In this episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast, Spencer and Seth chat about the man behind a quirky Crested Butte happening, our favorite spring skiing spots, the best towns for weekend getaways, a couple upcoming events, & more.
[00:00:08] Welcome to the OutThere Colorado Podcast. I'm Spencer McKee, here with Seth Foster. Present and accounted for. And once again, we've got all sorts of Colorado topics to discuss today. What have you been up to lately, Seth? Let's see. Over the weekend, I went to a great concert. What concert is that? At the Little Black Sheep here in Colorado Springs. Oh, nice. That's a classic, classic spot. Where I wouldn't expect to find someone.
[00:00:38] With such fame blowing up everywhere and selling out much bigger places, like 10 times bigger places, like Mission Ballroom. Yeah, people always overlook Black Sheep. They do get some big names in it. They probably have a capacity of 300 people. It's been around for several decades now. Big names such as MJ Lenderman. That's who I saw. MJ Lenderman. Yeah, he's getting big time. It felt like being on the ground floor of a great ascension underway. You know what I mean?
[00:01:07] Yeah. I was getting Jeff Tweedy vibes. I was getting Kurt Cobain vibes. Really? Scheduled for Mission Ballroom up in Denver. That's a big venue. Yeah. I bet he sold it out. Here in September. So yeah, $60 tickets. Dude, Black Sheep, they pull in some good names. I saw Red Jump Seat Hepatitis there. Oh, did you? I don't know if that's the... I saw Deer Tick Day, but I saw... Who else did I see?
[00:01:32] Brian Jonestown Massacre was the last one I saw. Oh, really? Yeah. Every time I die, I've seen them there. Real Big Fish, the ska band. Okay. That was a good show. Yeah, you gotta keep your head on a swivel. They bring good ones in. Tech Nine was there recently. I didn't go to that show. I think I saw... You gotta double check me, but I think I saw a poster for Soldier Boy go in there. Oh, there you go. That makes sense. That could be fun. Double check me on that, people. I saw a poster suggesting that. I don't know if that was a cover or not. There's a lot of cover stuff. There's a Shrek rave gonna be happening there pretty soon.
[00:02:01] Dude, the Shrek rave's very popular. I've never been to one. I don't know what that consists of, necessarily. I guess you dress up like Shrek and listen to the soundtrack. I pretty much look like Shrek all the time, so I try to be able to walk in. Dude, that soundtrack from the first Shrek movie, pretty great. Some body. Yeah, can't beat that. And then I watched the Oscars. Oh, yeah. Oscars, yeah. Had some Colorado representation in the Oscars. I don't know who they are. I just saw a headline that they would have signed a Colorado representation.
[00:02:29] Well, the director of what probably what some would say should have been the best movie. The guy... What is it? Corbet, who did The Brutalist. Oh, really? What's our producer? Brady Corbet, that's right. Yeah, he grew up in Glenwood Springs. Oh, really? Dang. Glenwood Springs. Not a big town. Probably not a lot of film production going on in that area. Yeah. Yeah, so then... Yeah.
[00:03:00] I wanted more music performances. Yeah. I thought it kind of dragged without... Don't every year they do the original... Every original song gets performed? Yeah, I think so. That didn't happen last night. I don't follow the Oscars too much. Spare yourself. I was sore from Topgolf on Friday, like the rest of the weekend. Not a golfer. Wow. Swinging hard? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was trying to be the girlfriend, so... Had to...
[00:03:28] Had to really show off. And yeah, I was pretty sore the rest of the weekend. Apparently golfing is not something my body is meant to do. Yeah, your muscles aren't ready for Topgolfing. Yeah, not at all. Not at all. All right. But either way, fun weekend. Yeah. We got some fun stuff to talk about too. Beautiful weather. I hope it continues. Man, and the beautiful weather reminded me of spring skiing, right?
[00:03:54] Like, we're at this time of the year where it's kind of like fake spring, where beautiful weather, but meanwhile, like, between Tuesday and Wednesday, I think up to 24 inches of snow could land a monument. So, kind of back and forth a lot, but those warmer temperatures make the roads a little bit more tolerable this time for these big storms rolling through. Yeah. Yeah, man. Spring skiing. And it's just the party. Spring is my favorite time. It's the party. Blue skies. Oh, yeah. Splash, you know, pond skims.
[00:04:23] It's not like the bitter wind chills. Yeah. You're not like in like 10 degree weather trying to stay warm. Yeah. Very well might see some shorts and t-shirts out there on the slopes. It is. I recently wrote something like, skiing is a winter sport, they say. Us in Colorado know better. Oh, yeah. That's a perfect deadline. I love it. I love it. Yeah, because it is awesome. One time I just, one time I forgot my ski pants when I was going up to Breck, and there's a photo of me up on the top of the Whale's Tail Ridge.
