Steamboat Pilot & Today

The Steamboat Ski Area isn't just a hub for winter activities. It has an even wider variety of activities in the summer with hiking, biking, gaming and dining.

Gondola Square becomes home of the "Activity Zone," an amusement park of sorts, with trampoline bungee jumps, miniature golf course, rock-climbing wall, a zip line and weekly concerts. The mountain area also is a hub of retail activity with restaurants, pubs, gift shops, sporting goods stores, spas, hair salons and hotels.

The base area is the home of an increasingly popular, free nine-hole disc golf course. Golfers can bring their own discs or rent from Ride Sports in Gondola Square for the cost of one "activity ticket."

Activity tickets, at $2.50 apiece, are needed to rent discs or participate in events and rides in the Gondola Square Activity Zone. Call the ticket office at 871-5252.

For those who enjoy fun at a higher level, Mount Werner has more than 50 miles of mountain bike trails, and the hard part of going up can be substituted with an easy, 12-minute ride up the gondola. This cuts out 2,180 vertical feet of climbing.

The mountain bike trails also are open for hiking, but several others are available that are bike prohibited.

This summer the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. is hosting interpretive hikes on the Thunderhead Hiking Trail from the top of the Gondola to either Slope Maintenance or to the base area. These hikes, hosted by Yampatika, meet at the Information Center in Gondola Square at 10 a.m. every Saturday from June 19 through Sept. 4.

There also are multiple places to rent mountain bikes or scooters at Gondola Square, with prices beginning at $40 for adults and $30 for children.

The Gondola operates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, weather permitting. The Ticket Office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Even if visitors don't want to ride or hike down, riding to the top of the Gondola at Thunderhead Lodge is popular for those who simply want a different visual perspective of the Yampa Valley.

Visitors can ride to the top, look around and ride back down.

For other information about activities at the Steamboat Ski Area, call 879-6111. n