What to do in Vail in the Mud Season

What to do in Vail’s Mud Season

 Mud season means just that. The snow is melting and the rivers are rising, and the ground is so saturated from all of the snow that's melting, that the trails are just not safe to be on.

 What is there to do when Vail Village is quiet and Beaver Creek is quiet and some of our favorite restaurants have closed for a month or so while everyone resets and gets ready for the summer season? Guests can travel down to Glenwood Springs. Glenwood from Vail is about 45 minutes and it's a gorgeous ride. It's right on I 70. Glenwood Canyon runs parallel to the Colorado River, and right on the other side of the Glenwood Canyon. There is Glenwood Hot Springs to stop by. This iconic tourist destination has been around hosting visitors for 130 years. Isn't that amazing? It's centrally located between Aspen and Vail. There's a lot of history involved in Glenwood and in off season it's a quieter venue. Great water slides for the kids as well. They have a poolside grill where you can get food and drink. They also have an athletic club. One thing that you should know though, is this is kind of a sulfur based pool. It does

smell like rotten eggs, but five minutes in, you would never even know that you are in amongst this sulfur pool. If you want something a little more intimate, but you still want the hot spring experience, there is Iron Mountain Hot Springs. Iron Mountain Hot Springs is completely different, it has 16 geothermal soaking pools and they all have different temperatures and all different minerals inside of them. Place cards indicate the temperature of each pool which is nice. It’s also right on the Colorado River, so you will see boaters, kayakers and fly fishermen come by. Besides the soaking pools, there's also a big jetted tub and soaking pool as well that the kids absolutely love. The deepest it goes, and it's only a small little section is only six feet, so it's a great spot to go with the kids. There is a restaurant there as well and a bar so if you wanted to grab a cocktail with your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend and go into one of the soaking pools, they promote that.

 Closer to Vail, there is Avon Recreation Center right on Lake. ON Lake Street inthe town of Avon is a great little spot.They have a huge pool with a lazy river for the kids and they, it's a great introduction for swimming. Whether you have a 18 month old or you have an 18 year old, they're going to absolutely love the pool. Venue here has a very shallow, large, warm pool for the younger kids. They have a huge water slide that spins around and spits you out down at the bottom. They have lap swimming if you're interested in just getting some exercise in. Upstairs, they have a beautiful gym. Everything from cardio equipment to free weights. It is pretty inexpensive as well. $15 bucks for adults, $11 bucks for kids, and anyone under three goes for free. They also have a nice big hot tub as well off of the backside of the lazy river that you can do to a restless muscles if you end up going and working out upstairs while the kids are downstairs in the pool.

 Besides the indoor stuff, we also have miles and miles and miles of paved walking and biking paths. One runs from East Vail all the way to Edwards. It's wonderful because a lot of it actually is right along the Gore Creek and then it transitions into the Eagle River that brings you down through Eagle Vail, Avon, and Edwards.

 If you're thinking about like renting bikes, check out Christie Sports. Christie Sports is a wonderful spot to go for all things outdoors. Whether you want to go fly fishing or running, you can get it at Christie Sports, and you can go to christie sports.com to check all that stuff out. When we're talking about off season not the rivers are rising, please be very careful and conscious of you and your children’s distance to the river. The river can run very swiftly and tragedy happens in an instant, and so just make sure you keep everybody safe. If somebody is wanting to throw rocks into the river or somebody wants to dip their fingers to see how cold it is, be cautious.

 Don’t be afraid to go into Vail Village, even though it's quieter. You can walk around and enjoy the beautiful town of Vail. There's still restaurants and retailers open. It's just not going a hundred miles an hour during this time.

 I hope that I have given you a little of insight about things to do during the off season, but one of the things I do want to just address one more time is our trails. Everybody loves hiking in the woods but it is still saturated areas where the trails are just so muddy. We have volunteers in our valley who maintain all of our trail systems here. If you go onto those trails when they are not ready, you can really put an everlasting footprint into those trails. Ask your concierge.

One last thing you can do in off season is take the ride from Vail and go through Minturn all the way up to Leadville. There is so much cool history up here and the ride. It's gorgeous and there's lots. Is to stop and take photos.