[00:04:51] Yeah, Whale's Tail Ridge with shorts on. And it was a great day. It does the trick. Honestly, you're moving, you know, if there's not wind, like, shorts aren't bad, but you do get extremely sunburned. Yeah. Extremely sunburned. So, there's our first, yeah. Yeah, something like every 4, or every 1,000 feet you increase in elevation, the sun's, like, 4% stronger or something like that. Is that right? It's something like that. And, yeah, it definitely shows.
[00:05:18] Plus, you get all the snow reflecting on my little tiny kneecaps going down the mountain. Yeah. I know. They were scorched. I was uncomfortable for about a week after that. Yeah. But, yeah, you got a pretty... There's a cost to these things. Speaking of spring skiing, though, you know, we're in March. You got a pretty interesting story coming up about an Al Johnson, which I would venture to say a lot of the people listening might not know who Al Johnson is. The Al Johnson... What's the official name? Make sure I get this right.
[00:05:50] The Al Johnson Memorial Telemark race celebrated 50 years last year. Taking place in Crested View. In Crested View. Yep. Very much captures what Crested View is all about. No doubt about it. And, yeah, I'm in the process of writing this thing right now, but I wrote... I called it what might just be Colorado's craziest, quirkiest, cultish ski race. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting.
[00:06:14] The Al Johnson, which honors a mail carrier by the same name back in the late 1800s. He was known to ski across the mountains. Those are some serious mountains, as you know. Oh, my gosh. Back in the winter on his skis delivering the mail, right? With no avalanche information. Well, yeah. Yeah, and there's this funny story, apparently, about him specifically going through Crystal Canyon,
[00:06:42] which I guess is around Crystal, right? We all know Crystal. But that he would famously declare that when he'd get to the canyon, he'd just shoot down as fast as possible to avoid avalanche. Yeah. That's like all we know about. That's one strategy. Where the avalanche mitigation might have looked like back then. Go fast, right? He is the mitigation. So speed is part of the game of the race today, right?
[00:07:12] Emphasis on part of the game. So it goes up 600 plus. 600 plus vertical. 600 plus vertical. And then you shoot down what's known as the last steep, right? On the north face there. Yeah. Just shooting down at Crystal Butte. Serious, fast, double black diamond terrain. And here we have people who very well might be on telemark skis for the first time, right? So that's the other very important part of the Al Johnson. Or the AJ, as people call it locally.
[00:07:42] Got to be on telemark skis, right? So these skis of a bygone era. Yeah. With a free heel, right? Don't you dare show up in alpine touring, you know, the new stuff of today. Not allowed. Yeah. When you see people in those skis on the mountain, it's like impossible not to notice them. It looks beautiful when they ski on those. And you see a good skier on telemark skis. Yeah. So it doesn't always look beautiful at the Al Johnson because the third part of the Al Johnson,
[00:08:10] if that's where we're at, the third part, is the costumes. You need to be in a costume. And the costumes are more serious than the speed. That's more important. You know, the award ceremony is more about group costumes and individual costumes. Oh, yeah. Here you go. First place time gets a $500 Helly Hansen gift code. And the winner of the costume contest gets a $300 gift code. So there is some priority on the costumes there. How fast does it take people to do this? Do you have any clue? I have not looked at what, like, the winning speeds are.
[00:08:39] But again, it's about the costumes, man. Yeah. So, like, examples of the costumes are groups will show up, like, as cars. There's always a group that does a difference. So, like, a Batmobile or the Mystery Machine, right? They go as a group. Other group ones are, like, a Chinese dragon. That's always a classic sight. You know? And just imagine on this crazy steep, rocky terrain, like, cars just bumping around in there. And, like, dragons, like, trying, you know, wobbling down. You know?
[00:09:08] You're counting on four or five skiers to, you know, stay up on their feet, right? That is awesome. There's another award for Best Crash, which has typically been a bottle of whiskey. Yeah. It's a fitting reward. Other examples of costumes, I was talking to some of the organizers that, you know, ones that came to mind. So, like, a spawning salmon. One of them mentioned another group thing where, you know, the offspring is shooting off the fish.
[00:09:36] Another group came as, like, separate Tetris pieces that all came together. That's a good one. That's a good one. And then there was, like, a pretty elaborate, I couldn't quite picture it, but, like, an elaborate praying mantis that was playing with its skis and its sticks, you know, to mimic the praying mantis. It's a terrifying animal. And then another one was a nine-foot, ready for this one, kids, I hope you're not listening. There was a nine-foot take on Al's Johnson as well. Ah, I see. Yeah.
[00:10:03] We can not go into the description on that one. Yeah. You can use your own imagination on what a nine-foot take of Al's Johnson was. Well, and I think, I mean, the costume aspect of that just captures that spring skiing atmosphere. And as a quick disclaimer, the gift code line that I said from earlier, now I'm saying that was from two years ago. So, I don't know what the, I do not know what the gifts are. Things are changing. Some sort of gift. Things are changing.
