A Winter Adventure In Breckenridge, Colorado: Our Arrival

This last week was mid-winter break and my son texted me a note that he had gotten a reminder about how it has been a year since our visit to Breckenridge, Colorado in 2024. I mentioned the trip in my 2024: Highlights Of Another Year Outdoors and 2024: General Life And Knitting Highlights posts but I was inspired to write up a little more about our time in the wintery mountain town and how much fun it was to spend it with my adult son. Especially since I didn’t leave town this winter break.

I originally thought this would be one post but after I got started I knew it would rival the length of the last post so I will be breaking it down by day. Most people head to Breckenridge for the skiing and ski resort, you will get to see there were so many other winter activities to enjoy.

From the interwebs:

Breckenridge is a Colorado town at the base of the Rocky Mountains’ Tenmile Range. It’s known for its ski resort, year-round alpine activities and Gold Rush history. The Victorian core of this former mining town is preserved as the Breckenridge National Historic District, running primarily along Main Street, with colorfully painted buildings from the 1880s and ’90s housing shops, galleries and restaurants.

When asking the kiddo where he had wanted to go for a vacation with his mom, he naturally picked a town with a ski resort where he could use his ski pass and go snowboarding. I had never been to Breckenridge but had heard a lot about it so it seemed like a fun way to spend the week with him. Even though we don’t always desire the same outdoorsy activities (no slopes for me), we could do what we each wanted to do during the day and spend time together in the evenings.

In doing my research, I opted to use public transportation for our trip AKA no rental car. It had its pros and cons but overall it not only saved us a fair amount of money but allowed for some stress free travel on snowy roads and no worries about parking. I packed my 60l Granite Gear Crown 2 backpack with my gear (snowshoes, poles, gaiters, boots, etc.) and a Six Moons daypack for carry-on. The kiddo got all his stuff into the bag he bought for his snowboarding gear and then just had a daypack for carry-on. We flew Alaska and I am a member so he was my companion fare and our checked bags were free.

First time noticing the ski and board baggage carousel in the Denver airport, pretty cool.

We flew into Denver on a Sunday and took the light rail (A Line) to downtown where we began a chain of buses (3) that are set up to take skiers and other recreationists up to into the mountains, I will leave some links at the end of this post if you are interested. Overall from landing to arriving at our condo in Breckenridge was about 7 hours, which did include the delay of the first bus having to chain up on I-70 and plenty of stupid driver entertainment I didn’t have to fret about in a rental car (so worth it if you seen any of the news about this stretch of road).

And there was plenty of time for knitting, I had started my second Musselburgh hat for the trip.

Our trip time would have been an hour shorter but we did have to wait for a transfer bus in Frisco that would take us to Breckenridge. Luckily they have a brand new transit station there so it was warm and comfortable. I had looked up several videos on YouTube so that I would be familiar with what it would look like, I would not have wanted to have to wait out in the elements. And knowing the kiddo, that would not have started our trip out well. Anxiety can sour a trip pretty quickly, for both of us.

We arrived at our condo a few blocks up from Main Street around 10pm and after dropping our things we headed out to walk about 1 mile to the grocery store before it closed (11pm). There would have been a bus but we would have to wait and possibly have the store be closed. The weather was below freezing with swirling snow, so not very welcoming! I took my empty daypack so we could load up groceries.

It is true that grocery prices are high in Breckenridge but not horribly so. Not as bad as Hawaii for example. And City Market is a part of the Kroger Family so if you have a card with them (I have Fred Meyer) you get the card discounts when you shop. I picked up basics like eggs, coleslaw, beef sausages, spinach, almond butter, apples and bananas that would be good for breakfast and lunch for the week. I had brought snack foods like jerky and Lara bars, as well as some coffee.

On the way back we did opt to take the bus, the snow was blowing pretty fierce at this point and the temperature was dropping. Breckenridge is set up to be car free, a great system of buses to take you anywhere so it got us one block from where we were staying (I had intentionally looked for a condo close to transit).

There was not much left in the rest of our first day so we settled into our accommodations and went to sleep soon after, dreaming of winter adventure. The kiddo was planning on heading up to the slopes in the morning and I had a slower (less aerobic) day planned to start things off. Breckenridge sits at 9,600 feet of elevation and I knew I was going to have to adjust to that before anything too strenuous. As you will hear in a later post, even with the preparation, the high elevation was not my friend on this trip.

Some resources shared on this post:

RTD
Ride Bustang
Breck Free Ride
Our Air BnB (this is an older condo, nothing too fancy)

Our condo rental came to a little less than $900 for 4 nights which the kiddo and I split. If you have priced lodging in Breckinridge, you know that isn’t too bad of a cost. That and airfare was the bulk of our cost for the trip. I also took pictures later in the trip of our luggage and the condo, look for those!

The next post will take you along as I acclimate to Breckenridge, visit with a Colorado blogging friend, ride a gondola up to the slopes and explore the downtown area.