Getting your player ready...
While ski areas wind up for what’s expected to be a whopper of a snow season, master-planned Rendezvous overlooking the town of Winter Park has a choice of new, resort-styled cabins to show you that could have you, your family and friends, just minutes from the lifts; and enjoying fall colors in the meantime.
Rendezvous – only 70 minutes from Denver and with luxury home prices starting in the $400s – is headed into a building boom now: 11 custom homes underway by individual buyers, and another 19 cabin-styled resort plans started, including one priced in the mid-$600s, ready now.“Once we drove into Rendezvous, that was it,” says Heidi Humber, whose family bought at Rendezvous after realizing the pricing was around half to a third of the products they’d seen in pricier areas along I-70 further west. Traffic at the Eisenhower Tunnel is never a problem, she adds – Rendezvous is over Berthoud Pass, a right turn onto U.S. 40 that’s 20 miles before the tunnel. Tomorrow is a great time to experience Rendezvous, as the 1,100-acre community stages its annual Rendezvous Ride – free mountain bike tours into the back country, timed for the arrival of the aspens turning color. There’ll be food, microbrews and live music, plenty of fun stuff for kids (including fishing in Rendezvous’ trout-stocked pond). If you have a mountain bike, tours start at 10 a.m. sharp (there are mountain bikes available, free for the event). All of this leads into 500 square miles of scenic Arapahoe National Forest surrounding Rendezvous and Winter Park. “I personally believe that’s the best subdivision in (Grand) county; you can’t beat the view,” says Fraser Mayor Peggy Smith – who bought her first Rendezvous home when it opened in 2002; and is now building a custom home there – a contemporary ranch with panoramas that wrap from 12,800-foot Byers Peak, into the ranges along the Continental Divide. For Smith and her husband, architect Peter Nelson, Rendezvous is a base camp from where they access mountain bike trails by summer, cross-country ski and snowshoe trails by winter – including a highly groomed trail that the Town of Fraser maintains along the Fraser River, starting at Rendezvous. Despite the walk-to access into downtown Winter Park, Rendezvous lies inside Fraser – “Great services,” says Mayor Smith. “They keep the streets plowed and provide city water and sewer.” And Fraser has its world-class resort-style pool and recreation center right across Highway 40 from Rendezvous, helping keep HOA fees at Rendezvous relatively low. You’ll see brand new BuckHorn paired cabins from the low $400s; Pronghorn triple-townhomes from the high $400s; new MooseHorn ranch-style cabins from the low $600s; and great sites for custom homes. Smith (during her off hours she’s a broker for Real Estate of Winter Park) says now’s the time to look at the Fraser Valley – plenty of signs the market is gaining steam (meaning higher prices to come), in an area where VERY few new homes have been built for the past eight years, and where these modern interiors with wider spaces for hosting family and friends are rare.
And during your visit, you’ll experience the quick mountain commute that bypasses the Tunnel. Bike ride kicks off right at 10 a.m.; be sure to RSVP to 970-726-5177; or just come whenever and enjoy the fun. To reach Rendezvous’ Sales Center, take I-70 west past Idaho Springs to U.S. 40; then head west 28 miles to downtown Winter Park five miles past the ski area) and continue past town, another half mile to the pond and event tent beside the historic Cozens Museum. WHERE: Rendezvous Ride at Winter Park, resort cabin-ranches ready for this ski season; mountain-bike tour tomorrow, live music, food & microbrews; kids fishing at Rendezvous’ stocked pond; mountain bike tours start at 10 a.m. 77795 U.S. Hwy 40, Fraser; take I-70 west past Idaho Springs to U.S. 40; west 28 mi. to downtown Winter Park; continue past town ½ mile, watch for tent beside pond PRICE: From low $400s, cabin-ranch ready now in mid-$600s
at DenverPostHomes.com