[00:10:29] So, they did 50 years last year, and this is kind of the crux of the story I'm working on is that organization is changing. So, it's a new nonprofit taking it over. The Alpineer shop there in town for better, you know, for this century anyway, has been on kind of the front of those awards and sponsoring. And they're taking kind of a lesser role this year. Kind of just one of those things, just time and effort and money involved, you know.
[00:10:58] And it's one of the traditions like these change hands, and that's what's happening this year. But there is a lot of concern about, you know, that this tradition can last into the future. Oh, I have a hard time believing it can't. I know. That sounds like a great tradition. I know. That's like spring skiing in Colorado. But there are people adamant on it being a telemark ski race. I mean, the most, you know, outspoken, you know, people in town, people who've been
[00:11:24] on this organization front, the racers, all insist it has to be a telemark ski race. And if you take out the telemarking, then you take out the soul of the race, and it might as well just perish. Right? I would say I agree with them. That's part of it. Right? Yeah. Another part of it is just, again, kind of that time and effort and money, which sounds common across all traditions, you know. You know, people stepping up and taking up the torch. So, yeah. I have a hard time believing you want to just have locals keep, even if they cancel it, I
[00:11:54] feel like it'll change in some way. Locals will just keep doing it. Yeah. It's one of those things where it's like. Yeah. You're probably right. Just like the ski gangs in Aspen. Yeah. Yeah. It's less prominent, but they're still out there. Right? Yeah. We chatted a little bit about ski gangs, right? Yeah. Have we? I did that last year? I don't know if we did on podcast. That was pretty interesting. Yeah. I got to go back and read up on that. Yeah. But I did that. I think I did that story last winter. Maybe next week we'll get into that a little bit. Good little teaser. We always drop a little teaser in here. Yeah. I'm going to write it on my notes.
[00:12:22] So the Al Johnson is set for, double check, I think March 16th. I think 50 bucks to enter it. And again, the party is worth showing up alone. Yeah. Right. It feels like that's the main draw. It's got to be. If the race, the cost of, you know, being blind in a Chewbacca mask while going down the last steep, if that doesn't, you know, catch your fancy, then just, yeah, go get a beer and look at people at Butte 66. Well, there we go. The party afterward, yeah.
[00:12:52] We're getting into that time of the year where we have a ton of these little spring skiing events. You know, official and unofficial events popping up. Yep. And like we were saying, spring skiing in Colorado, that's always been my favorite time to hit the slopes. Like undoubtedly my favorite time to hit the slopes. Snow's good. The weather's good. Less tourists. Yeah. Less tourism. Yeah. Less, you know, just less, kind of a less tense atmosphere it feels like. And the corn is just, there's something about the corn, man.
[00:13:21] The way the turns, you know, that crunch, the carving is just different, man. Man, my favorite place to go to for spring skiing has always been Arapahoe Basin, I will say. And, I mean, obviously they go late, almost summer skiing at some points, you know. But the beach, we used to do a little scavenger hunt every year where we'd meet up at the beach and have a list of things to do.
[00:13:45] And to go around and, you know, more about the beach atmosphere than it was actually skiing. But, yeah, and then also just the lake reveal, man. Up there being able to hit that pond. I mean, that's late season, you know, like a week before close, two weeks before close or so. Yeah. Just kind of one of those unofficial pond skimming events where it's like, you know, there's no like entry fee or anything like that. You just, you're coming down the mountain, there's water in front of you and you just got to zip across it.
[00:14:15] Yeah. And or just stand there and with the other dozens of people watching people wipe out all day, which is also pretty amusing. We always have a photographer go because it's irresistible. Oh, yeah. Photography, you know. Oh, and it's always so sad. Like, you know, the lake reveal is probably what, like three feet deep, two to three feet deep, you know. Like, it's not that deep. Right. But snowboarders, when they go across and they can't, you can't just step on your skis and step out of them. Right.
[00:14:43] You know, you're latched in, so you got to go under the water and just seeing them, you know, lose that steam. They get like halfway across the, you know, 50, 60 foot stretch. Just lose that steam and just slowly, you know, putter out and just whoop, straight down. Yep. Yeah. And diving under that cold water in your skis. I've done it twice. I've never done it, man. Maybe three or four times, I guess. I'm thinking about it, but never graceful. I've never, never been graceful. It's always like, it gets so slushy right before you get in the pond.
[00:15:12] That's the thing that you don't really know. Right. Or, and people will tell you, but you don't really like, I mean, it just, it changes so much year to year too, that like, you never really know what to expect until you hit it that first time. And you lose all your speed. It's like, you can be blasting down onto that pond at, you know, 40, 50 miles per hour. And the second you hit that slush, you almost get like, it's like slamming on the brakes in a car where your body goes forward. Yep.
[00:15:36] So you're trying to balance how much speed you can take going in while you also got to slam on the brakes there. The art of pond skimming. I'm hearing, I'm hearing a nice little piece of content here, man. Oh yeah, man. The art of pond skimming. Not good at it, but I'm a fan. A lot of other spots are doing that now too. Like I think Copper does a pond skimming thing. I got a list. Crested Butte, April 5th is set for their pond skim. Winter Park, pretty much all of April does their spring bash and splash.
