Breckenridge, Colorado - Feb 11th to 18th, 2022

We were staying at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, Colorado for a week for a get-together with Ann’s relatives. We don’t ski any more, so we spent most of our time snowshoeing, when we were not socializing with family. Breckenridge became another lesson in how to get around without a car.

Parking in Breckenridge is very limited. Oversized vehicles, such as our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van), are only allowed to be parked in the Airport Lot’s overnight parking area which charges $5 or $10 per night depending whether it is a week day or weekend (no sleeping in vehicles allowed). The Airport lot is about 2.5 miles from Beaver Run Resort. We did not feel comfortable leaving our van parked there all week, wondering what the risk would be of our van being broken into.

There is a luxury RV park in Breckenridge, Tiger Run Resort, but the cheapest site they have is $60 per night and they have strict rules on the type of RV they allow. The minimum length of an RV for them is 20 feet and our Red Tail Lodge is just under 20 feet. Besides, we wanted to stay at the resort to be with our relatives.

One of our relatives drove a rental car up, but he was leaving early in the morning and stopping at the Loveland Ski area to ski for the day before reaching Breckenridge. The rest of us did not want to spend all day at Loveland since we were not skiing. Beaver Run Resort allows one vehicle per bedroom to be parked in their garage, for a fee of $26 per night. Again, that is not an option for our camper van.

There are several options to get to Breckenridge without a car. First there are airport shuttles, which costs about $300 or more for the three of us, each way. Some of the shuttle companies offer door-to-door service in a private vehicle, but the price is double that of the airport shuttles. Ordering an Uber XL door-to-door from Broomfield, which cost us about $230 to get up to Breckenridge, was the cheapest and most convenient option. Uber allowed us to reserve the ride a week in advance. However, we struggled with using Uber on the way back the following week. Uber would not let us reserve a ride for the way back, saying that there were no Uber drivers available.

The cheapest option is the bus. CDOT runs several routes around the state called the Bustang. There is a route from Denver Station to Frisco which continues on to Avon that runs several times per day. The Bustang costs only $12 per adult each way to/from Frisco. From Frisco, there are free shuttles that can get you to Beaver Run Resort. Summit County runs several routes. One of them goes from Frisco to the Breckenridge Station. From the Breckenridge Station, the town of Breckenridge runs several bus routes that will take you to Beaver Run Resort called Free Ride Breckenridge. Although it is the cheapest money wise, the cost is time. Our son used Bustang to come up to join us for the weekend. He came later in the evening, during a snow storm and heavy traffic. What should have been only two to three hours from Denver turned into about five hours. In comparison, our Uber ride earlier in the day took less than two hours from Broomfield, which is farther than Denver.

Once in Breckenridge, the Free Ride shuttles can get you around Breckenridge to most places that you want to go. In addition, Beaver Run Resort also has a free shuttle (along with many other lodges and resorts) that will take you to a limited number of locations within Breckenridge.

For those of us who didn’t ski on Saturday, we mainly wandered around the resort and socialized with each other. The resort is a large complex of several buildings, some of which are connected together via sky walks. It took a little while to get our bearings and learn our way around. Keith and Ann took the free shuttle to the local grocery store to stock up on food for the week.

On Sunday, while others were skiing, Keith and Ann went snowshoeing. We picked out a trail close to the resort, the Burro Trail. However, we weren’t sure where the trailhead was, since it looked like it was in the middle of the ski lifts and runs. We asked the trail information booth at the Beaver Run Base Area. He sent us down the hill to the Maggie Base Area. From there, we found the Warrior’s Mark trail marker which led us up what AllTrails calls the Columbine Trail. We saw that it would eventually bring us to the Burro Trail via the TAJ Trail.

When we reached the Burro Trail, there was a bridge over creek we were following that led to the official Burro Trailhead, right across the ski run from the Beaver Run Base Area where we started. We just went in a big loop. Oh well, now we know.

We continued up the Burro Trail. It follows the creek, in the trees, not far from some of the ski runs. After about a mile, the trees opened up to a clearing. The forest service was clearing an area for fuel reduction. The trail split, so we followed the path that led out into the clearing. There were 360 degree views of the surrounding mountain peaks. When we checked AllTrails, we realized we were off the trail. Another snowshoer past us who also realized we were off trail. We followed her along a side path that took us back to the trail.

Since we had already gone through about half of the water we took with us, we decided to start heading back instead of continuing up the trail through the woods. The weather was beautiful, sunny and close to 30 degrees. On the way up the trail, we did not have coats or gloves on. On the way back down, since we were not working as hard and the wind picked up a little, we put coats and gloves on as our bodies cooled down.

When we reached the Burro Trailhead, we cut across to the Beaver Run Resort instead of continuing down to the Maggie Base Area where we started snowshoeing. Our total snowshoe for the day was 3 miles with a 545 foot elevation gain in two hours and ten minutes. We counted it as hike number one of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.

