There’s more to do than watch the snow melt during “mud season” in the high country. Historic Hahns Peak Village, founded in 1865, is the gateway to a world of outdoor adventure and a colorful history of notorious outlaws, failed mining booms and imaginative water-conservation projects. An active Hahns Peak Historical Society, supported by an annual July 1 ice-cream social, jealously guards the relics of Routt County’s first county seat, school, jail and mercantile in a dusty museum. The town comes to life around Memorial Day when longtime resident Rilla Wiggins begins digging in her garden and selling treasures at her “Things and Stuff” store. – Sureva Towler
Getting there: From Denver head west on Interstate 70 to Silverthorne, north on U.S. 6 to Kremmling, and west on U.S. 40 through downtown Steamboat Springs until County Road 129 veers north through 25 miles of rolling green pasture. Hahn’s Peak Village is 183 miles from Denver.
