Trails: Vail Ski Park, Colorado

I have never ridden my snowboard on Vail's mountains, but I can tell you that I had a blast on my mountain bike in August of 2003. Awesome Trails! For the initiated, ski parks have been providing mountain bikers with a place to ride for about a decade, now. While some of the trails at a ski park will go meander down the ski slope, most of the trails make full use of the land available and provide a more scenic, less direct route around the park. Vail, like some other ski parks, offers their ski lift service to the top. Free Riding, or using the ski lift, can be a blast, especially if you just finished a few days riding in Moab, Utah, and are pretty wore out. It is a completely different experience just riding down hill all day. Free Riding is really quite fun, kind of like downhill skiing. Which would explain why I am not entirely opposed to using a ski lift: If I use one in the winter, why not in the summer, too?

I made it all the way to the top thanks to a Gondola!

Some hard-core cross country types may not see the joy in missing the uphill climb everytime, but I find it fun to just focus on the downhill aspect of riding. You always work so hard for that all-to-short, fast and fun downhill, just to climb again… With Free Riding at a ski park, you just get to ride downhill all day, if you want. And if you’re like me, and may feel guilty about not working for your downhill joy ride, than using a day Free Riding to cap off a weekend or week’s worth of ‘real’ mountain biking can be just the thing to give you a break and end the trip on a high note!

At the bottom near the Gondola/Lift

Anyway, I really enjoyed Vail. Cheap camping is just up the road, at Gore Creek. I recall waking up the morning of the ride and enjoying a 35 degree temperature in the mountains while Missouri was over 100 degrees! The mountains are so nice, especially in the summer.

The trails at Vail ski park varied in their difficulty, from moderate to extremely difficult (read: dangerous, as Vail is attempting to attract the downhill crowd). The gondola (enclosed ski lift) provided a quick trip to the top, where there were a number of trails to choose from for the way back down. I tried all but the terribly difficult downhill variety, and found those that meandered along the mountain the most fun.

Vail, features a lot of services, few that I could afford on my budget. However, the mountain was worth the price of admission (lift ticket), and I had a blast riding downhill all day to recover from a few days riding in Southern Arizona and Utah.

The views are great, the riding is excellent, even if you are just going downhill. I just wish I lived closer to Vail.