[00:16:07] So that's four weekends of music, costume parties, right? Games and then the ski splashdown. Aspen Snowmass is doing an elk camp surf and snow beach party. Copper, you mentioned. Sensation, they call their end of season celebration. That's the last weekend of April, it looks like. And then Breck, also last weekend of April, is doing their big bash, including the pond skim. Well, there we go.
[00:16:36] Well, hey, participate. Do it responsibly. Hope you made some notes. There was a story. Oh gosh, this was probably like four or five years ago at this point, maybe. But I forget what resort it was and forget the outcome of the case. But essentially what happened was a dude was going down in the pond skim. Sometimes his resorts build little ramps, you know, where you can do a trick. And allegedly the guy thought it would be fun to jump over a crowd of people. Oh boy.
[00:17:02] Allegedly, I believe at the time there was talk about intoxication being a possible factor. Always a possible factor. Didn't make it over the crowd without hitting people as far as I remember. Yeah. So do it responsibly. Not cool. The water will still hurt in some cases if you wipe out. But yeah, I need to go back and see what the outcome of that whole situation was. But either way, yeah, spring skiing in Colorado. It's just like one of those times where you can go up and get like two laps in.
[00:17:33] Especially if you got your pass, you know, you've used it throughout the year. You've already got your value. You can just go up and hang out. I've always wanted to go check the scene at Telluride. What do they call it? Garano Ranch or something like that? Yeah. What they call kind of their beachy. Yeah. Tellurandock chairs, you know. And I would imagine, too, Telluride is probably one of those spots where, you know, it's pretty remote. You don't get a lot of the traffic from Coloradans necessarily. So once that tourism traffic drops off near the end of the season, I bet they – Town can feel.
[00:18:02] I bet that's a cool vibe. A lot of local vibe, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I need to get up there and make sure I get to at least the Rambo Basin once this year. I think I read there were still tickets around for Telluride Bluegrass. Are there really? A rare occasion of it. Yeah, that usually sells out very quickly. Again, I hope I'm not leading people astray. I just read a headline not too long ago. Yeah, Telluride, known for all their summer festivals. Right. I'm sure when that headline dropped, the tickets sold out.
[00:18:32] Yeah, probably right. Seriously, the headline was something like, there are somehow still tickets available for Telluride Bluegrass. They also do blues and brews, right? Yeah, good point. And they are two different things in different times of the year. Yeah. And is Bluegrass the most famous? Yeah, I think Bluegrass is most famous. Blues and brews is in September. Okay. I've always wanted to go to the Film Fest, too. Oh. Oh, yeah. The Horror Film Fest? Because there's also that.
[00:19:01] They do like a... They do? Yeah. In October, it's like a pretty... Oh, maybe I didn't know about that. Pretty famous event. Yeah. But no, I think the more famous one is, I mean, they bring in like serious, you know, where those audiences are sometimes the first to see some of the Oscar contenders. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard good things about that one, too. Yeah. Wouldn't that be crazy if Ken came to, or what is it, Sundance trying to come to Boulder? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Boulder? Yeah. You heard about that? Yeah. Didn't. Wait, Sundance was in Boulder last year, right? No, no, no.
[00:19:31] It's always in Utah. It's always been in Utah. What was the one that was in... Are they moving it to Boulder? Is that the talk? There's talk about it potentially moving there. Either staying in Utah, or I think I saw Cincinnati was on the short list. Nice. Shout out to Skyline Chili. Yeah. I'm going to a wedding next month. I'm going to try it for the first time. Yeah. Sundance Film Festival. Here we go. From February, from Colorado Public Radio. Three-way race between Boulder, Cincinnati, and Park City.
[00:20:01] Yep. So it still stands there. Dang. That'd be big for Boulder. Be big for Boulder. Would be big time for Boulder. Yeah. Hey, I'd like... I always like to see stuff come to Colorado, so we'll see. Boulder would be a seemingly appropriate home. But what do I know? Good for a weekend getaway, which is the perfect segue into another topic I have here on my list to chat about today. Seth, what's your weekend getaway town?
[00:20:31] And we're not talking like going and... We're staying? Yeah, you're staying and you're enjoying the town. You're not just using the town to access trails and stuff. You can go to trails. But a place that also has the food and everything that you want as well. So we're talking like a weekend. Yeah, a weekend getaway. Friday to Sunday. Not too long ago, I got assigned like a 48 hours in Colorado. Yeah, one of those itinerary style pieces.
[00:21:00] And I picked Glenwood. Glenwood Springs. Why'd you pick Glenwood? Just because there is a lot of that. Like you were saying. Not, you know, trails, outdoor stuff. But also just like good food. I'm always like pleasantly surprised by good food I get there. They got a weird number of like attractions too. Yeah, like the Hot Springs. Yeah, Hot Springs. The amusement park. The shop. I love like the downtown.
