (at least, that’s how we explained the recent listing date and the excellent condition of the appliances and furniture/rooms). The apartment was located on the second floor of one of the high-rise buildings right in the square in front of the “ski” mountain. This is the perfect location for active recreation in Steamboat, especially in winter 🙂 but in winter, the cost of this apartment is astronomical [~$1500 per day]; it’s also much more expensive than Wyndham in summer [~$450 per day], but the location is significantly better 🙂 The building consists entirely of apartments, which are all rented out, there is a lobby with staff serving the building, there is a pool, underground parking, and it all very much resembles a hotel, just instead of rooms, there are private apartments. This is a common practice in tourist towns.
Earlier, I mentioned that in winter we rent cars. If anyone is interested in how a particular car performed, I’m happy to share my impressions. Leave comments, and I’ll create a separate page with reviews (though the relevance of the information fades over time as new cars come out each year). But for summer, we have a great crossover, capable of comfortably taking us along summer roads to any desired location. A few days before departure, we started slowly packing things and already packed some items. What we take with us
We usually take quite a lot of things with us. Besides regular clothing and shoes, we take hiking gear: special lightweight fabric pants, long-sleeve shirts with mesh inserts, hats — I have a great hat with fabric around it to protect my neck and, if desired, my face from the sun, waterproof boots, wool compression socks, collapsible Leki poles, backpacks with a reservoir for water and small items like a knife, flashlight, etc. We also bring our own spices (they’re not available in houses and hotels, and if they are, they come in small, one- or two-day packages), and some food. We’ve tried various options over time for food. On our last winter trip to Steamboat, we prepped several dishes in advance and took them in foil containers, and on site, we just reheated them. But lately, we’ve concluded that we can take a set of food for the first evening and buy the rest on site. Previously, we brought a pack of water with us, and then had to carry it from the store during our vacation — now we have this awesome water filter, which seriously makes our trips easier.
The Journey
We pack all this variety of items gradually over several days, and then we pack everything in the evening before departure, leaving only what’s in the refrigerator for the morning. Even the food for the road is prepared the night before. This allows us to leave early in the morning to arrive while it’s still light outside. This is important because it’s harder to navigate the area in the dark, and driving at night is not something I enjoy. So we left at 6 AM and headed along Route 101 towards the 17th Interstate Highway. How we drive
We drive along the 17th to Flagstaff, after which we switch to Route 89, then 160 through Tuba City and further to the northern border of Arizona through the Indian reservation, passing Kayenta, switching to Route 191 and entering Utah. Then we head northwest through Utah, passing by small charming towns. For example, Blanding, where there is a convenient gas station and a small museum with easy parking, where we stop to rest and grab a bite. Moab, located 450 miles from Phoenix, is almost 2⁄3 of the way; the city has many good hotels and gas stations, and it’s 30 miles from the turn onto Interstate 70 before entering Colorado. If you divide the trip into 2 days, it’s a great city to stop in. From there, we continue on Route 70, already in Colorado, to the small town of Rifle, where we turn onto Route 13, which goes almost all the way to Steamboat; 40 miles from the destination, there’s a right turn onto Route 40, which leads directly to Steamboat.
To some, the journey may seem tedious and long, 12 hours (if without stops) on the road, but I enjoy driving (if the car is good, fast, and comfortable 🙂 ), I even manage to catch glimpses of the surroundings with one eye. In Arizona and the first part of Utah, everything is quite uniform, but then the beautiful scenery begins. The last third, after the town of Rifle, is a mountain road, it’s very beautiful around, and the road is quite convenient, despite the highway number (Route 13).
We drove well; already approaching the turn onto Route 13, we smelled smoke (and there was some haze in the sky), and for the next 30 miles after the turn, the smell of smoke persisted. We had heard about the fires in Colorado, but hearing about them is one thing, and almost driving into them is another; it was literally burning just over the neighboring mountain. But the highway was not closed, and we really hoped that nothing was burning in Steamboat. As it turned out, Steamboat was almost surrounded by fires, and smoke could be seen when we went up the mountain.
View of the ski slope in summer
View from the apartment of the slope and pizzeria below
View of the houses on the ski mountain slope
Steamboat Springs from above
Yampa River
Since it was summer, we arrived at sunset, settled into the apartment (just threw our things down), and decided to take a walk around because we liked the air and the twilight. We strolled for about 20 minutes and decided not to do much tomorrow, to settle in and maybe explore the surroundings. Upon returning to the apartment, we began unpacking. The apartment had a medium-sized living room combined with the kitchen, a kitchen with new appliances, granite countertops, a small entryway, 2 bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms, one smaller and one a bit larger.