Most of Monday was spent riding the free shuttle buses around Breckenridge. That helped us learn our way around town. When we switched buses at the Breckenridge Station, Ann checked out how much it would cost to ride the Gondola. It was free! So we hopped on and rode it from the Breckenridge Station up to the base of Peak 7 and Peak 8. The ride is about 20 minutes round trip. There are nice views from the gondola even though it only goes up 391 feet. While we were out riding the buses, we stopped off at the grocery store for more groceries.

On Tuesday, our plan was to take a shuttle over to the Ice Rink parking lot to snowshoe starting from the Illinois Creek Trailhead. We wanted to check out the troll and then hike up to the Dewey Mine via the Illinois Creek Trail and the Aspen Alley Trail.

The troll, called Isak Hearthstone, is about a tenth of a mile from the trailhead. It is a 15 foot sculpture by the same artist, Thomas Dambo, who created the trolls we saw in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens the year before (Boothbay, Maine - September 30th to October 2nd, 2021).

After checking out the troll, we headed up the Illinois Creek High Trail. Less than a mile in, just after the Southside Trail joined the Illinois Creek Trail, there was a fence across the trail with private property and no trespassing signs. There was no way that we could find to get around the private property. Feeling disappointed, we tried to make the most of it and explore the other trails to get some more distance in. Traveling down some unmarked trails, we ended back at the troll. Then we looped around on the Illinois Creek Low Trail and the Southside Trail. It was not the best snowshoe trail we’ve been on. The traffic noise from the nearby route 9 highway diminished the experience. The snow was rather thin on the Southside Trail due to the sun, with exposed dirt in some places. As we looped back on the Illinois Creek Trail, somehow we ended back up at the troll for the third time. We shouldn’t complain, because the troll was the best part of the hike. Even after all of the wandering and circling around, we only managed to rack up 2.2 miles with an elevation of 246 feet in an hour and 13 minutes.

As we were sitting at a picnic table taking our snowshoes off, a local couple stopped and talked with us. They informed us that the private property was purchased by a new owner last summer. They hiked through there back in October and it was not blocked. According to them, the owner is required to allow public access along the trail, so they don’t know if the fence and signs will be allowed to stay. The couple also let us know that we could access the Aspen Alley Trail trail by heading up Boreas Pass Road to the Sawmill Museum parking lot. From there we could access several different mines and a wide open meadow where moose like to hang out.

We headed back into town for lunch to regroup and decide what to do next. For lunch, we bought gyros from Above the Blue “REDZZ”. It is a small lunch booth with outdoor seating. Sitting outside was very comfortable due to the warm temperatures and sunshine. The gyros were pretty tasty.

We both wanted to snowshoe some more. If we had a car with us, then we would have definitely gone to the Sawmill Museum. However, we were reliant on the shuttle buses. Unfortunately, the Sawmill Museum was not near a shuttle stop. It was a 15 minute walk on the Boreas Pass Road from the nearest shuttle stop and the Boreas Pass Loop bus only ran once an hour. So we decided to snowshoe the Burro Trail again, the same trail we hike on Sunday.

It was only a five minute walk from our lunch spot over to the Maggie Base Area where we could pick up the Warriors Mark Trail. The traffic noise quickly disappeared. It also didn’t take long to leave the noise from the ski lifts behind. We stayed on the Burro Trail just a little longer than we went on Sunday. This time we did not venture out into the clearing, but stuck to the official trail in the trees. It was so peaceful, until the bulldozers and other heavy equipment started up again as we turned around to head back down. It was a weekday, so the forest service was at work clearing the area. We watched a bulldozer push around some snow. We’re not really sure what they were trying to accomplish. Perhaps there was some tree debris in that snow that they were trying to pile up. We were too far away to tell.

Our totals for the day were 5.5 miles with an elevation gain of 896 feet in three hours. This was hike number two of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022. Wednesday called for snow, so we hung out in the condo, socializing with our relatives and watching the Winter Olympics on TV.

Keith and Ann spent most of Thursday over at the Breckenridge Nordic Center. Keith wanted to rent some cross country skis to see if he remembers how to do it. Due to her bad knee, Ann wanted to stick to snowshoeing. The nordic center has both groomed cross country trails and snowshoe trails. We normally don’t like to pay money to go snowshoeing, but this way we could both participate in the activities of our choice and still be in the same area. The cross country trails and snowshoe trails are separate, so we couldn’t be together on the trails, but we could meet up during the day. The cross country ski equipment cost $23 or $30 depending on the type of equipment. Trail passes for cross country skiing or snowshoeing were $27 each. So much cheaper than downhill skiing.

Breckenridge Nordic Center is up on Ski Hill Road, about 1.5 miles from Beaver Run Resort. To get there, we took one of the shuttle buses down to the F Lot. From there, we caught the Black Bus up to the nordic center. From the My Free Ride, it looks like there are normally two Black buses that run 30 minutes apart, but one of the buses was parked at the Breckenridge Public Works, probably where they park the buses overnight. Our guess was that they were short drivers that day. It took a little longer to get there and, due to the cold temperatures in the morning, we also started late. We arrived at the nordic center at about 11 am.

