Take Your Vacation to New Heights in Denver

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Skiing in June? Can that be true? It’s not fake news: Even in these days of global warming, at higher elevations it is possible to hit the slopes this late in the season. (But schuss while you can; these precious days don’t last.) Try it for yourself at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, neighboring ski resorts less than two hours from downtown Denver in the front range of the Rockies. Get some time on the snow and experience Loveland’s outstanding alpine skiing, then take the Ridge Cat—Loveland’s own passenger-equipped snow cat (a kind of multi-person snowmobile)—into the backcountry to A-Basin, where you can ride the exposed spine of the Rockies and experience the lively après ski atmosphere at one of the mountain’s five bars and restaurants (we recommend the bacon bloody mary from the 6th Alley Bar & Grill).

Arapahoe Basin

Photograph by Dave Camara

Photograph by Dave Camara


After a day on the mountains, head back into the city to the Castle Marne Bed & Breakfast, a family-owned historic inn in Denver’s City Park neighborhood. Made with stone quarried from Colorado’s own Castle Rock, the Marne has served as everything from a real estate show home in the 1890s to a parolee processing center, and is now home to 10 luxurious rooms. The mansion’s John Mason Room is a beautifully sunny mini-suite with 17-foot cathedral ceilings and Palladian windows, where you can relax on the king-size brass bed or work the kinks out in the jetted whirlpool tub.

Stay in the neighborhood to refuel the next morning—Onefold in City Park is a sleek breakfast and lunch joint with a widely varied menu of family recipes that are entirely non-GMO and mostly local and organic. Go for breakfast and try their huevos rancheros with house-made green chili or the bacon fried rice with fried eggs and a Japanese tamari soy sauce. Still have that green chili on your mind? Head back at lunch and order the green chili bowl with pork or veggies.

Photograph by Dave Camara

Photograph by Dave Camara


stay
Castle Marne Bed & Breakfast, $184–$361/night, castlemarne.com 

eat
Onefold, entrées $8–$12, onefolddenver.com

do
Arapahoe Basin, $79 plus equipment rental, arapahoebasin.com; Loveland Ski Area, $61 plus equipment rental, skiloveland.com

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