Rocky Mountain High

Written by Mary Welch Wednesday, August 18 2010

Bird's-eye view of the Broadmoor

Let’s play word association. Colorado: snow, mountains, skiing, snowboarding, Aspen and Vail, celebrities.

Good.

Now: Colorado in the summer and fall: refreshing, crisp, beautiful, invigorating, babbling brooks, roadside flowers, family activities.

Get the picture? While we typically think about Colorado for winter sports, a summer/fall vacation in the Centennial State is simply sublime. On a recent visit to two Colorado resorts – the Keystone Lodge & Spa and the Broadmoor – both fewer than two hours outside Denver, we indeed found our Rocky Mountain high.

Our first stop was to the Broadmoor, the state’s most decorated resort. The Broadmoor, in Colorado Springs, is the longest running consecutive winner of both the AAA Five-Diamond and Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star awards. Located on 3,000 lush acres, the resort features a spa, fitness center, swimming pools, hot tubs, lap pool, golf, tennis, children’s programs, and unparalleled service. The 2011 U.S. Women’s Open will tee off at the Broadmoor.

One of the Broadmoor's pools

What is special about the Broadmoor is that, despite its world-renowned reputation, we felt very much at home. There is casualness that often is not found at these high-end places. At breakfast, for instance, several children who dropped plates and food and threw temper tantrums found the staff gracious and helpful.

Our room was outstanding, and we admit to playing, like children with a new toy, with the touch screen that electronically manipulated the drapes and lights. We particularly prized the bathroom, with its oversized tub and wall television.

Colorado Springs offers a variety of experiences. Most people seem to visit either for the Broadmoor or the Air Force Academy, which is based there, but there are other attractions.

We went to the Garden of the Gods Visitors & Nature Center, a registered National Natural Landmark. We learned about animals and plants native to the area while the dramatic views of 300-foot towering sandstone rock formations pitted against the snow-capped Pikes Peak brought out our inner photographer. After looking at those imposing rocks, we were almost forced to ask “How did those rocks get there?” Not a problem, a 14-minute show in the auditorium explained it all.

For dinner it was off to the Flying W Ranch, a real working cattle ranch with an authentic Western town. We rambled through the rustic town and, with the blacksmith shop and general store, felt that we were back in the Old West. The real highlight was the chuck wagon supper served under the Colorado sky. The meal consisted of chicken or barbecue beef (steak was extra) plus baked beans, baked potato, biscuits, and applesauce. The applesauce was so delicious and chunky it could have been put in a pie. Served on a tin plate with iced tea or lemonade, the dinner was dubbed by Forbes magazine as one of the “top 10 places to experience unique American food.” A nice extra was that just before the show began, they announced that hearty eaters could go back for seconds.

The Flying W Wranglers put on an amusing and down-home comedy and music show. The musicians, all authentic cowboys and musicians, sang and picked, offering up an impressive array of country and western songs accompanied by bunkhouse humor. (Example: Vegetarian is Indian for “Lousy Hunter.”)

Golfing at the Broadmoor

Our final side trip outside the Broadmoor was to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, a mountainside zoo that resides on 70 acres. The zoo provided perfect family fun as children ran from exhibit to exhibit pointing at the animals or enjoying the 1937 carousel ride. The zoo boasts the largest herd of giraffes in the country, and the public is allowed to feed them special crackers. The zoo’s breeding program, by the way, is the most prolific in the world with 191 births since 1954.

But, ultimately, the Broadmoor is the area’s star – or five star – as it were. Although there were sales meetings when we were there, the majority of the guests were families. The resort offers a variety of lodging options, including 593 guest rooms, 107 luxury suites, and 44 cottage bedrooms. The six cottages, located on the 18th fairway of the East Course, offer two to eight bedrooms and are perfect for girls’ getaways and friends traveling together who want to stay close proximity to each other.

Lakeside at Keystone

On the other side of Denver – and a different but equally fun experience – is the Keystone Lodge & Spa. Keystone offers countless activities during the summer such as fly fishing, golf, free yoga, scenic wagon rides, cross-country or road biking, white water rafting, and horseback riding – all at incredible prices or, more often than not, free. Keystone felt, well, like Colorado. The smell of the pines was a few feet away from our balcony and we could hear the Snake River meandering through the grounds. The 11,640-foot Dercum Mountain was always visible, and wildlife popped up at every turn.

The resort has a Western – but still luxurious – feel. The rooms are decorated in homey pine furniture and cozy oversized beds, and the bathrooms have one of life’s little pleasures – heated floors. The rooms aren’t air conditioned so the cool breezes add to the Colorado ambiance.

Family friendly: hiking at Keystone

We decided to try a few of the activities offered at Keystone. First up: a golf lesson. Keystone has two beautiful courses. The Keystone River course is a par 71 with a 16th hole that features a 194-foot elevation drop from tee to green. The Keystone Ranch course winds through lodgepole pines, around sage meadows, and across a nine-acre lake. This par 72 course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and features a Scottish links-style course on the front nine and a traditional mountain valley layout on the back nine.

In keeping with its family outlook, kids golf free every afternoon, with a paying adult, and there are a variety of fun programs for golfers and their families including special rates and clinics. We, in fact, decided to take to the links for the first time and had a golf lesson with PGA professional Phillip Tobias. Tobias took a golf-adverse middle-age woman and by the end of the hour had me driving the ball 145 yards routinely. We don’t know whether it was his easy-going manner or his simple easy-to-remember instructions about feet placement, finger arrangement, and hip movement but it was fun.

Horseback riding at Keystone

Less fun and more stressful was our trail ride. Despite assurances that Ben (Should have been Big Ben; we required a stepstool to mount him.) would take good care of us, we were very nervous. The three grammar school kids who rode with us kept looking back with total disdain. When our leader stopped to make sure everyone was secure in the stirrups, we asked him if the trek was almost over. “Ma’am it’s only been 15 minutes, and it’s an hour ride.” Great. Yes, Ben knew what he was doing, but we never relaxed enough to enjoy it. Frankly, we don’t know if we should just check this off our bucket list or do it again and breathe the next time.

Here’s another tip. Schedule your spa day and massage after the horse ride, not before.

We enjoyed a wonderful experience at the Keystone Spa. We tried the Aboriginal Mala Mayi, which starts with full-body scrub followed by the body being cocooned in a layer of silky warm Mapi body mud. While the mud delivers nutrients to the skin, a Paudi scalp massage releases tension and tightness in the head, neck, and face.

The Kodo massage, also Aboriginal, consisted of choreographed strokes with just the right balance of strength and tenderness to get the job done.

There are many options for dinner, including a gondola ride 11,444 feet up the North Peak for dinner at the Alpenglow Stube, a Bavarian influenced eatery, or Der Fondu Chessel, for fondue. We opted to stay at the resort and have prime rib that was so tender we cut it with a fork.

When thinking of great family vacations, a girls’ weekend, or just a getaway, Colorado has something – except humidity – for everyone.

Mary Welch is a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. Previously, she held many positions with Leader Publishing, including editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman, editor of Business to Business magazine, and editor of Catalyst magazine. As editor of Business to Business, she assigned, edited, and conceptualized a series that was awarded Silver in the 2005 GAMMA Awards for Best Series. Welch was a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle for eight years and freelanced for publications including Glamour, Advertising Age, South, Georgia Trend, and Oz. From 2000 to 2003, she served as vice president of media relations for Bank of America, during which time she authored Forever Green: A History and Hope of the American Forest with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.