Ann chose to a two mile loop route, via Pence Miller and Willow snowshoe trails. Keith started out going back and forth along a short section of the Troll Forest near the lodge to make sure he had the hang of it. Then he headed further out on the Troll Forest and came back on Gold Digger. Our plan was to meet back up at the lodge at 1 pm for lunch. Ann arrived about ten minutes ahead of Keith, completing her 2.1 miles and 230 foot elevation gain in one hour and 28 minutes.

The fresh snow from the day before made some spectacular scenery along the trails. Ann’s loop took her by Josie’s Cabin. Josie’s Cabin was built in 1874 by a gold miner for his wife and four sons to move up to the mining area to join him. His wife refused to move from Denver until he had built a proper house for them, so he built the cabin for her.

The lodge of the nordic center contains the rental center, a small gift shop, and a lounge area with a fireplace. They also serve a limited lunch menu from 11 am to 3 pm. We both had the vegan chili which seemed to hit the spot. Ann gave in to temptation and also had the 7 layer bar for dessert.

When we arrived that morning, Ann realized that she had lost one of the lenses of her sunglasses. She snowshoed in the morning without sunglasses, but decided that with the bright sun reflecting off the white snow, she better buy a new pair to prevent damage to her eyes. The gift shop had a large selection of sunglasses, all priced more than what Ann would normally pay for sunglasses, but that is the price of convenience.

After lunch, we hit the trails again a little after 2 pm. Our plan was to meet back at the lodge again by 4 pm, since Keith had to turn his skis in by then and the lodge closed at 5 pm.

Ann ventured out further on the trails. She took Willow to Engleman to Snow Wonder, then Lower Snow Wonder back to Engleman and returned on Willow. She made pretty good time on Willow and the first part of Engleman. However, the trail became steeper and was no longer hard packed. From that point, Ann’s pace slowed down quite a bit. The trail also became narrower, causing her to brush up against snow-covered tree branches which knocked snow onto her and her pack. At one point, she had to crawl under a fallen tree. She learned how much harder it is to get back up on her feet with those large snow shoes strapped to her feet. Even though the trail was harder, Ann found it rather fun. It seemed more like “real” snowshoeing where the equipment was needed to keep from sinking into the deep snow.

Before Ann reached Snow Wonder, she received a text from Keith that he was already back at the lodge and done for the day. When she tried to text him back, she realized she did not have a cell signal to reply. Keith had made a loop of Morning Glory, Cool Whip, Gold Digger, and Troll Forest Trails which took him by Josie’s Cabin. He arrived back at the lodge well before 4 pm, but his arms were tired and he was read to throw in the towel.

Due to no other footsteps on the Snow Wonder Trail, Ann had a hard time staying on the trail. The trails are pretty well marked, but you cannot always see the next marker from the previous one. A couple of times she realized she lost the trail and retraced her steps until she found the trail markers again. By the time she reached Lower Snow Wonder, it was already 4 pm. She managed to get a few text messages back to Keith on her progress. We were both wondering if she would make it back to the lodge by 5 pm. The sun sets at 5:45 pm and Ann did not have her headlamp with her. She had removed it along with some other gear to make more room for extra warm layers. She did have her phone with her which has a flashlight which she could use if necessary.

However, once she was on Lower Snow Wonder, the terrain was flatter again and the hard-packed, so her pace quickened again. Ann stopped taking pictures and videos as well, since she was losing light and wanted to hustle back. She made it back to the lodge by 4:50 pm.

By the time Ann got her snowshoes off and we walked over to the shuttle bus stop, we believe we just missed the shuttle bus. We waited for about 30 minutes, past when the next shuttle bus was scheduled to arrive, but no bus came. Remembering from the morning that there may only be one bus running, we decided we didn’t want to wait another 30 minutes in the cold for a shuttle bus that may or may not come. We considered walking the mile and a half back to Beaver Run, but we weren’t sure how clear the sidewalks would be from the previous day’s snow, plus we were tired! Ann tried calling the Beaver Run Resort to see if their lodge shuttle bus would come pick us up. Nope! The nordic center is farther than their desired scope. Then we ordered an Uber. The soonest one we could get was almost 20 minutes away, since it was in the middle of another ride. Another 20 minutes and $15 later, we were on our way to Beaver Run. There may have been a Black bus soon after we left, but we already paid for the Uber and the Black bus would have only gotten us back to the F lot where we’d have to wait out in the cold again for another bus to take us to Beaver Run. It would be nice to know when the shuttle buses are short-handed and not following their published schedules.

It might be a little better to drive your own car to the nordic center, but only if you plan to spend less than three hours there. There are signs that parking in their lot was limited to three hours and it was for nordic center customers only. We believe you need some kind of parking permit, but we did not see any indication that those permits cost any money. We were at the nordic center much longer than three hours, so that would not have worked for us.

Friday we headed home. We found a private driver that was about the same price as the Uber. And so ended our lesson in transportation. It was a little inconvenient to not have a car, but it wasn’t that bad either. Just be prepared to spend a little more time getting around and standing out in the cold.

Check out our related video: Breckenridge, Colorado

(Ann)