I had heard about a backcountry waterfall near the town of New Denver, so decided to check it out.
When it was black helicopter country in the mid-1990s, I sometimes thought the scariest part of any backcountry trip was in town, mixing it up with the locals.
A reported tornado took central Connecticut and Westchester County by surprise on Wednesday afternoon, appearing suddenly over the Hudson River and carving a narrow path of destruction through backcountry Greenwich and several towns in Westchester.
This journey can easily be done in seven days and is for all those adventurous ski tourists who prefer the backcountry of small, quiet towns to packed gondolas in identikit alpine resorts.
As a plan B, the 52,000-square-foot building, which sits on 17 acres in a prime location of town known as "backcountry Greenwich" was used by the town for everything from voting machine storage to emergency medical service space.
All the things forecasters are talking about in avalanche reports — naturally occurring cracking, collapsing, "whoompfing" and the avalanching of the snowpack under the weight of skiers or riders — were evident during a recent backcountry ski tour above the town of Independence, east of Aspen.
The next day I called in at Moore Town, another Maroon community buried in the backcountry, where Colonel Stirling got me cooking up a one-pot wonder he called "packassah", a stew of cassava dumpling, pumpkin beans and plantain in coconut sauce.
Durango is an off-the-beaten-path city of nearly 17,000 people, many of whom moved there specifically to seek out a simplified mountain town lifestyle – fresh air, clean rivers, unlocked doors, backcountry and wilderness access and abundant recreation opportunities from skiing and mountain biking to backpacking and kayaking.
Plus, there's something unquestionably enjoyable about any trip that takes you through gorgeous wildflower-strewn Alpine backcountry by day and a series of charming European mountain towns by evening.
More than one great divide looms over the trails for mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding and backcountry skiing in the vast, beautiful vertical landscape surrounding this popular resort town.
8) Backcountry Skiing At nearly 10,000 feet, Rabbit Ears Pass (14 miles east out of town along Highway 40) offers an ideal introduction to the area's backcountry.
