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Coffee-table magazines might have you believe that a tollgate
outside ASPEN only admits film stars and the super-rich. This
elite ski resort, two hundred miles west of Denver via
Leadville, is indeed home to the likes of Cher, Jack Nicholson and
Goldie Hawn, but it can be an affordable and very appealing place
for anyone visit in summer - unless you're on an absolute shoestring
budget. visiting in winter requires more cash, though you can save
money by commuting to the slopes from Glenwood Springs, less than
fifty miles away.
From inauspicious beginnings in 1879, this pristine mountain-locked
town developed slowly, thanks to its remote location, to become one
of the world's top silver producers. By the time the silver market
crashed fourteen years later, it had acquired tasteful residential
palaces, grand hotels and an opera house. In the 1930s, when the
population slumped below seven hundred, it was, ironically, the
anti-poverty WPA program that gave the struggling community the cash
to build its first crude ski lift in 1936. |
Entrepreneurs seized the
opportunity presented by the varied terrain and plentiful snow, and
the first chairlift was dedicated on Aspen Mountain (now known as
Ajax ) in 1947. Skiing has since spread to three more mountains
- Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk Mountain, and the jet set
arrived in force during the 1960s. Development is a burning
political issue: tight architectural constraints have been placed on
businesses ( McDonald's is forbidden to have a neon sign),
but the last decade has seven yet more Scandinavian-style lodges,
condo blocks and giant houses that remain empty for most of the
year.
 Colorado
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Summit County
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Vail
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Colorado
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Northern Colorado
Explore Northern
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Aspen
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Boulder
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Glenwood Springs
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Grand
Junction
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Colorado
Nat'l Monument
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