Estes Park Colorado - Snowboarding Zone
Estes Park is a quiet town which lies in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. This small Colorado village has been called the Gateway to the Rockies, and the reason for this is that the town makes an easy base from which you can explore a number of beautiful mountains, ridges, trails and forests. Estes Park is a bit far from the nearest large ski resorts, but people come out here so that they can get away from all of that and enjoy the beauty of the natural world. If you are looking for a trailblazing experience with a little different pace from your ordinary snowboarding adventure, Estes Park is the place for you!
Right around the town of Estes Park you have immediate access to the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Roosevelt National Forest. In the Roosevelt National Forest you can enjoy beautiful trails during the winter which are perfect for cross country skiing; during the summer months these are popular hiking trails. No matter what time of year it is, the Roosevelt National Forest is a great place to enjoy the beauty of nature, go animal watching or just explore a more rugged part of the country.
The Rocky Mountain National Park is a place where, if you are feeling particularly adventurous and you want to try something different you can enjoy downhill snowboarding on the open parts of the mountain. No one will tell you how and where to ski – it’s up to you and your friends to locate the best places, hike up to the top of the mountain yourself (no chair lifts since you are out in the middle of the real back country!) and make your way down virgin slopes which are not specially treated, delimited or groomed. If you have the skills to handle a rough and tumble snowboarding experience mountains such as Sundance Mountain are perfect for you.
The best way to find great trails and runs in a place like this is just to go out with your board and look for yourself – a tip that you might take, though, is to look for the tracks of other snowboarders and skiers when you are going along the Old Fall River Road. Follow the tracks and you can find some of the parts of the mountain which are more traveled than others. Few things can compare, however, to the thrill of locating a part of the mountain which is not accessed by anyone else’s tracks – a part of the mountain to call your own!
After you finish your snowboarding for the day, the town of Estes Park makes a great base for you to rest, recuperate and enjoy various kinds of restaurants and local attractions. While it may not be the huge tourist attraction as many of the other places in the state of Colorado, Estes Park is a great place to go when you are in the mood to enjoy a change of pace and a different sort of snowboarding experience from what you can get at a winter resort.
