Winter Park Colorado : A Winter Wonderland

We flew out bright and early on Wednesday morning making the trip to Colorado.

We landed in Denver around 11:30 grabbed our rental car and headed to lunch. We came all the way to Colorado and ended up eating lunch at Tupelo Honey. Campbell was beyond excited to see the little bit of snow that was on the ground. After a quick stop at Whole Foods to pick up some essentials we made our way to Winter Park. Of note who knew that Colorado does not sell wine in grocery stores and just started selling beer. Let me get this straight marijuana is legal but you can’t sell wine in a grocery store…..I mean.

 

We arrived to Winter Park Resort around 4:00 and checked into our room. It was absolutely perfect staying in the ski in/ski out base village lodging. We stayed in a one bedroom condo at the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. I loved that the brand new gondola was literally 50 yards from our condo. This made it so easy especially with a little one. I loved that the resort was like its own little village with restaurants and shops right on site. Personally I loved that the Starbucks was literally steps from our room. Upon check-in we were fortunate enough to be able to ride the gondola to the top for drinks at Sunspot Mountain Lodge. It boasts panoramic views of the Continental divide at 10,700 feet! It was breathtaking! Campbell was in absolute awe of all the snow and I couldn’t blame her. We ended up going ahead and grabbing an dinner in the village at Doc’s Roadhouse while we were out and about. We loved the sausage and peppers as an appetizer. The waitress boasted that they had the best margaritas so I had to try one of those as well! We called it an early night after a long travel day.  

 

 

 

 

Thursday we were up bright and early as we were all still on eastern time. We were able to rent all of our ski equipment right on site which was convenient and awesome. After we were geared up we headed to our private lesson. It had been a while since I had skied but it was just like riding a bike luckily. With it being Campbell’s first time we didn’t want her to get frustrated and to learn the basics from an instructor. She was an absolute natural and our instructor commented on how she covered basically three days of lessons for her within a three hour period.

 

We broke for lunch and were famished at this point. We stopped into Moffat Market which was cafeteria style dining. This was a nice break and a quick meal steps from the lift. We were back on the slopes in no time. We skied for a few more hours then we headed over to the Coca-Cola Tube Park. This was probably Campbell’s favorite part. We had the best time.

There were four individual lanes and a conveyer belt that took you back up to the top of the mountain. We grabbed dinner at Lime which is essentially Mexican and called it a night.

Friday morning we were up again bright and early and ready to hit the slopes. There are so many trails at Winter Park. You could stay for days and days and never run out of new trails to try. There are 166 designated trails and 25 ski lifts. I will say in my opinion the greens in Winter Park seemed more like blues to me. Campbell was a trooper and always led the way and without hesitation. The black diamonds were insane and I’m not sure why someone would willingly go down those. I definitely prefer to play it safe these days. We hit up Sunset Mountain Lodge again this time for lunch. I was insistent we eat there as I couldn’t stop thinking about the breathtaking views. After lunch and a little rest we made our way back to our condo. We rested up and then took the shuttle into downtown Winter Park. We purchased our souvenirs. We had dinner at the Ditch and we loved it. We heard people talking about Deno’s on the shuttle and tried to eat dinner there however there was a three hour wait!

 

 

 

 

Saturday we woke up to a “blizzard.” It was interesting trying to make our way back down the mountain to Denver. Austin did such a great job driving as my anxiety level was high! I was just glad we were not skiing on Saturday. It was cold and snowing heavily. We stopped at Red Rocks on the way in. I’ve always wanted to see a concert there but as you can imagine there are no shows in the winter. I’m trying to talk Austin into heading back to see Luke Combs in the summer ha. It was breathtaking and even more beautiful in person.

 

We headed to the hotel and due to the snow we decided to eat lunch at the Office which was attached to our hotel.  The food was delicious and they were serving bottomless mimosas for $15. SIGN ME UP! We had the best Brussel sprouts and were very pleased with our lunch. We stayed at the Curtis and it was perfection. Each floor boasted a theme. Our floor was fun and games. It had the most adorable Pac Man and Super Mario brothers wallpaper which Campbell loved. We rode the elevator up and down checking out the different floors but I think ours was the favorite.

Campbell had had a couple meltdowns at this point so we decided to head back to the room to rest up. Unfortunately because of the snow we weren’t able to venture out as I had hoped. We ended up eating dinner at Punch Bowl Social. We loved the atmosphere and Campbell loved all of the games. We wanted to eat somewhere that would be enjoyable for her and this hit the mark!

Sunday we slept in finally and ended up grabbing breakfast at the Office before making our way to airport. Sadly we left Austin in Denver for a work conference so I was solo parenting. After a non-eventful flight to Charlotte our flight back home was delayed several times before we finally landed at 10:00PM. I was just thankful we flew home on Sunday and had Monday to recover before getting back into our routine.

Colorado you are absolutely breathtaking. I cannot wait to come back in the summer and see all of your splendor!  I cannot wait until our next adventure.