Things To Do in Steamboat Springs
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Steamboat Springs Attractions
Musical Mountains
Summer is a musically magical time in Steamboat Springs. Strings Music Festival offers an incredible array of musical programs, including classical, jazz, blues, and family-friendly music, in a beautiful new performance hall inspired by the lines of a string instrument.
If chamber music is your choice, don't miss the Wednesday and Saturday evening concerts. The choices are diverse: An evening might start with a gentle Chopin nocturne and move to a Schumann piano quartet, then finish off with Brahms. Instead of extensive program notes, nuggets of information about the music and/or composer are presented before each piece by a commentator.
Should jazz, country, bluegrass, or pops be the music that thrills your soul, Friday night is the night. The 2008 season included performances by Jessie Cook, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Natalie McMaster.
Don't forget to pack your lunch for Strings' Music on the Green at the new Music Festival Park at Yampa River Botanic Park -- an inspiring location, the gardens a stirring backdrop -- for a concert each Thursday at 12:15pm in the summer. It's a lovely way to spend your lunchtime -- and many locals agree, so get there early to snag one of the free umbrellas to keep the scorching sun off your head. There's a cafe (5-9pm on Wed and Fri-Sat) that serves light fare and gourmet dinner specials.
What does all this cost, you ask? Surprisingly little for the quality and choices offered, including several free programs. Family-oriented concerts Tuesday or Thursday evenings, and youth concerts Tuesday morning, cost $10 for adults and just $1 for those 18 and under; the Wednesday Pre-Concert Talks are free, as are the Thursday Music on the Green lunchtime programs. Chamber music performances, Wednesday and Saturday evenings, cost $35 to $50; the Tuesday and Friday evening programs, which offer a variety of music, have widely varying prices, and there are several special events scattered throughout the summer and during the Christmas season (call for details). Strings also presents musical events at other times of the year, including a series of Christmas holiday concerts and a Winter Concert Series.
For additional information and a complete schedule, contact Strings Music Festival, P.O. Box 774627, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477 (tel. 970/879-5056; www.stringsinthemountains.com).
- Cooking Class
Amaze'n Steamboat Maze
This intriguing puzzle lets you test your skills, or perhaps luck, in finding your way through a confusing maze. A free observation deck gives a bird's-eye view of the maze, allowing your quicker companions to point and laugh as you stumble into one dead end after another. In… - Hiking/Biking Route
Fish Creek Falls
Just 4 miles from downtown Steamboat in Routt National Forest, a quarter-mile footpath leads to a historic bridge at the base of this breathtaking 283-foot waterfall that inspired the original Coors logo. There’s also an overlook with a short .1-mile trail and ramp designed for those… - Museum
Tread of Pioneers Museum
Steamboat Springs has a fascinating history, from Native Americans to outlaws to Olympians, chronicled at this excellent small-town history museum in a 1908 Victorian home downtown. There are the expected displays of heirlooms, firearms, and mining and farming tools, as well as some… - Park/Garden
Yampa River Botanic Park
For a pleasant and relaxing stroll among lovely gardens, stop at this botanic park along the Yampa River, between the ski mountain and downtown. Several picturesque ponds are set among low rolling hills, surrounded by a wide variety of flowering and nonflowering plants and trees of…
Steamboat Springs Shopping
Lincoln Avenue, between Fifth and Ninth streets, is where most of the more interesting shops and galleries are located. Art lovers will enjoy Artisans' Market of Steamboat, 626 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 970/879-7512), a nonprofit cooperative of local artists; and Steamboat Art Company, 903 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 800/553-7853 or 970/879-3383; www.steamboat-art.com), which offers an eclectic selection of limited-edition prints and other art, plus jewelry and crafts in wood, glass, and pottery. The Homesteader, 817 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 800/321-4702 or 970/879-5880), is a delightful kitchen shop with all manner of kitchen gadgets; salsa, chutney, and other Colorado-made food items; plus gourmet coffee beans and an espresso bar. If you forgot to pack your cowboy hat, there's a tremendous selection of Stetsons, plus just about everything else a Westerner wears, at F.M. Light & Sons, 830 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 970/879-1822; www.fmlight.com), which has been in business since 1905 and has roadside signs advertising the place dotting the roadside for hundreds of miles. For books, head to Epilogue Book Company, 837 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 970/879-2665; www.epiloguebookco.com). Lyon's Corner Drug & Soda Fountain, at the corner of Ninth and Lincoln (tel. 970/879-1114), has an old-time soda fountain where you can get real malts, ice-cream sodas, egg creams, phosphates, sundaes, and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Steamboat Springs Nightlife
The music scene in Steamboat Springs is dominated by the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival, which offers a wide variety of musical events almost daily throughout the summer, and with lesser frequency at other times of the year.
The bar scene in Steamboat, while never dull, comes especially alive in winter. (Like Steamboat's restaurants, its nightlife ranges from quiet to nonexistent in spring.) One of the hottest new hangouts is Level'z Nightclub, at 1860 Ski Time Sq. (tel. 970/870-9090), with live entertainment nightly, 20 beers on tap, pool tables, and video games, and some good happy hour specials. Other popular venues include the rustic Tugboat Grill & Pub, 1860 Ski Time Sq. (tel. 970/879-7070), which attracts a noisy local crowd for a variety of live music and dancing, starting at about 9:30pm.
In downtown Steamboat, The Tap House, 729 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 970/879-2431), has dozens of TVs (including a couple of huge ones) showing just about any sporting event you'd want to see. There are 21 beers on tap, good fajitas and chicken wings, pool tables, and a video arcade. A riverside bar and grill with New Orleans roots, Sunpies, 735 Yampa St. (tel. 970/870-3360), is a hip young hangout specializing in po' boy sandwiches and potent rum "Slurricanes." Mahogany Ridge Brewery & Grill, 435 Lincoln Ave. (tel. 970/879-3773), brews a nice selection of handcrafted ales and a wide variety of musicians grace its stage. The Old Town Pub, 600 Lincoln St. (tel. 970/879-2101), is a local favorite, a low-key bar in a historic downtown building.