[00:21:29] Just popping into the shops there. All around downtown. Yeah. You can also raft in the summer. That's pretty cool. You can hit the Sunlight Mountain Resort or Mountain Ski area. Yep. Little ski area there. Yeah, in the winter. Doc Holliday's grave. Oh, yeah. There's like a little dinner theater there that I've always wanted to go to. Oh, that's cool. I've always wanted to do the vapor caves. Yeah. That's something where. Yeah. Because I've said it before on here, but I love Iron Mountain Hot Springs. Probably one of my favorite hot spring experiences in the state. Right there with you. Yeah.
[00:21:58] Yeah, just watching that sunset over the river from. Right on the river. Yeah. And it's expanded in recent years. Yeah. We're an adult only area. Yeah. Which honestly, I mean, wasn't really an issue there before I did. I agree. It was pretty chill. The kids keep it quiet. Yeah. Which is, you know, as an adult, that's what I'm looking for in a hot spring experience. Shut your yappers. The adults all is nice. Yeah. Yeah. No offense to the fence. It's like 20 new pools or something like that, man. Dang. And the. They're riverside too, right? That's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah.
[00:22:27] I feel like the unique thing was, because like, you know, like the main area that has always been there. It seems like there's pools that are more backed up away from the river. And there's such a high demand for the ones up toward the river. Right. Overlooking the river. Yeah. And I think these are pretty much all overlooking. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a couple years. I need. Or a few years for me, really. I need to get back up there. Also, I like the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, we did the little, I believe they're the fairy caves. Yeah. Cave tour there. Cave tour up there. Which is, you know, it's kind of cool.
[00:22:56] You get the gondola ride. Super scenic. Yep. They have an alpine coaster. They got a world's highest roller coaster or something like that there. Which I hate roller coasters. I do too. Always hate roller coasters, but had to do that. Cave tours are cool though, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, the roller coaster is fun. I would, I don't know if I'd do it again, just because I hate roller coasters. But it was a good time. And you're in, like, with Glenwood, you're kind of in a good spot to where you can, you
[00:23:23] know, go do, hit I-70 for some cool other stuff, like, during the day. You can pop over to Aspen. Yeah. You can go spend your afternoon in Aspen. Yeah. Aspen. You got Hanging Lake right there, too. Right up the road, up the canyon. You can go. You got Rifle. Rifle Falls. I was about to say. Rifle Falls. Go hit an afternoon at Rifle Falls. Yeah. Rifle Gap State Park, too. Isn't that a little water destination? A reservoir around there. Yeah. There is a lot to do. How far is, like, Bale from Glenwood? How far do you got to go up? Probably, like, 45 minutes, I guess.
[00:23:51] So there, again, you know, I mean, there's an option, you know, on the other side of I-25 where we do an afternoon. So it's just kind of a nice- 54 minutes. Just kind of a nice, there you go. Depending on how fast you're going, I-70. What's that good barbecue place that's in Glenwood Springs? Smoke. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, I like that. And it's right next door. Isn't it right next door to the brewery there? Casey Brewing? Is that ringing a bell? That's pretty good beer. It's either right there or close to there. Right around there. Yeah. That's good beer. Yeah. Ooh. Okay.
[00:24:20] Yeah, I think, honestly, I think you probably picked the best. Sweet Colorado. Probably the best donut I've had in- Oh, yeah. Spelled with Colorado. Dough. Yeah. In Colorado. What about you, man? Oh, dude, it's hard to- Now that we're thinking about Glenwood Springs, I'm like, dang, they got a ski hill, hot springs, amusement park. Pretty much every- Quick Access. That's a good answer. That's a good answer for a weekend getaway. Oh, man. I was- I'm going to go to Salida. Yeah. Like, that's- Yeah. That's another one of those where, like, I think one of the best little weekend trips
[00:24:48] I ever had was just renting an Airbnb somewhere down there in that, like, main downtown area of Salida and just kind of- Yeah. You know, putzing around and going to different food places. I think we got a little hike in here or there. Yeah, dude, that was sweet. There's so much good food in Salida. Such as? Proportionally for how many people live there. Well, I mean, I always- The pizza joint you love, right? Moonlight Pizza Place. It's like a brewery pub- Yeah. Style thing. There's also the sandwiches in Salida. There's like a-
[00:25:17] Which I'm going to have to get- I'm going to Google on this to get the names right, but- The sandwich place? Sweeties. Sweeties. Sweeties. Sweeties. But then there's also Amicus Sandwich Place. So it's like a little- Is that a sandwich place? Yeah, it's like a little rivalry in a sense. Okay. Well, and I think Amicus actually is- Or is it pizza? And they have sandwiches. Okay. I was going to say- It might be that where they have sandwiches. Don't quote me on this, but yeah. Good. Amicus, though, another spot with great food.
