IN THIS ISSUE

SUMMER

2023

DEPARTMENTS

7 EDITOR’S LETTER

An argument in favor of e-bikes on the trails

9 QUICK HITS

Hit Colorado’s high dirt roads; put the family in an adventure wagon; explore ghost towns; find the goods in Ridgway; and learn about our favorite new gear, tech, and book.

14

16 HOT SPOT

Jackson Hole is calling. Point the grill to the world-famous winter resort this summer to find easy-to-access fun with big kicks.

24

Features

18

FIVE COLORADO ROAD TRIPS

Hop along on our favorite fun-season excursions.

21

ROAD TRIP GEAR

It s time to hit the road in search of that perfect adventure. Here’s the gear you must have.

26

FLASHPOINT

Luis Benitez has topped Everest six times and positioned Colorado as a thought leader as the first director of the state’s Outdoor Recreation Department. Now, he has his vision set on creating a national department that would put recreation at the forefront of the national agenda.

THE ROAD

The road to nowhere always leads you to somewhere unexpected—no matter if that is the summit of a wilderness peak or the courage to rethink the way we see and define ourselves in the outdoors. By Dani Reyes-Acosta.

30

THE 2023 SUMMER PEAK GEAR AWARDS

This hardware is the real deal. We asked our core contributors to pick the gear they use the most, the gear that performs the best for them, to determine who wins these biannual awards. So, without further ado, we present the outdoor products that make our lives better.

ON THE COVER

SILVERTHORNE, COLORADO

Find your next adventure in Silverthorne. Surrounded by miles of hiking and biking trails and located next to the famed fishing waters of the Blue River, Silverthorne offers a multitude of outdoor experiences perfect for your summer in the mountains.

SILVERTHORNE.ORG

ELWAYVILLE

Peter Kray learned a lesson from each one of his beloved dogs—and they can teach us how to be better people.

Storyteller, athlete, and POW Alliance Member of the Year, Dani ReyesAcosta gets after it in the San Juans. Hear what she has to say on page 26. By Abigail LaFleur-Shaffer abigaillafleur.com Instagram @abi.lafleur

Adventure Responsibly

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN doug@elevationoutdoors.com

PRESIDENT PUBLISHER BLAKE DEMASO blake@elevationoutdoors.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

MELISSA KENNELLY m.kennelly@elevationoutdoors.com

EDITORIAL + PRODUCTION

MANAGING EDITOR CAMERON MARTINDELL cameron@elevationoutdoors.com

DEPUTY EDITOR TRACY ROSS

SENIOR EDITOR CHRIS KASSAR

COPY EDITOR MELISSA HOWSAM

EDITOR-AT-LARGE PETER KRAY

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS AARON BIBLE, ROB COPPOLILLO, LIAM DORAN, JAMES DZIEZYNSKI, HUDSON LINDENBERGER, SONYA LOONEY, CHRIS VAN LEUVEN

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

SETH BOSTER, ARIELLA NARDIZZI, RADHA MARCUM, FREDERICK REIMERS, DANI REYES-ACOSTA, KIERAN SCHNITZSPAHN

DESIGNER/ART MANAGE R REBECCA CENCEWIZKI art@blueridgeoutdoors.com

ADVERTISING + BUSINESS

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER HANNAH COOPER hannah@elevationoutdoors.com

BUSINESS MANAGER MELISSA GESSLER melissa@elevationoutdoors.com

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES hannah@elevationoutdoors.com

CIRCULATION INQUIRIES circulation@elevationoutdoors.com

DIGITAL MEDIA

ONLINE DIRECTOR

CRAIG SNODGRASS

DIGITAL EDITOR RYAN MICHELLE SCAVO

PUBLISHED BY ©2022 Summit Publishing, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTRIBUTORS

What’s your favorite roadside attraction?

DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

The Coffee Kiva outside of Escalante, Utah. Where else can you get espresso in the middle of a stunning red rock wilderness?

HANNAH COOPER

Anything with snacks!

EDITOR'S LETTER 07.23

SUMMIT PUBLISHING

CAMERON MARTINDELL

City parks and rec centers, especially with kids—stop and run or swim and get the wiggles out.

TRACY ROSS

Idaho's Lost River

Range region— and not because of the Ammon Bundy for Gov. signs.

RYAN MICHELLE SCAVO

When our family is road tripping, we can’t help but stop at big bridges. One of my favorites is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge outside Taos, New Mexico. It’s 650 feet above the Rio Grande and offers amazing views!

DANI REYES-ACOSTA love rushing rivers— watching them, stopping to eat a snack, and swimming in them.

