Aspen, Colorado

If you read our last post, you already know that we spent New Year’s weekend in Colorado. When we were planning the trip, we had a really hard time deciding where we wanted to stay. The thought of having an off-the-grid chalet or mountain house seemed really appealing, but I also knew we wouldn’t be able to sit still that long. Realistically, we considered booking a hotel room in Boulder, but then I had a random idea of driving to Aspen for a day, so ultimately we decided to stay downtown. That would give us the flexibility of driving to some ski towns, but also driving north to Rocky Mountain National Park. Also, we weren’t sure what the restaurant situation may look like in smaller towns since COVID had most restaurants closed or only operating dine-in service. I figured downtown Denver would be safe.

There are some really nice places to stay in downtown Denver, but we chose the Hilton Denver City Center. Now, before you completely judge me on picking a hotel attached to a conference center … we stayed at this Hilton property a few years ago and really enjoyed our stay. The hotel is huge, the rooms are clean, and it’s within walking distance of a few really good restaurants. (Bonus: I get to use and earn more Hilton points, which is always good).

One of the days we were in Denver, I convinced Donovan we should drive to Aspen. Neither of us had ever been there before, and we were really wanting to explore a new place. We heard that Aspen was really boujie, so we wanted to get in on the action.

Aspen is about a three and a half hour drive from downtown Denver. Looking back, I think it may have been better for us to stay at least one night in Aspen, only because it gets dark early – and that makes for a long drive back to Denver through the mountains.

The drive itself is beautiful, though. You get to drive through several ski towns like Breckenridge, Vail, Avon, and Glenwood Springs, before making the turn south towards Aspen. If we lived near Denver, I could definitely see us visiting these areas often.

Funny story: on the drive to Aspen, we were in this little valley near Vail. For whatever reason, Donovan decided to turn on the windshield wipers with fluid to clean the window. Well, the fluid INSTANTLY froze. Since he couldn’t see, he hit the windshield fluid again. And again. and Again. At this point, both of us were panicking a bit because we couldn’t see out the window. Eventually, Donovan pulled safely to the side of the road so we could let the windows defrost, but holy heck, that was scary. Now, we look back and laugh because the temperature was 8 degrees. Like…what did we think would happen? Ha!

Once we made it to Aspen, we were ready to stretch our legs and get lunch. We were both a little hangry. We drove up and down the main road, and then opted to park in a parking garage under the Pitkin County Library.

Of course, we didn’t do any research before we arrived, so we had no idea where to eat …all we knew was that it would be the first place we saw.

Right across the street was the Aspen Taphouse. Even though we hit it right at noon, and it was pretty busy, we ended up getting a table inside, which was a nice win since it was so cold.

We both ordered the Crisp Apple Cider (hard) and split a pepperoni pizza. It hit the spot! While eating, I looked up a few hiking trails in the area. I really wanted to hike Maroon Bells, but apparently in the winter the 2 mile trail becomes 12 miles round trip because of the snow. No thanks. We were not prepared for that!

After lunch, we walked through town to Paepcke Park and decided to play around in the snow and take some pictures.

After Christmas, I bought a Hearth & Hand snowman kit for half off, so we figured we may as well put it to good use and built our own (small) snowman!

The snow was fresh and not “wet” enough to really make a good, compacted snowman, we just made a little guy! It was a lot of fun playing in the snow – definitely not something we’re used to!

While we were in the park, Donovan attempted to fly his drone, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to because we were too close to the Aspen airport. That was slightly disappointing because we knew we would have gotten a lot of great footage.

We walked through town a bit more, checking out some of the shops (um, hello Gucci!!) and interesting restaurants. I definitely want to come back in the summer months when its warmer to check everything out again.

About 3pm, we decided we needed to try to get back to Denver before it got too late. Night driving is one thing. Night, mountain, snow driving is a whole other beast.

We did make one pit stop along the way for Donovan to fly his drone. He caught the sunset, and it made for some beautiful photography.

Overall, I didn’t think Aspen was as uppity or boujie as people have told me. Now, we didn’t hit the slopes, so it could be a whole different world over there, but in town, things seemed…normal…with just some expensive stores and restaurants. I hope we get to go back in warmer months sometime soon so we can actually hike the Maroon Bells!