Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Steamboat Springs' rich heritage in ranching and skiing differentiates us from many of our ski resort competitors; and it is something we take great pride in. Our town got its name in the mid-1800s, when fur trappers ventured over the Continental Divide, and heard the chugging sound of a mineral spring that reminded them of a steamboat. In 1875, James Crawford and his hearty pioneer family arrived and settled Steamboat Springs. The first skiers descended on the slopes of Storm Mountain in the 1960s; today Mount Werner is a world-class ski resort. And even though Steamboat has doubled its population in the past two decades, small-town values still reign.
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In February 2009, Good Morning America featured Steamboat Springs and our famous Winter Carnival on their "Weekend Window" segment.
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ResortQuest Steamboat has been recognized for our exceptional customer service and we have received the 4-Spur rating which is highest award presented from the Steamboat Springs Chamber. It’s more than just great service and hospitality; it’s genuine caring and treating our visitors as our guests. More information on the Spurs on Service program.
“ResortQuest [Steamboat Premier Properties] lives up to its name with the finest condominium units...” Fodor’s Travel Guides
"Torian Plum rated #1 in Steamboat" Conde Nast Traveler’s readers’ poll
Torian Plum rated Fodor’s “Five Star Favorite.” Fodor ’s Skiing USA guide
"Expedia® travelers have ranked ResortQuest Steamboat’s Trappeur’s Crossing Resort among the world’s best hotels on this year’s Expedia Insiders’ Select™ list. The list formally recognizes individual hotels worldwide that consistently deliver excellent service, a great overall experience and a notable value. The full list represents about one percent of the nearly 80,000 hotel properties offered on Expedia." Read on: Trappeur's Crossing Resort & Insiders' Select.
Steamboat has a reputation for premiere skiing, ranching, down home Western hospitality, outdoor recreation for all seasons, and more! But, don't just take our word for it. Check-out the following excerpts from articles about Steamboat Springs.
 "Steamboat, Colorado continues to hold out against the trend of local, homey ski towns turning ritzy resort. It’s true Colorado Rockies' cowboy country up here (160 miles northwest of Denver, but a mere 25 miles from the closest airport in Hayden), combining Old West-ranching heritage with wicked tree skiing and copious amounts of champagne-powder snow cover." See story
"One of the few resort areas in the state where folks wearing cowboy boots have a better than average chance of actually having muddied them mucking out stalls, Steamboat is still rancher territory. It gives the town its air of Western authenticity and reminds visitors that Colorado is still filled with fabulous cowtowns that celebrate their heritage." Some of the Top Ten Things the post loves about Steamboat: The views on the Drive, F. M. Light & Sons, Cowboys, Old Town Hot Springs, Off the Beaten Path Bookstore, and Freshies!
"A ski town that is also an authentic ranching center, Steamboat Springs is more down home than glitzy. Cowboy hats and ski boots are equally welcome on the city's friendly streets. The place where downhill skiing first flourished in the United States, Steamboat Springs remains a premiere slopes destination. But the town also offers outdoor recreation of every stripe and season. And after a long day hiking or shopping, you can relax in one of the natural hot springs for which the town was named."
"Steamboat Springs is Colorado at its most authentic, where hay bales and cattle crowd pastures, McMansions are regarded with disdain, high schoolers compete in local rodeos, deer hang from front porches during hunting season, and high-fashion means clean jeans. Steamboat Ski Resort has none of the pretensions of the glitzier Colorado resorts. Ask a local about the last celebrity he saw in town, and he's liable to tell you the name of the kid who won the steer-roping competition."
"Situated in the Yampa River Valley in Colorado's northwestern corner, Steamboat Springs exudes a subtle beauty. Fresh snow blankets the meadows and aspens, and Douglas firs look as if they've been dipped in frost. Storms from the Pacific charge unimpeded into Steamboat releasing froths of ''champagne'' powder onto its peaks. At 6,695 feet, Steamboat Springs is a true mountain town; in addition to skiers, you'll run across whitewater paddlers, mountain bikers and trail runners. One tip for visitors: if the combination of the high altitude and the high-quality beers sold at many of the Steamboat restaurants and bars proves to be a debilitating combination, take advantage of the free city bus shuttle that operates every 20 minutes from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. each day."
"Steamboat is a modern, expanding ski resort that prides itself on being a little bit wild, wide-open and big. The trails at some points are 240 feet wide, just as the main street in the old part of town is expansive because decades ago it had to accommodate cattle drives. The snow-dusted town pushes the extremes of being suitable for families and singles ready to take on a Western-flavored ski holiday. The inducements, besides the saloons and slopes, include Kids Ski Free and Kids Rent Free for children 12 and under and activities (not free) that range from hot-air balloon trips to total bliss in bubbling hot springs."
"The town seemingly has a fat wallet with which to face the competition for the ski dollar, and an unabashed campaign slogan: ''More mountain than Aspen, more powder than Vail, more lifts than Snowmass, more sun than Sun Valley, more bars than Utah.''