[00:25:46] Yeah, Sweeties Sandwich Shop, also very good. Yeah. You're right by the river. That's kind of nice and relaxing. You can kind of walk around there. If you want to head up to Monarch Mountain, there's that big gondola up there, which you can do in the summer. I haven't done that yet. A little scenic gondola. I think it's the- Newish. Monarch Tramway is what they call it. Also, Monarch Crest Trail if you're a mountain biker. Mm-hmm. You got portions of the Colorado Trail that go through that area. Well, then right downtown there. You can just literally walk up S Mountain.
[00:26:16] Yeah. Yeah. S Mountain. Yeah. I love that. Cool art scene, too, apparently. I've never taken advantage of that, but I've been told there's a really cool art scene in Salida. I think they still have like a circus or something. Salida Circus. Yeah. I did a story on the Salida Circus. I did a story last year on Box of Bubbles. There's a funky little building on the edge of downtown, and it just serves as like an art space. You can just walk in there and see what people have been working on lately. That's cool. Just wide open, cool, funky.
[00:26:45] The guy who owns it is known to ride around town on a bicycle in like a plaid suit with a giraffe head on his head. So that kind of place, you know. Nice. Yeah. So there you go. That'd be my, that may be my pick there, I think, then. Yeah. I love that. Also, you can go raft in through Bighorn Sheep Canyon right there. Scoot up to Buena Vista. Yeah. Scoot up. Yeah. Or go to Mount Princeton Hot Springs. Yeah. There you go. Between BV and Salida. Mm-hmm. And Nathrope, I believe, right? Yep. Yeah. Or St. Elmo Ghost Town right there, too. That can't be how you pronounce it.
[00:27:15] How do you pronounce it? Nathrope? Nathrope? Nathrope? Nathrope? We found a new mispronouncement. I heard you say that. I'm like, there's no way. But maybe there is. I don't know. Just like Buena Vista. I mean, you know, you hear Buena. Yeah. Now I'm curious. There's no, what did you say? I don't know. I think I've only, Nathrope is what I said. It's, I hope, you know. For y'all listening that are not familiar, it's N-A-T-H-R-O-P. There's no E there. How would you pronounce that? Tell us. Nathrope. Let us know. Yeah.
[00:27:45] Yeah, let us know. Nathrope? Maybe we're both wrong. I don't know. We could be both wrong. Just saying. Dude, if there was an E at the end there, I'd be with you. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. All right. Well. Salida? So you like Salida. Great. Salida? Salida? I don't know. Okay. Now I'm all confused. I say Salida. That's the. Oh, it's absolutely Salida. Okay. Okay. It's absolutely Salida. Yeah. I've heard Salida before. I was joking.
[00:28:15] I was for sure joking. That's all my confidence in pronouncing Colorado names is crumbling at the moment. I haven't been up to a brewery and pizza place in BV. What am I thinking of? Ediline. Very well known. Ediline. Yeah. Ediline's great. Yeah. So BV's a good place for a weekend trip too. Right. Salida feels a little bit more low key nowadays, I would say. It does, yeah. It just gets a little bit less attention. So that's why I went with Salida. I'm sure how far off it sits from Buena Vista. And also from Leadville.
[00:28:44] I was going to say, you could mix Leadville in with that weekend for sure too. Yeah. Yeah, you could. Yeah, BV though. That's a good weekend trip. Yeah, the Ediline Brewery. That's like a staple if you're hiking the 14ers out in that range there in the Collegiate Peaks area. Yeah. Yeah. There's two different locations though for Ediline. There is. And there's one that's more dog friendly than the other. Is that right? The older one, the pub, that's more dog friendly because they have the patio out back.
[00:29:12] Meanwhile, the one that's down by the river, like there's south of- South Main. South Main. Yeah. Yeah. I've only ever been in that one, I think. Yeah. That's a cool area, but that one is less dog friendly. Got it. So if you got dogs, go to the one that's in closer to town. Also, Biggie's is out there. The sandwich place. Have you heard of Biggie's? No, I haven't. Oh, dude. These are impressive sandwiches. Good to know. I like K's. I like that drive-through there. Or, you know, kind of that old school. Yeah. Gosh, I think it goes back to the 50s or maybe even before that.
[00:29:42] Yeah. I'm pulling up- Ice cream, little burger. Yeah. Yeah. That place is good. Case. All right. I'm pulling up the Biggie's menu so that you can understand what these sandwiches are like. Mm-hmm. Um, this one is called The Stinger, and it is steak and cheese, hand-battered chicken tenders, house-made ranch, blue cheese, and then your normal toppings. But, yeah, they're all like, they're like just these massive crazy sandwiches.
[00:30:08] Uh, like this one has onion rings on it and cheese sticks on it. Um, the firecracker has mac and cheese bites, uh, chipotle ranch, chicken tenders- Goodness. Uh, Pueblo green chilies and steak and cheddar. Dear lord. It's a local's favorite, for sure. All right. Noted. That sounds crazy, man. Yeah, not- Kind of, kind of some shorter hours most days. I think it's like 11 to 7. And Sunday, it's 11 to 3. So, there have been many times where I've gone by and it's been closed and it's been very sad. But Biggie's. Okay. We're talking good sandwiches.
