Backpack An Aspen Classic
The Maroon-Snowmass Trail is the classic Aspen backpack. You get views, wildflowers, lakeside camping. This trail crosses over Buckskin Pass to Crater Lake, with heart-thumping views of the Maroon Bells, alpine lakes, and meadows all along the way. No time for a backpack? The forest offers a dizzying array of day hikes. If you're near Vail and don't mind sharing a trail with mountain bikers, tackle the Two Elk National Recreation Trail, which offers spectacular views of the Gore and Wasatch Mountain Ranges. If you're acclimated to the altitude and want to take on a 14'er (one of Colorado's 14,000 and higher peaks), Snowmass Mountain is a fairly friendly first ascent.

Bike the Government Trail
West of Aspen, the 12-mile Government Trail is one of the most popular singletracks in the region. This baby has more than 1,000 feet of vertical give and take. Most people ride the trail one way from Snomass Village to Aspen. The terrain along the way includes aspen groves, lodgepole pine, and flowered meadows. The meadows are especially full of wildlife. In fact, the trail gets shut down during elk migration and calving season.

Camp Gore Creek
Why pay Vail hotel prices, when you can camp in a national forest for less than $15 a night? Camping in a national forest can be a mixed bag , but some tent sites offer more privacy since you're required to hike in. Many other excellent campgrounds, including Camp Hale Memorial, the site of the training grounds for the 10th Mountain Division, the Norwegian-speaking commandos.

Fish the Flattops
The backcountry fly fisher will enjoy the Flat Tops wilderness. While fish may not be endemic to most of the lakes and streams here, many of them have been stocked (and continue to be stocked). Half the fun of fishing here is figuring out which lakes have fish - - and which don't. Trappers Lake is a blue-ribbon trout fishery, and an important spawn-taking site for a strain of native cutthroat found only here.

Paddle the Colorado
Glenwood Springs is Colorado's most popular river rafting center. The Roaring Fork flows into the Colorado River near here, opening up an enticing array of possibilities. The Class IV run from Shoshone Powerhouse to Grizzly Creek is notoriously fun: short (1 mile) but wildly popular. Nearer Breckenridge, the Colorado River is tamer: a good spot for an afternoon float.

Ski the 10th Mountain Division
The famous 10th Mountain Division put skiing on the map in the White River National Forest with the system of backcountry huts it built during Wold War II. Actually, there are three systems of huts: 10th Mountain Division, Fred Braun, and Summit. The huts allow multiple day backcountry tours with a warm room and a soft bed waiting at the end of the day. Downhill more your thing? Two words: Aspen and Vail. Not to mention, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin. . . the list goes on and on.