Steamboat Springs, CO Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Surrounded by wide valleys, STEAMBOAT SPRINGS , 65 miles north of Vail, looks like no other Colorado mountain resort. Its roots are in ranching rather than mining, and its downtown area still evokes a pioneer feel – until you spot the upmarket boutiques. In this ski-mad town, rancher-types judge the quality of snowfall by the number of fence wires it covers; they're usually satisfied with a three-wire winter, which corresponds to its average snowfall of 325 inches per year. The town's top-notch ski resort (lift tickets $59 per day), snuggled into Mount Werner four miles south of downtown, is … more »