Episode 8: Crested Butte, 2025
Spring Break in Crested Butte, Colorado has become a tradition for our family. We used to go up there whenever we could, which was not very often when the kids were young. Then we went a few times for New Years, which while fun was also inordinately crowded (both the mountain, and the town). When the boys were old enough to truly complain about having to spend every day of all of their Spring Breaks sitting in my husband’s office, we decided to try out Crested Butte for that time off. We were concerned that, with how busy New Years was, Spring Break would be even more overrun. But, when we tried it for the first time two years ago, the crowds were reasonable. So, we decided to make it a thing.
Our arrivals follow the same general plan. We Ubered to the airport, and arrived in Gunnison, CO at around lunch time. We made a stop at the grocery store on the way to Crested Butte, to provision for the week; and then made a stop at Mountain Spirits, who has a better selection than the other liquor stores, as we rolled into town. Last, we finished off the day with takeout Teocalli Tamale www.teocallitamale.com
On our first full day, we woke up leisurely and ate a big breakfast. Then, we drove out to the horse stables by Snodgrass to take the kids sledding. We heard it was a great hill. And it was, if you’re ok with you/your kids rocketing down a steep slope at breakneck speed and then losing control and flipping repeatedly until the soft snow stopped all momentum. I’m serious about this. Tyson broke a sled on his first run. Michael thought it was hilarious. Henry thought it looked fun until it was his turn. We did find a hill very close by that was much more manageable, so we meandered over there and had a nice, long, exhausting sledding day.
The next five days were devoted to skiing. The kids were in ski school for the first three days, so Michael and I hit up a lot of our favorites (Double Top, North Face, Headwall, Peel, and Twister, among many others). On our last kid-free ski day, we met up with a long time friend (Nick) and his two oldest kids who got into town, and did some steep runs and a little Apres-ski. On the last two ski days, we spent the whole time skiing with the boys. Look, I enjoy it. I really do. Time with the kids is always a blessing. But, most of the time, it’s my husband and I pushing the kids to do something that is on the edge of their abilities; which is always accompanied by raucous complaints and irritation from the two of them; which is then (much, much later) followed by excessive bragging about the hard runs they did. So, in the end I know they’re happy we push them, but it’s a slog to get through.
In between all of that actual skiing, Michael and I did something that we’ve done the last couple of years. There is a clump of aspen and pine trees, located somewhere between some moderately difficult runs called Hard Rocks and Peel, in traverse that I’ll abbreviate as NFC, to keep from offending anyone. A few years ago, we found a somewhat alone, tall, perfectly shaped pair of pine trees in the middle of all of those aspens. We had just gone to Crested Butte’s Mardi Gras parade, and thought it would be fun to put the Mardi Gras beads we’d caught in those pine tree. Even though we thought we had a lot of beads, you could barely tell. So, we decided we’d come back every year to add more beads. This year, we packed up my husband’s backpack with beads, and on a couple days went to “our tree” to hurl them into the branches. We think that, in another 10 years, someone might accidentally run across our pine tree, and notice how decorated it is!
Crested Butte meals might be my favorite part of each trip. This year, we tried a new restaurant for us called Thai Smiles, which we all enjoyed. The Massaman curry, pad thai, drunken noodles, and green papaya salad were all tasty. And, beginner tip, even in Crested Butte, if you say “hot” in a Thai restaurant, it will be very, very, very hot. We also gave Jose’s a try. Jose’s is a mountain village restaurant that is usually a party at the end of every ski day. But it really wasn’t very good. I guess that’s what we get for being from Texas and having Mexican food expectations!
Other dinners were our general favorites, sometimes with and sometimes without kids: Breadery (excellent sourdough with honey butter, as well as lamb ragu and various flatbreads), Soupcon (it has gone back to its glory days of a-la-carte dining, and we loved our caviar, elk tenderloin, and veal cheeks), takeout Secret Stash pizza at home, and Sunflower (our never miss, always delish, favorite dinner spot, which this year included an excellent squash dish, scallops, beef, and a pot du crème and olive oil cake for dessert).
All in all, it was another well-worth-it escape to our favorite mountain town, and we’re looking forward to Spring time next year.