Three fall days in Vail, Colorado

Angela Pierce and a llama named Stubby make their way through a meadow during a hike with Paragon Guides. Pam LeBlanc photo

One minute I’m grooving to the swirling sounds of bluegrass music and the next I’m tromping through an aspen forest, a fluffy llama with ears the size of bananas bouncing along behind me.  

Before I’ve departed Vail Valley, I’ve also dipped crusty bread into a pot of cheese fondue, nodded off and possibly drooled during a spa treatment at a fancy hotel, and hiked up the front of Vail Mountain. 

As much as I love skiing, this trip reminded me that there’s a lot more to Vail, built in the 1960s to resemble a European village, than strapping a pair of boards to your feet and zooming down a snow-covered mountain (although I love that too.) 

Here are the highlights of my three days in Vail…  

FreeFall Bluegrass Festival 

Music lovers enjoy the FreeFall Blluegrass Festival in Vail, Colorado. Pam LeBlanc photo

I love jamming to live music, but I’ve never enjoyed the crowds, chaos and dusty sweat of giant music festivals.  

So, while a couple hundred thousand people in Austin swayed to Chappell Roan at ACL Fest, I bobbed to the strains of banjos and fiddles on the front row of the FreeFall Bluegrass Festival in Vail.  

The festival – and its counterpart, the SpringFree Bluegrass Festival held in Vail in May – are part of Vail’s effort to bring in visitors during the slower shoulder seasons. The festival draws top talent – this year’s lineup included the Sam Bush Band, Nicki Bluhm and Andy Hall – plus an array of vendors peddling hats, bags and other artsy things. 

Admission is free, and bands play on a main stage set up in the middle of Vail Village and a smaller side stage alongside Gore Creek. There’s plenty of room to shut your eyes, lean your head back and twirl to your tie-dyed skirt and halter top’s content.  

Stephen Mougin of the Sam Bush Band performs at the FreeFall Bluegrass Festival in Vail, Colorado. Pam LeBlanc pho9to

By the way, it’s legal to possess up to 1 ounce of weed in Colorado, but you can’t consume it on federal land or in public spaces or parks in Vail. 

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Hiking with a Llama 

Llamas make great hiking companions. 

I took a break from the music and spent a blissful half day leading a 250-pound camelid named Ringo five miles up a trail outside the old mining town of Minturn.  

The chocolate- and cream-colored llama carried my spare camera lenses, rain jacket and a picnic lunch of sandwiches, strawberries and tiramisu in a saddlebag and never once complained. (He did, however, hum loudly and emitted some terrifically awful breath.) 

Paragon Guides offers a “Take a Llama to Lunch” outing with curbside pickup from hotels in Vail. “They’re super engaging, curious, and great with people and dogs,” tour guide Eric Gallagher told me about the fuzzy critters.  

Andean people traditionally used llamas as pack animals, and they can easily carry about 80 pounds. That makes them useful for anyone with a wonky knee or cranky back who can’t carry a heavy load themself. 

The hike led us along Cross Creek and up into fields of sage, groves of aspen and open meadows. We spread out blankets and took in the view as we ate lunch atop a rocky outcropping.  

Starting at about $600 for two people, transportation, lunch and llamas included, the experience doesn’t come cheap. After all, this is Vail.  

A spa treatment worth drooling over

The closest I’ve ever come to an enzymatic body peeling treatment occurred a few months ago, when a squall blew up while I was camping along the Snake River in Idaho and Mother Nature flung more than a few fistfuls of sand in my face.  

Unlike that experience, the peel I got at the Four Seasons Spa Vail left my skin feeling like velvet. And that was just part of the 110-minute Sensory Experience Body Massage I got. It made me drool. 

Fine Dining 

For me, a day without cheese is like a day without sunshine.  

That’s why I beelined for longtime favorite Alpenrose, which opened in Vail in1974. There, I started my dinner by dipping chunks of bread into a pot of gooey German “queso.” The menu features other traditional dishes like rosti, spicy beef stew and bratwurst. The venue is cozy and charming, and the old fashioned cocktail is topped with a tiny cow on the end of a toothpick. 

Also worth a visit? Mountain Standard for wood-fired cuisine like roast chicken, and Sweet Basil, where an appetizer called whipped feta is served inside a crusty bubble-shaped cracker. (Pro tip: Order the tenderloin with tiger prawn relleno.) 

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Stretching my legs 

A grove of aspens shows off its fall colors in Vail, Colorado. Pam LeBlanc photo

Two mornings I ventured up onto Vail Mountain, following parts of Strawberry Lane and the Berrypicker Trail.  

Then I detoured over to the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, an outdoor space for touring performances, and the adjacent Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, the highest botanical garden in the United States. Trails wind through the gardens, which feature Rocky Mountain native species like larkspur, blue lupine and yarrow.