Field Report No. 25 · Couples getaway
Aspen Colorado, USA
One of our favorite getaways, just the two of us. Fancy without the T-shirt-shop grind: Maroon Bells, a night at the Jerome, and Jazz Aspen from the backstage deck.
Field Report
No. 25
Couples getaway
Aspen Colorado, USA
Worth the flight.
- Coordinates
- 39.1911° N, 106.8175° W
- Traveled
- Summer & fall
- Kid-readiness
- This one's been ours: just the two of us, no kids in the frame. So we won't fake a kid section. Aspen, for us, is the grown-up getaway: long hikes, longer dinners, nobody asking how much further.
- Where we stayed
- In town, near the gondola, is worth paying up for. You walk to dinner and roll home, which in a place this walkable is the whole point.
- The non-negotiable
- Maroon Bells at least once, and a night that ends at Hotel Jerome. Book the Bells shuttle from Aspen Highlands ahead of time so the day actually happens.
- What we'd skip
- Don't fly into a far airport to save a few dollars and then white-knuckle the mountain pass. And don't pull up Zillow while you're there. You'll ruin a perfectly good trip.
- Best season
- Summer for the hikes and the Saturday market. Fall when the aspens go gold and the first snow hits the Bells. We've done both and can't pick.
- Points & hacking
- Aspen (ASE) is a tough little airport: one runway, a mountain approach, and weather delays are common. Get in direct if you can. Eagle (EGE) is the sane backup, about ninety minutes out. We once flew into Colorado Springs and drove in, an insane mountain drive we wouldn't repeat.
39.1911° N, 106.8175° W
Aspen has a reputation, and most of it’s true. It’s fancy. It’s expensive. The sidewalk out front of the gondola is basically a runway. But the reputation misses the part that matters: it’s gorgeous, and it’s real. We can’t stand the Colorado towns that are all T-shirt shops and fudge and faux-Western everything. Aspen isn’t that. It’s manicured and it has soul, which is a hard thing to pull off. It’s one of our favorite getaways, just the two of us.
Don’t look at Zillow while you’re there. You’ll ruin a perfectly good trip.
Maroon Bells, first
If you do one thing, it’s Maroon Bells. Two peaks at the head of the valley, the most photographed view in Colorado, and it earns every bit of it. The catch is getting in. From late spring through October you can’t just drive up in the middle of the day, so reserve the shuttle from Aspen Highlands ahead of time or be there before eight in the morning. We’ve seen it green in summer with the wildflowers going, and in the fall with the first snow down. Both times we went quiet.
If you want to earn the view, keep going past the lake to Crater Lake: about three and a half miles round trip through aspen groves and boulder fields, with the Bells lined up in front of you nearly the whole way, and you’re back in town for lunch.
39.0708° N, 106.9890° W
A night at the Jerome
Hotel Jerome is our spot. It’s been the heart of this town since 1889, and you feel it the second you walk in. Start at the J-Bar, the oldest bar in Aspen, all dark wood and a century of stories. Sit down for the full night at Prospect, or slip into Bad Harriet, the little cocktail room, when you want to hide out. Jerome is such a vibe. We could spend a whole trip inside those walls and call it a good one.
Where we actually eat
White House Tavern is the one we send everyone to: a wood-paneled little room doing sandwiches worth the wait. They don’t take reservations, so put your name in and go have a drink. Clark’s Oyster Bar is the move when you want something lighter and colder off the raw bar. Matsuhisa is Nobu’s first restaurant outside Beverly Hills, tucked into a Victorian house; the black cod is the order. Ellina for handmade pasta on a night you want to sit a while.
The one to plan around is Pine Creek Cookhouse. It’s twelve miles up Castle Creek Road, out past the Ashcroft ghost town, alpine gourmet dropped in the middle of the Elk Mountains. In summer you drive it. In winter the road closes and you get there by horse-drawn sleigh, which is reason enough to go back in winter. The views are as much the point as the food.
Jazz Aspen, all in
Jazz Aspen Snowmass over Labor Day is one of the best weekends we’ve had anywhere. It runs at Snowmass Town Park, and it’s the one time we’ll tell you the backstage passes are worth it. The deck looks right down the crowd to the stage. We’ve caught Stevie Nicks, Chris Stapleton, and Zach Bryan there, cowboy hats and all.
39.2130° N, 106.9378° W
A couple of honest notes. Getting in is the hard part, so don’t book anything clever; we once flew into Colorado Springs and drove, and that mountain drive is not something we’d recommend. And there are bears. We’ve seen them many times, going about their business like they own the place, which up here they mostly do. That’s Aspen: fancy and wild at the same time, and we keep going back for both.
