Doctor’s Order: Get High!

Another perfect ski-day! Perhaps the best day of Spring skiing yet. The sky was a brilliant Colorado blue, and there was no wind.

With three days left before the close of the Eldora ski area, it’s time to head for the hills one last time. Which runs to ski? They’re all good, however, today the groomer’s choice was Windmill and Corona.

If you need nearly new skis, there is also a year-end demo ski sale going on, however, I didn’t take time to look today. I was too busy skiing. I’m going back for one more day, then calling it a wrap. I’m a midweek skier, so my pass ends Friday. Smart skiers, of course, will ride the lifts all the way to the close at the end of Sunday.

What happens when the ski lifts close for the winter? Last Spring, while hiking the melting Eldora ski trails, I spotted a female moose. It’s the first moose I’ve sighted in Colorado. Friends who live in Eldora called the next day to tell me that she had wandered downhill, close to their mountain village, and was nibbling Spring greens at the edge of a small pond.

What else is wild just west of Boulder? Well, at the top of Flagstaff Road, last weekend, I spotted a small herd of elk on a south-facing hill. Deer were hanging out across the valley following the melting snow toward Gross Reservoir.

Until the gate closes at Eldora, however, the best place to get high is on their well-groomed ski slopes. The view is the best, up top, too. And if you make it downhill to the Katmandu restaurant in Nederland before 3 pm, before their lunch buffet ends, you’ll score a double win.