Duke, I learned to ski at Winter Park in Colorado way back in the early 70's and have gone many times since. It is pretty well known for its family friendly skiing... They have a lot of green and moderate blue and then some blue that are steeper but just not too many moguls. They do have some great black runs that are ridiculously steep!! Once you know your way around the mountains you can go to the top a couple of places and ski down for quite a ways without having to get on a lift... We always tried to be the last people on the last lift taking us to the top at the end of the day. We would take our time getting down!
Winter Park is pretty easy to get to from Denver, only about 70 miles, although you have to over Berthoud Pass. They keep it clear unless a blizzard has just hit.
Amtrak has train service through Fraser, which is right next to the town of Winter Park. They use to have a "Ski Train" that went every weekend to Winter Park filled with skiers but they stopped that service a few years ago I think. I have always wanted to fly to Denver and just take the train to Winter Park....and then take shuttles from wherever I decided to stay....not having to worry about cars
A great family place to stay is Snow Mountain Ranch which is now part of the Estes Park system I think. It is only about 10 miles further north on Hwy 40. It used to be a part of YMCA Camp of the Rockies (may still be) and when Jim Bellatti, formerly of the Stillwater New-Press, was the president of the YMCA, the New-Press use to sponsor two large buses each spring break to take Stillwaterites to ski at Winter Park and live at Snow Mountain Ranch......
Snow Mountain Ranch has a lot of activities for kids, indoors and outdoors.....check out the website: snowmountainranch.org
The also have all the rentals you need....downhill, cross-county, snowshoe.... (this was several years ago but I can't believe they don't still have all that)
Telluride is wonderful and so remote....a true mountain town!! But I know it's more of a hardcore skiing area.... I have only been in the summer a couple of times but once was near a weekend right around the Fourth of July.... It was so perfect because there weren't that many people around... It's just too hard to get to. I imagine that same weekend at Vail or Breckenridge and there would have been huge crowds of people... Also, ran into Laura Linney in an art museum there once!!
Have fun wherever you go!
This post was edited on 2/28 8:18 PM by CowboyTanker
