For those of you who like to start your winter before Thanksgiving, Colorado has just the place: Wolf Creek Ski Area. It’s usually the first in the state to open on natural snow. For those who prefer to acknowledge winter by watching the snow fly from the comfort of steamy waters, Colorado has just the place for that, too: Pagosa Springs.

Fortunately for everyone, these two spots – one “hot spot” and one “cold spot” – are just 23 miles apart, along Highway 160 in the southern part of the state.

Let’s start with Wolf Creek Ski Area (wolfcreekski.com). My friend, Helen Nychka, of Boulder, loves the place. “It’s my absolute favorite place to ski in Colorado,” she says. “So sweet in its small size, but amazing terrain, everything from bunny runs to heart-stopping cornice-jumping for those willing to hike ridges. My son lost a tooth doing said jumping, but I’ve made my peace with it since it was at Wolf Creek; any other place and I couldn’t forgive myself for letting him jump that cornice at age 14. It has the best snow in Colorado, and the food in the lodge is home-made good stuff. (Think baked potatoes with Santa Fe-style green chile on top for a ski lunch. Yum!)

What more can I add to that enthusiastic endorsement? Only that from a season-extending perspective, Wolf Creek is a great choice in that its snow comes early. It usually opens in the first half of November with about 70 percent of its runs open (and ticket discounts that continue until 100 percent of the runs are open). Groomed cross-country trails are offered, too, later, courtesy of the ski area.

Wolf Creek has two kinds of clientele: people from New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas who like it because it’s their closest Colorado ski area, and powderhounds who track storms and race to where the snow is falling. For that second category, the snow at Wolf Creek is as good as it gets; it lays claim to getting the most snow of any ski area in the state. And, because fewer skiers are on the slopes than at the big areas, the powder stays and stays and stays. (Fewer people means shorter lift lines, too.)

Is this too good to be believed? Maybe; this family-owned ski area sits right next to the site where a proposed “village” may be built on Wolf Creek Pass.

A bit of background: there are no ski-in, ski-out condos here. In fact, there are no lodgings of any kind at the ski area. People sleep on either side of the pass, with Pagosa Springs to the west (more about this town later) and in South Fork, on the east. South Fork is not much more than a widening in the road, and it does not offer great bistros, charming shops, luxury lodges, or much else, although it does have beds and calories-to-go. Either way, so much snow falls that Highway 160 is hard to keep open, from Pagosa Springs or from South Fork. No big surprise, then, that a developer would want to build lodging near the base of the ski area.

Plans got rolling in 1986 when a land swap with the USFS went through. 24 years have passed by, and nothing has been built yet, but not for a lack of trying, and the history is too convoluted to recount. Recently, a proposal for a 10,000 person “village” was floated, but many people were unhappy with the idea – including the Pitcher family, owners of the ski area. Now, the developer, Red McCombs, is looking at a revised (and probably smaller) plan, but this will require another land swap with the Forest Service, one that would put the development directly on the highway instead of off the road where it would endanger high altitude wetlands. This is good from an environmental perspective.

Nychka, my enthusiastic informant, offers this: “Wolf Creek is currently as pure and wonderful as Mom and Pop skiing gets in Colorado; it is a ‘gem.’ It will no longer be a gem if the expansion goes through, I think, but ‘paste’ in jewelry terms. I feel like an old codger saying this type of thing, but the magic of that area is that there is no big highway leading there, the nights are crystal clear and it has all the good stuff of rural Colorado.” (Her family stays at Goodnight’s Lonesome Dove Campground and Cabins near South Fork, goodnightslonesomedove.com.)

I don’t have an opinion on the development; that’s why I’m including hers. My gut, though, says that 10,000 people in residence on Wolf Creek Pass would mean the powder wouldn’t stay fresh, lift lines would grow, and the highway would be blocked not just by nature’s white deliveries but by traffic. The question is this: does it have to be an all-or-nothing deal? What about something more modest? And how scaled-back will the new plan be? For anyone who makes the trip, feel free to ask any local resident what he or she thinks of the proposed “Village at Wolf Creek.” You’re sure to learn a thing or two.

I do have an opinion about Pagosa Springs, and it is that it belongs in Colorado’s top three destinations, and I’m not exactly sure what the other two should be. The town seems prosperous even in these hard times, and yet it’s still got a down-home feel. I’m judging from a trip I made earlier this year with a few friends, on which we thought a yoga class would be nice. I called a likely place, but no, they didn’t offer a class on the weekend; did we want the yoga teacher’s home number? Why, sure! What a novel idea—calling someone out of the blue. Sherry Ponder, an independent yoga instructor (970-731-9742) was happy to hear from us, and she re-arranged her schedule to meet our party for a private class – at 7 pm on a Saturday night. The class was “all levels,” and it truly was that; one of our party, age 83, experienced her first yoga class ever, from a chair.

The point isn’t that Ponder is unique; instead, it’s that she is somehow emblematic of Pagosa, with her relaxed, flexible approach to us – and I don’t mean as a result of yoga.
Ponder aside, the real reason to visit Pagosa Springs is the natural hot water. There’s the standby, the Springs Resort and Spa (pagosahotsprings.com). At the entrance, green, pink and white mineral deposits, reminiscent of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, are growing—there is nothing quite like it in the rest of Colorado.

As for taking a soak, the newest option is The Overlook Hot Springs, upstairs on the main street. Rooftop tubs filled from the bounteous natural springs give soakers a view over the steamy San Juan and up to the snowy peaks. Another good choice: The Spa Motel, a downhome kind of motel with a pool and hot tubs heated, naturally enough, with natural spring waters. Either way, if you’ve got worries, these pools will wash them away. Or if you’ve got aches and pains (perhaps from skiing), they’ll dissolve. And if you’ve got good friends at hand, the pools will make their company that much more bubbly, like champagne.
The hot springs offer more than just a hedonistic experience. They also provide a visual treat if you stroll along the San Juan River footpath. Little steam vents all along the way make the river especially picturesque, even ghostly, in winter—and watching the leisurely soakers across the way is a gentle sort of entertainment. And, the town uses its natural geothermal resources for producing heat for some of the downtown buildings; it’s not every town that can say that!

Take a coffee break at River Point Café, with its porch overlooking the river. This could lead to a stroll through downtown, where at least 16 buildings are included on the “Historic Buildings Walking Tour; pick up a brochure at the visitor’s center by the hot springs. The town has a surfeit of spa options, a sufficiency of tourist-based shopping, and a minimally acceptable number of dining choices, with the Alley House Grille as one solid good dinner venue. In other words: everything needed for a post-ski (or even instead-of-ski) trip is right at hand in Pagosa Springs, and yet there is not so much that it overwhelms you.

By the way, this whole trip, skiing and all, can be classified as “appealing to a price-sensitive market.” Wolf Creek and Pagosa Springs are an affordable luxury. If you want to stretch the budget even further, check out discounts on pagosa.com/coupons.php.

There you have it, one trip with two destinations: Wolf Creek for winter thrills and chills, and Pagosa Springs for life on the mild side.

In addition to writing The Enlightened Tourist column for Nexus, freelance writer Wendy Underhill has written features and investigative reports on a number of diverse topics.