FREDERICK REIMERS

IN PRAISE OF THE E-BIKE

by DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

AARON BIBLE

Natural springs, like the one on the road to A-Basin or on the way up to Caribou. There’s nothing like filling your bottles with fresh spring water.

ARIELLA NARDIZZI

Plume Coffee Bar is a must-stop for every road trip. It's got the best coffee to revive you after a long hike, a homey atmosphere and the friendliest strangers. Plus, love exploring Silver Plume’s unique mining history and “living ghost town.”

SETH BOSTER

A massive beetle looms over Highway 115 south of Colorado Springs. That's Herkimer, built in 1949 by John May to mark the May Natural History Museum—a collection exotic bugs from around the world.

PETER KRAY

The Collegiate Range is the best photo stop in all of Colorado.

The first time I got an e-mountainbike to test ride, it arrived in a semi truck and was delivered on a pallet. The PR guy who wanted me to try it out told me it would be a great way to hammer my friends on the trail. wanted nothing to do with that. I thought it would be a cheap, classless, weak, and feckless way to ride at all. So the bike sat, untouched, in my garage for weeks. One day, finally decided would at least take it for a spin on the streets. had barely gotten to the end of my block when saw a friend out working on his yard. Instead of being embarrassed by my fall into cycling impurity, yelled out to him: “You have to try this thing.”

There was no way in hell it was going to replace my baby, my Santa Cruz Tallboy, and my determination to gut out hard work when it comes to mountain biking. And even if felt the lure of the e-bike, still believe in that ethos. like to suffer. like to do it on my own. And even after that first electric ride, I stayed away from e-bikes on the trails.

Oh, I was just fine riding them on Boulder’s incredible bike path infrastructure. learned that I rode my bike more when it was an e-bike. took it to the store, the gym, and on any other errand that made sense. love how it made those quick trips easier and kept me out of my car. But the trails? No. I still saw that as cheating.

Then met Santa Claus. was in Finland in 2017 to hike Halti, the country’s highest point as a celebration of the nation’s 100th birthday and we were staging in the town of Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle. This is where the big man lives, or so our Finnish hosts assured us. And they double assured us they were not joking. Indeed, more then 500,000 people come here every year to sit on his lap (at least in spirit) and check out his workshop (where a deadpan elf showed me a diagram that scientifically explains how he does it all in one night... something to do with the spin of the Earth and time travel.) Anyway, we were given the chance to ride fat e-bikes through the surrounding hills to reach the storied workshop.

What a joy it was. Our sturdy hiking group had a wide range of mountain biking experience—but hop on the fat e-bikes and the playing field was level. You had fun riding the trails as a lifelong cyclist or as a newbie. We flowed along and stopped to eat wild blueberries. Santa was gregarious and very glad that we had biked to him. And even more glad that we were going to benefit from the antioxidant properties of all the berries we ate.

This month, have been getting in what my friend Jason Blevins refers to as “acoustic” mountain bike rides, but have also had a blast on the e-mountain bike. The machines are banned on Boulder trails but nearby White Ranch in Jefferson County welcomes them. This is a perfect ride for a powered bike. It starts with a climb so ugly we rarely want to take it on anyway. Again, it’s not that the e-bike was cheating here. It was simply a different way to see and experience the trail (and promise will go back and ride it without the aid of power).

When it comes down to it, e-bikes are not cheating; they are fun. They don go too fast (most shut off around 20 mph); they don somehow ruin the trail (smoother riding is probably better for the trail surface); they don’ t get people in over their heads. They simply are a new way to flow on the trails. Don’ t believe me? Try one. And then tell Santa what you want this Christmas.

Roads With A View

DRIVE THE ROADS EVEN THE MINERS COULDN’T TAME.

The pavement gets all the love. Asphalt stretches to some of America’s highest reaches in Colorado, including Mount Evans (14,130 feet) and Pikes Peak (14,115 feet). Paved roads can also take drivers over Loveland, Cottonwood, and Independence passes, all of which cross the Continental Divide. But what's an adventure without extra adrenaline? Jump outside of the lines and drive along the harsh ground above treeline miners tried and failed to tame.

If you want to feel that Rocky Mountain high off the blacktop, check out the following high drives on dirt in the Centennial State: Mount Antero (14,270 feet) is a third 14er auto tour on the wilder side. Mosquito Pass (13,186 feet), aka the Highway of Frozen Death, rumbles far above Fairplay and Leadville; the nickname serves as a warning. Imogene Pass (13,114 feet) follows a steep, twisting track between Telluride and Ouray, with the bonus of visiting the ghost town of Tomboy. Engineer Pass (12,800 feet) represents the highest point along the beautiful, often-brutal Alpine Loop spanning 65 miles. You can reach it from Lake City, Ouray, and Silverton.