Summer in the Mountains: Telluride Ski Resort, Colo.

No one complains about the views in the winter, but Telluride summer scenics are mind-blowingly epic. Its off-season offerings, heavy on festivals and strenuous but rewarding hiking and biking, don’t disappoint. While getting there isn’t easy, at least during the summer you can enjoy the journey itself. Road trip time? We think so.

Summer Dates: June 15-Sept. 2 (Labor Day)

Hot Ticket: Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 20-23, 2019. It’s hard to pick just one, but the Bluegrass Festival is just the weekend of great tunes, eats, libations, and good vibes that make summertime shine. In addition to four straight days of Americana from the nation’s top bluegrass musicians, there’s workshops, songwriting contests, and sidewalk jam sessions galore.

Choose Your Own Adventure:
• T-Ride’s Mountain Village Bike Park serves up difficult to expert singletrack trails. Cross-country-style options are on tap from the valley floor with guided and unguided offerings.
• The base is rife with family-friendly attractions, from an all-ages ropes course, and a bungee-trampoline to a unique water walking course, where visitors climb into inflated hamster balls and roll around on water. It’s a hoot!
• Adventurous types won’t want to miss Telluride Mountain’s Via Ferrata course—a technical climbing route where participants climb with the help of steel cables and harnesses.
• Join a guided rafting trip on Class II and III-plus whitewater or take a tube down the gentler flowing San Miguel River.
• Take a swing at one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, located at the Telluride Golf Club; the 18-hole, par-70 course is nestled between the highest concentration of 13,000- and 14,000-foot peaks in the United States.
• Horseback riding, fly fishing, paragliding, paddle boarding, mountaineering, and off-roading tours in Telluride’s pristine surroundings are also made accessible through the resort.

Details: tellurideskiresort.com