[00:30:38] Living up to the name, it sounds like. Biggie's is up there. Yeah. Biggie's is up there. Biggie's. Biggie's. Biggie's. All right. What else we got here? Wolves. Tell her County. Got a wolf update? Yeah, I got a quick- I got a few news headlines for y'all. Uh-huh. We always kind of end it with the bits. We seem to start or end it with the news bits. Yeah, just kind of random, keep people on their toes, never know what to expect. Half the time, it's just us rambling about our favorite things to do in Colorado, but yeah, that's fine. We inform as well. Seth, give me this is Oscar opinions. Yeah.
[00:31:08] You never know what you're going to get here. You never know. But good information. Oh, yeah. I do have a random movie shout-out here, too. Which, we'll get into that. But news headlines, wolves have continued kind of their movement south of I-70. So for the first, like, almost first year they were here, that was a big question. Are wolves ever going to cross I-70? Eventually, they did.
[00:31:34] I believe that was in, you know, like, November, October, November last year. I think the answer to that one was always yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an inevitable yes. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so they crossed down into that Lake City or Leadville area, Lake County. Yeah. And, but they've since kind of, with the recent map that was published by Colorado Parks and Wildlife last week, it's a monthly update. It shows what watershed areas wolves have been in.
[00:32:00] So just because a watershed area is in a certain county doesn't mean that wolf's been in that county. It just means that they've been detected in that watershed. Got it. Yeah. But one of the more interesting takeaways that I noticed is that one of the pockets where wolves were detected, so at least one wolf at some point over the last 30 days when this map was produced, one of the little pockets that's highlighted on the map includes Teller County, which butts up against Colorado Springs, and El Paso County.
[00:32:29] And remember El Paso County, the second, or the most populated county in Colorado. Mm-hmm. So major population area right there where this watershed where these wolves have been detected is at. Yeah. Then it also spans into Fremont County, Park County, and part of Lake County. So kind of like right south of that Fair Play area. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's kind of a significant move when wolves have really only been in the northern part of the state for this whole first year. Yeah. And then additionally, out west.
[00:32:57] So keep in mind, all these wolves were just reintroduced into that Pitkin County, which is home to Aspen, kind of in that area, and I think Eagle County too, which is home to Vail. So that was where this most recent round of annual wolf reintroductions went. So they put 15 wolves there. So the wolves are there. That's south of Aspen. They're like, or south of I-70. They're right in that Aspen area. And then it also looks like some of these wolves that were previously in the state, potentially,
[00:33:26] and they don't specify which wolves are which, but if you look at the mapping, it kind of, you can kind of see that movement down there maybe. Mm-hmm. Out by Grand Junction, which is like, they've never been that far west in any of these reports. Like, they've always kind of stopped in that rifle area. Mm-hmm. So yeah, just, and, and also south of I-70 in Grand Junction. So pretty significant movement. Also populated, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep. And I mean, I mean, matter of time until people start maybe seeing some wolves, but- Or hearing a howl.
[00:33:55] Yeah, hearing a howl. That's probably more likely. That's what I keep thinking about, man. Yeah. When will I hear a howl? Yeah. Yeah, pretty interesting to see. Yeah. I'll be curious, like, a year from now, especially after another round of potential reintroduction, how many, how many counties have kind of been touched by the wolves, so to speak? By the wolves, yeah. Yeah, and I'm curious just numbers. Like, how, how, how fast or slow they populate, like, what, you know, and reproduce. Yeah, I mean, the, the first- There's a lot of struggles with that, obviously, with, but yeah.
[00:34:23] Yeah, I think the first birth that we had with the wolf pack in Colorado, I believe they were, they were either four or five offspring. I think it was five. Okay. Okay. And then they kind of collected them during that, the more dangerous time of the year for animals and recently, or for predators and recently re-released those animals. So they're all back now. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:34:49] I mean, it feels like, I would guess we probably have about 30 wolves in the state at this moment. Something like that. Moment, yeah. They also have had some reports of uncolored wolves being spotted, so- And there's always kind of been that over the years. Yeah. You know, I mean, I remember even years before the reintroduction, you know, we'd hear a story here and there of one known to have come down from Wyoming, you know? Oh, yeah. And plenty of people saying, suggesting they saw one and kind of being unsubstantiated.
[00:35:17] So speaking of that, I had someone reach out to us via email last week. There was a reader. We had written something about a little silver fox that was spotted, which is kind of just a cool thing. I was like, hey, anyone else have a cool animal sighting? Yeah. Yeah. This guy, this gentleman sent this photo from 2015, I believe, down in the Telluride area. Mm-hmm. Clearly a wolf. Yeah. And I was like, dang, that would have been a big headline for us. You know, then. Like, if we knew it that. Yeah. In 2015. Yeah. But clearly a wolf on a rock.
