Eldora

Located on the eastern flank of the Front Range, Colorado’s Eldora offers a convenient escape to the ski slopes for Denver-area residents. The resort is much closer to the city than its competitors—and exists in a location that allows guests to avoid notorious I-70 traffic—but less consistent snowfall and a so-so footprint detract from the experience.

Eldora sits at one of the highest base elevations in Colorado, well above 9,000 feet, allowing for strong snow preservation. But with a location east of the Continental Divide, the resort basically just gets the leftovers from westerly storms and doesn’t see the same quantity of snow as many Front Range competitors. Snowfall is ultimately steady enough throughout the core season, but guests will find more variable conditions than resorts further west. The resort is heavily wind-exposed near the top, and icy or wind-scoured slopes are common a few days after the last storm. However, early-season snowmaking and strong grooming—with every groomed trail receiving snowmaking—allow for reliable terrain even when natural conditions aren’t the best.

Boasting only a 1,400-foot vertical drop across a 680 acre footprint, Eldora is basically a small hill compared to its destination competitors. It would be absurd to claim the resort’s terrain can justify a fly-to vacation, but most guests will at least find enough runs to stay busy for at least a few hours. The resort specializes in glade terrain, with woods skiable off nearly every trail and varying degrees of density.

While its convenient location and smaller footprint might suggest a family-friendly experience, Eldora’s beginner terrain is extremely limited. Only the short, easternmost Little Hawk Mountain has any green runs—and even then, the only fully green routes can’t even be accessed from the top of the already scanty pod. Little Hawk has been chiefly repurposed as a terrain park zone in recent years, making it clear that catering to beginners is not the biggest priority for Eldora. That said, advanced beginners may want to try some of the shorter blues off Little Hawk, many of which have bailouts to greens part of the way down.

Eldora starts to make a lot more sense for those who have reached intermediate proficiency. Every lift services some flavor of blue terrain, with the best cruisers off the Alpenglow and Indian Peaks lifts. Intermediate guests may also enjoy some of Eldora’s glades; while technically unrated, some of the trees off blue trails are appropriately suited and widely-spaced enough for intermediates.

While it’s no substitute for the tantalizing steeps at some Front Range competitors, Eldora does have a decent footprint for experienced skiers and riders. Across the Alpenglow, Indian Peaks, and Corona pods, guests will find an array of steep, ungroomed advanced and expert trails. The Corona zone specializes in steep trails of varying widths, including some particularly challenging glades.

A handful of Eldora’s double-black trails are specially designated as “Extreme Terrain”. These runs aren’t the most precipitous in the world, but they do contain serious obstacles such as rocks, tree stumps, and small cliffs—and are a notable step up from Eldora’s regular double-blacks.

Eldora’s terrain parks are a strong point, with the resort having secured a Woodward partnership in recent years. The Little Hawk pod hosts multiple distinctive freestyle pods, which range in size from extra-small to large and are designed with progression in mind. Parks include a range of boxes, rails, jumps, as well as a pipe and some unique specialty features. That said, none of these zones are anywhere as crazy as the extra-large parks at some competing Front Range mountains.

Unlike competing Front Range mountains—and perhaps counterintuitively, given its convenient location—serious lift lines are rare at Eldora. But this is because Eldora’s parking lots are severely capacity constrained, meaning that the resort will start turning back guests before the mountain even gets to the point of feeling overcrowded. Those who get to the mountain after 9am on peak days are probably too late—and will probably want to try again for a spot once guests start filtering out in the afternoon. For those who don’t want to worry about being turned around on weekends and holidays, frequent public bus service is available from Boulder.

However, Eldora’s low capacity limit doesn’t mean crowds are nonexistent. On peak days, guests will find themselves waiting in modest lines at the main Alpenglow chair as well as the expert-oriented Corona lift. In addition, Eldora’s few green trails can get incredibly crowded on weekends and holidays, with all less-experienced guests piling onto the very limited beginner footprint.

Eldora’s conveniently-placed lodges make it easy to stop in for a break, even on busy days. Two base restaurants allow for extensive seating at the bottom, while a third summit restaurant at the top of the Corona lift provides guests in this isolated pod with a convenient stopping point. Food prices are relatively expensive, but they’re not overly so and the quality is good for what you get.

Eldora’s lift infrastructure has improved in recent years, with the Alpenglow high-speed six-pack now providing quick, comfortable service to the main zone of the mountain. That said, all of Eldora’s remaining lifts are still slow, fixed-grip chairs. None of them involve particularly egregious ride times, but the longer Indian Peaks and Corona chairs involve nine-minute rides that can get uncomfortable on particularly windy days. As one might expect from a compact resort, it only takes one lift to reach most trails; the more-removed Corona trails do take two lift rides to reach from the base, but they are directly lappable once at the pod.

It may be a lot smaller and less interesting than competing Colorado destination resorts, but Eldora still has a lot of the natural beauty inherent to its Colorado location. The resort offers amazing views of nearby Continental Divide mountains, and its more-remote pods feel remarkably isolated from the outside world, with very little but mountains in sight. Eldora feels less commercialized than destination competitors and attracts a much more local crowd than the fly-to mountains.

Getting There

Eldora is one of the most convenient mountains to reach from Denver, sitting just 75 minutes from the Denver International Airport and less than an hour from multiple suburbs. The resort is just 20 minutes from the college town of Boulder, and guests can get to or from the mountain via hourly express bus service. Unlike nearly every other Front Range resort, guests do not have to worry about driving on the extremely crowded Interstate 70 to reach Eldora.

Parking at Eldora is extremely limited and first-come, first-serve. As a result, guests will want to either plan to arrive extra early or wait until the afternoon to drive up.

Lodging

Eldora is a ski area rather than a built-up resort, and there is no lodging directly onsite. The nearest options are a 10-minute drive away in downtown Nederland, but visitors will find a much wider range of accommodations a short distance further away in Boulder.

Aprés-ski

Eldora is much more of a day trip mountain than a true destination, and consequently, aprés-ski is essentially nonexistent. The resort’s base lodges do have bars, but things quiet down immediately after the lifts stop spinning. Visitors will find the nearest true nightlife in downtown Boulder and Denver.

Verdict

So Eldora doesn’t have the snow, terrain, or on-mountain accommodations to come even close to competing with top Front Range ski resorts. But the resort’s convenient location, still-decent snow preservation, and strong terrain park offerings mean it’s not a bad day trip option from select Denver metropolitan areas. Ticket prices significantly undercut bigger competitors, although during peak times, it’s still pricey for what you get.