Summer is short and precious in the Rockies, so we try to stretch it out. The season is defined more by the colors of the trees and the yearly festivals than by national holidays and school calendars. The pleasures of an Aspen summer can be as simple as strolling through the farmer's market on a Saturday morning, your senses piqued by the aromas of roasting chili peppers and the sweetness of ripe cherries. An Aspen summer can also be intellectually stimulating. You can attend a conference at the Aspen Institute, watch dancers soar, go to a play or listen to world-class musicians—from Wynton Marsalis to Jack Johnson and Vladimir Feltsman—play jazz, pop and classical. Or an Aspen summer can be physically challenging, with ample opportunities to bike, hike, ride horses, raft or go rappelling in what the Ute Indians, the original settlers, called the Shining Mountains. Of course, you can find more genteel exercise by playing golf or fishing the gold-medal trout streams. This perfect sum of activities for the mind, body and spirit is known around here as the "Aspen idea," conceived more than fifty years ago by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke.
For summer life in Aspen, the map should really include other towns in the Roaring Fork Valley, which is bookended by Aspen and Glenwood Springs, about fifty minutes apart. We call visiting these towns going down or up valley. Basalt, fast becoming the "down-valley" Aspen, is a twenty-five-minute drive from town. Add another five minutes to reach El Jebel, another ten to quiet but slightly funky Carbondale and a last ten minutes to Glenwood Springs, most famous for its hot springs.
The official starting bell of Aspen's summer is the Food & Wine Magazine Classic festival in June, and the closing one chimes after Filmfest, in late September/early October, when the wind tosses mustard-colored leaves through the air. After living here full-time for more than fifteen years, I can think of no other small geographic area in the world that offers such a generous choice of summer treats that can be savored in a single day. If one antiaging precept is to keep the mind and body active, then Aspen is the place to do it. The following ideas can be sampled alone; I've made additional suggestions to round them out. I try to do almost everything on this list at least once a summer. Days are warm and often doused by afternoon thunderstorms. Nights are chilly. Dress is informal. Here we go.
The Great Outdoors
Unless otherwise noted, the area code for all phone numbers listed below is 970.
GET ON YOUR BICYCLE
Bikes are the preferred mode of fun summer transport. In Aspen, the fit rocket up to the Maroon Bells ("The Bells") mountain range, with limited car access, and nearby Ashcroft, an old mining town whose remains are worth seeing. Both are about eleven miles uphill. More my speed is the hour-or-so ride on the flat Rio Grande Trail, which begins downtown and ends at the outdoor patio at the Woody Creek Tavern, a hangout of the late Hunter S. Thompson that's short on glitz and long on character. Continue down to Basalt and reward yourself with lunch at the Riverside Grill, a sandwich from Val's or anything from a chocolate croissant to a feast at Café Bernard. If you go at day's end, eat at the southern-influenced Dogwood Grill or the Greco-Med-style Hestia. Put yourself and your bike on the bus for the ride back.
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