[00:35:46] And like, pretty close to this wolf. Like, I think he was with his wife, he said, and they looked up and saw this thing. And him saying it's Telluride. I mean. Yeah, Telluride area. It was in the San Juan somewhere. So he said, I mean, you know, you look at the picture, you don't. That's true, too. I mean, you know. Yeah, he could be on Wikipedia saving photos of being like, ah, you know. It's important to have a suspension of belief, I guess. Yeah. Maybe I'm all too guilty of that. But, yeah. But, yes. There's, you know, I'd always.
[00:36:13] It definitely seemed like there was, you know, just rumblings here and there. Going back to the whole numbers thing. Like, it's like, I wonder how well we know. Yeah. That's true. I guess maybe that's my point. Yeah. Well, I mean, there were cases, too, where I think it was in the Idaho Springs area. I might be totally wrong on that. But I think it was like 2014, 2016 time that there was a wolf that was killed on a road. Oh, yeah. Like, it was hit and killed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that was pretty big news then. Yeah. Just confirmed because obviously there's a dead wolf. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. Pretty interesting stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:36:42] Two other quick headlines, though, that I wanted to mention because both of these things sound very fun. And first off, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, bring them back their dog days, which you're allowed to bring your dog to the zoo, which is just kind of any pet owners, you know, you might be curious, what would my dog do if it's all a giraffe? That's me. Yeah. And it's a rare, rare occasion. Yeah. And I think the ticket for the dog's like 40 bucks. A little pricey, baby. But we'll say it's worth it. The dog is $40. And then you have to have a ticket, too.
[00:37:12] And it's one dog per human handler. So there's some other rules on their website. I went once. And to be honest, it was entertaining. Yeah. It was pretty fun to see. I'd like to go do that. So when is that? So there's two dates. They're on Fridays. There's two Fridays in March, two Fridays in April. Okay. So check the website. That's fun. Yeah. It was really weird because all the dogs were like super well-behaved when I was there, which you'd expect people to maybe like still bring their dog that's well-behaved, you know? Yeah.
[00:37:41] Maybe I could be guilty of that potentially. Yeah. And I don't know. All the dogs, yeah. They seem very, very like into it. And like even the dogs I was with, like one of them definitely is kind of an excitable dog, you know, in a sense. And yeah, nothing. Like it was literally not even, like they wouldn't even look at the animals. And most of the dogs weren't. They were more, maybe more interested in the other dogs there. I was going to say. I think that'd be my dog, man. Yeah. My dog. Pretty funny. Loves people and loves dogs.
[00:38:08] I wonder if she'd love a chimpanzee or an elephant or yeah. Oh yeah. It was good. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't had the chance to do that yet. Noted. The other thing I wanted to mention was that Monarch Mountain is hosting their inaugural ski ballet classic. Oh. I think it's ski ballet on freeway or something like that. Uh huh. But it's a ski ballet competition.
[00:38:33] So most people, I mean, ski ballet has been gone for two decades probably or more. So you can go on YouTube and see what ski ballet is. But it's all these like flips and spins while you're on skis on flat terrain. I've never seen that. And they've been hosting clinics. They just hosted their last clinic to teach people how to do ski ballet over the weekend. So that was the second one of the year, I believe. So they might, maybe they'll host another one. But yeah, very cool things, you know.
[00:39:02] Also kind of shocking that I have, I don't think I've seen another resort in Colorado since I've been working without there do a ski ballet competition. I don't think I've ever heard of it, dude. But yeah, look up photos, look up videos. Don't they always do a kayak to end the season? Yeah, they go down a slope. Monarch. Yeah. Hey, Monarch Mountain. We were just talking about Salida. Very, very cool kind of locals hill. Yeah. Yeah. You got anything else today, Seth? I'm good, man. We'll talk about ski gangs of Aspen next week. Oh, yeah. All right. Along with some other stuff. We'll do that. Yeah.
[00:39:31] When is Frozen Dead Guys days? Oh, did that happen? That might be another cool thing to talk about. I did a wacky story last year on how the Frozen Dead guy himself came to Estes Park. Yeah, next week. So it's March 14th to 16th. So next week might be perfect to chat about it. Frozen Dead Guy days, to tease that one a little. This dude was cryogenically frozen in the shed in Nederland. And then Nederland. There you go again. God, Nederland.
[00:40:01] They definitely call it Ned. I know. I know. I remember that as I was going into that sentence. But that is a crazy story, and it gets a little crazier when they get them to Estes Park. It involved retired Navy SEALs. I can talk about that. There we go. All right. Sounds good. So teaser for next week, talking about Dead Guy days and talking about the ski gangs of Aspen. Cool. Deal. Yeah, awesome. Well, until next time, we will see you out there, Colorado. Yeah, see you out there. Bye. Bye.