Wednesday – September 18, 2013
Snowmass, Colorado
It rained last night and this morning, here at the Difficult Campground in the White River National Forest near Aspen, Colorado. The temperature dropped into the mid 40’s last night. The weather cleared briefly, with the sun peeking through, but then the rain started again.
We decided this would be a good day to visit Snowmass Village, Colorado. It has been close to thirty years since we were last there, and that was on our winter ski vacations during the 1980’s. Snowmass is located 9 miles north of Aspen. When we arrived at Snowmass, we were amazed at how much the area has expanded. On one of our ski vacations there, we stayed at the Snowmass Club. At that time it was in an isolated location all by itself, surrounded by the golf course, and located about a mile from the village. Now, there are single family homes and townhomes surrounding the club and extending into the village of Snowmass. What a difference the years have had on this popular resort community!
We also visited Krabloonik, one of our favorite restaurants in Snowmass. They serve lunch and dinner during the winter season, but only serve dinner during the summer season. They were closed on our visit this afternoon, but the doors were unlocked and we were able to walk inside of the restaurant and look around. Much to our surprise, there was nobody around. They just left the doors to the restaurant unlocked! We spent many an enjoyable winter evening dining at this delightful log cabin restaurant located in a remote area of Snowmass. House specialties include Bison, Caribou, Elk, Pheasant and Wild Boar. This is such a popular restaurant, we will see if we can get dinner reservations for Thursday or Friday.
Krabloonik is also famous for their Dog Sled Rides. Teams of 13 dogs pull handcrafted sleds every day in winter. The dogs are hybrids of three original sled dog types: Malamute, Eskimo and Siberian. The sleds are adapted from original bone and rawhide Eskimo sleds. They carry people and provisions on a tour of the Snowmass wilderness area. The dogs are worked so hard during the sledding season that they rest all during the summer heat. I would guess they have close to 100 dogs in their kennel that is adjacent to the restaurant. Tours of the kennel during the summer months are available.
We returned to our campsite, content with a nostalgic visit to one of our favorite ski areas in Colorado.
Tomorrow another adventure begins.
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