"While some resorts promote themselves for their skiable terrain, access to off-mountain activities or shopping, Steamboat is able to highlight perhaps the most important item: snow. This is where the term "champagne powder" was created: the snow is so pure, so light and such a delight for skiers of any calibre. Nestled in northwestern Colorado, the Steamboat Springs area has been welcoming skiers for nearly 100 years. Today, more than 50 summer and winter Olympians call the area home, largely because of the availability of snow.
While Australian resorts measure their snowfalls in centimeters, Steamboat does it in feet; the average is more than 30 feet (9.14m) a year. The shape of the mountain also lends itself to beginners and snow hounds; gentle slopes near the main base are wide and plentiful. The ski instructors are numerous, catering for a wide range of skill levels. Further up the mountain is a huge variety range of high quality runs, from reasonable green ones to double black diamonds for those who like their skiing at the extreme level..."
One of our favorite Colorado resort towns, in part because it's a real town in addition to being a resort, Steamboat Springs fuses two very different worlds -- a state-of-the-art ski village with a genuine Western ranching center. This historic town, with a population of just under 10,000, is a pleasant laid-back community where ranchers still go about their business in cowboy boots and Stetsons, seemingly unaware of the fashion statement they are making to city-slicker visitors...
I had heard that Steamboat Springs, Colorado mixes the charm of a small Western cattle town with a world-class ski resort. So my expectations were high when I chose Steamboat as a winter destination from several weeklong ski trips offered by Central Florida Snow Skiers & Snowboarders Travel Club. I pleasantly discovered that Steamboat is not a pre-fabricated town, carved out of the base of a mountain, to provide a cookie-cutter shopping and dining experience for visitors.
 Well Traveled: Under the Radar: Steamboat Springs isn't Aspen--if you see animal skins on Lincoln Avenue, they most likely belong to the horses wearing them. This is a classic Western main street, with low-rise buildings and still enough mom-and-pop places to balance out the galleries, sushi bars, and boutiques now setting up camp. It's a town where they dump extra snow on the main street during February's Winter Carnival and hold "skijoring" races, with cowboys on skis pulled by galloping horses.
They call this place Ski Town, U.S.A. for a reason. Steamboat, the mountain, is a great, if vastly under appreciated, delight, with some of the best tree skiing in the West. The phrase "Champagne powder snow" was coined here, and this past winter was a "four-wire" one, referring to the height of snow on the barbed-wire fences surrounding local ranch land. And you can't throw a snowball without hitting an Olympian. The town has produced 69 winter Olympians, more than anywhere else in the U.S.
DRAPED across six rounded peaks, Steamboat offers a little of something for everyone in a big package of almost 3,000 acres: wide, perfectly pitched groomers; an area of hike-to steeps; quad-searing bump runs; gentle, meandering green runs; the 500-foot-long Maverick’s superpipe ( map), with 18-foot-high walls; and the mountain’s signature terrain — long glades of perfectly spaced aspen that epitomize tree skiing at its best. When storms roll in from the Pacific, Steamboat’s mountain range allows for a meteorological convergence of cloud types that rarely occurs elsewhere; the frequent result is snow that’s particularly light and silky, known as Champagne Powder.
The base of the ski area has lodging and restaurants, but to get a real feel for the town, take the free shuttle into downtown Steamboat Springs, about three miles away. The broad main street, Lincoln Avenue, is lined with restaurants, bars and shops, including F. M. Light & Sons (830 Lincoln Avenue, 970-879-1822; www.fmlight.com), which has been selling real-deal Western wear for more than a century. To soak in the namesake hot springs, visit the Old Town Hot Springs complex (136 Lincoln Avenue, 970-879-1828; www.oldtownhotsprings.org), which has outdoor swimming pools and two water slides, or take a shuttle to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs (44200 County Road 36, 970-879-0342; www.strawberryhotsprings.com) seven miles north of town, with rock-lined natural pools and a relaxed, rustic setting.
 "Whooshing through champagne powder in Steamboat Springs" ...By the time Billy [
former Olympian Billy Kidd, Steamboat ambassador]
showed up, wearing his signature cowboy hat with the pheasant-feather hatband, a crowd was waiting to meet the man whose face and career have been synonymous with Steamboat Ski Resort for 30 years. Some were serious skiers, hoping for a moment of enlightenment. Others were fans, there to gawk and shake his hand. But few could resist Billy's high-energy and confidence. After the final ski-along back to the base area, even skeptics were convinced that sliding on snow was as natural as walking.
When Billy gave up racing and decided to put down roots, this area's so-called "champagne powder" — the resort has patented the phrase — was one of the reasons that he hitched his star to Steamboat Ski Resort. If there's a flurry within 100 miles of here, it seems to find its way to the Park Range, on the westernmost slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The snowfall is so predictable, in fact, that climatologists come to study how those featherlike flakes are formed...
 "Summer Surprises in Steamboat" What you might not expect is an abundance of arts events, dining options and family activities worthy of a town five times the size. In a single day, you could zoom down an alpine slide, fly fish, soak in hot springs, sip wine at an art walk and catch an opera. OK, maybe you’d want to spread that over a weekend. You don’t want to rush your horse.
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