Canon City, Colorado

[Mark Anderson]

I just returned last week from taking the family snow skiing in the Comanche. We had a great week of skiing in Crested Butte. The snow was awesome with two days of fresh powder. My four and eight year old girls can ski the greens and blues unassisted now! I think Crested Butte is the last real ski town. Very uncommercialized, no crowds or lift lines , great food and an awesome free sledding hill in town for the kids. We decided to leave the plane in Canon City (1V6) . From Huntsville, Al it took us 7 hours going out and only 5 coming back with a pit stop in KICT each way. We could have made it without stopping on the way back as we had a 210 KT ground speed most of the way. I picked Canon City( pronounced Canyon) because it is just about as far west as you can go without going through Monarch pass. The MEA is 16,000 feet from 1V6 to Gunnisin (KGUC). I didn't want to mess with this on the departure not knowing the weather. The 1V6 airport is very friendly and they arranged a rental car drop through Enterprise that was only $225 for the week for a mid size car. I coordinated a hanger for my plane with Cory at Pro Av, a maintenance and charter facility on the field. Cory was very accommodating and waited for our late arrival. The hanger fee was only $35 a night and he also plugged in my oil pan heater the day before our departure. He also has an amazing black Lab ,AJ! that my kids loved petting while unloading loading. He also has a couple of kids airplane pedal scooters that my girls rode around his hanger. He gave us the full tour of is facility and showed us his Piper Cub he is building from the ground up. It looked like a great facility if you needed maintenance. We spent the first night at the Hampton Inn in Canon City that is brand new and just minutes from the airport. Cory recommended that we eat at the Canon City Brew Club and we were glad we did. Great steaks and beer! The next morning it was only a 2.5 drive to Crested Butte. The drive is beautiful as it follows the Arkansas River. We saw all kinds of wild life, deer, fox, eagles and big horn sheep. We also stopped and walked across the bridge at Royal Gorge park. We stopped for lunch in Salida, Co and ate at the Paddle House that is located on the Arkansas River overlooking the kayak slalom course. There were boaters running the coarse that kept us entertained. If you are ever in Gunnison you have to eat breakfast at the W Cafe. I think we have skied Crested Butte for close to ten years and we can't get enough. I would like to try Monarch sometime. It is only 1.5 hours from Canon City. The terrain looks more advanced and more of a local place that would be less expensive. I am ready to go back in the summer for some fishing. If you need a place to stop check out Canon City and talk to Cory at Pro Av!

[Randy Johnson]

Awesome...thanks for the review.

[N3322G]

Thanks for posting such a happy experience. Ditto for the Rifle/Snowmass combination but you do need to go over Tennessee pass to get there.