Colorado Season Musts: Spring 2019

Dave Jones

WHAT: Sandhill Crane Migration

WHERE: Eckert and Monte Vista

WHY: Celebrate the return of the sandhill cranes to Colorado this spring. In Eckert, visitors can use spotting scopes that will be set up for crane viewing. The cranes typically arrive the night before and leave at around 10 am or 11 am the following morning. In Monte Vista, the festival gets going at 7 am on March 8 with the crane sunrise tour, an expert-led bus tour to Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge to learn all about sandhill cranes. The festival also has a craft and nature fair every day, a Colorado Farm Brewery tour and a sunset crane tour. Eckert Crane Days runs from March 15 to 17 and the Monte Vista Crane Festival is from March 8 to 10.

Taylor Ahearn

WHAT: Pond Skimming

WHY: One of the more unique spring sports, pond skimming is a fun and unique way to experience the slopes this season. Many resorts throughout Colorado wrap up their winter seasons with pondskimming championships and events. If you’re a gifted skier or snowboarder sign up, don your best costume and practice your best moves to partake. Not up for participating? Being a spectator is arguably more entertaining. The Landshark Pond Skim in Crested Butte will take place on April 6, and on April 7, Purgatory Resort and Ska Brewing will kick off an end-of-season party which will include more pond skimming. Spring Back to Vail will take place between April 11 to 14 and features the World Pond Skimming Championships with free concerts at Ford Park, sponsor expos and giveaways. Steamboat’s Splashdown Pond Skimming Championships will take place on April 14 and over in Breckenridge, the Breck Plunge will take place April 21 as a kick off to their spring ski season.

Gabrielle Louse

WHAT: Authentic Valencian Paella

WHERE: Paonia

WHY: Officially launched at the start of this month, Paonia Paella is a food truck serving authentic Valencian paella. While living in the Spanish city of Valencia, husband and wife Vicente Perez Martinez and Sarah Perez Sadler thought they could turn their love of paella and Vincente’s expertise (he has been cooking paella since he was a boy and later took courses) into a business. Paonia Paella was born. Offering three different versions, including a vegetarian version, along with salads and tortilla patata, they will use as many local ingredients and suppliers as they can, including the Trading Post, Gray Acres Farms for chicken, Colorado Pastured Pork, Paonia Bread Works, Mountain Oven Organic Bakery and juice from Big B’s. Any essential paella ingredients that aren’t available locally will come from Spain.

Jessica Hamel

WHAT: Wellness Beer

WHY: Part of the Colorado lifestyle is pushing your body to the max in the great outdoors and then enjoying a well-earned beer. But whether that beer comes apres-ski, run, ride or whatever, it’s not usual to drink it as part of your post-workout routine. Enter Sufferfest. Launched in 2016, the beers are made with bee pollen for its anti-inflammatory properties and iodized salt to help with cell recovery. Initially created as a gluten-free beer (which it still is), founder Caitlin Landesberg realized she had accidentally created a new market - recovery beer. We sampled two newer brews - Sufferfest Repeat, a Kolsch, and Sufferfest FKT, a pale ale. The latter is more flavorful and is enhanced with salt and black currant, while the Repeat is low calorie and low carb.