It’s that time of the year again to hop in the car, take a drive to the Grand Mesa National Forest and sight-see the various orange and yellow aspens during the change of the Autumn leaves. Powderhorn Ski Resort hosts a Color Sunday each year around this time celebrating the leaves on the trees begin taking their fall foliage.
“This is a long-running tradition in the Grand Valley that Powderhorn is a part of,” Powderhorn’s Marketing and Sales Manager Ryan Robinson said. “It is historically one of the best weekends during the summer months. Most people who come up here fall in love it.”
During the event, Powderhorn offered food, drinks, live music, lodging, downhill mountain biking and an open ski lift that provided a view from above.
“We see a lot of traffic up here,” Robinson said. “The lodging usually fills up, anywhere you can eat, either up on the mesa, in Mesa or here are usually packed. It’s a family-friendly event that is very accessible for all ages—kids, grandparents and adults all attend.”
With such an influx of traffic, the visitor center and surrounding businesses typically receive a higher call volume, more people of the road and more business.
“The Grand Mesa National Forest is a unique forest because its 10,000 feet up above sea level and a lush forest that totally contracts the desert below on the eastern side,” Visitor Information Specialist Stephen Blackman said. “It is nice and cool up here. The temperature hardly ever gets above 72 degrees and most people who come up here fall in love with it.”
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The Grand Mesa is largest flat top mountain in the world, withholding almost 300 lakes, including many reservoirs used for drinking and irrigation. It offers many types of outdoor recreational use such as: hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling, hunting, fishing, paddle boarding, kayaking, or canoeing.
“It is a completely unique place.” Robinson said. “The Grand Valley outdoor recreational use is a big part of the valley and we are proud to be a piece of that. No matter what outdoor recreation interest you may have, they are definitely fulfilled in our area.”
