GET OUTTA HERE!

Sunlight Mountain Resort offering package rate

How would you like to ski at Sunlight Mountain Resort, swim at the world’s largest hot springs pool and spend the night in one of Glenwood Springs’ cozy lodges?

Sunlight has 67 trails on 470 acres of navigable terrain that converge at a base lodge so friends and family members can easily meet up with one another. A winter playground, Sunlight welcomes skiers, snowboarders, cross-country skiers and snowshoers.

Besides free skiing for kids 12 and younger, families are pleasantly surprised that prices are friendly throughout the resort. Lessons and rentals also are reasonable. Another perk is the free Sunlight Mountain Resort Shuttle that picks up guests at various points around town, including many partner lodges, with a return shuttle at the end of the ski day.

The Hot Springs Pool in Glenwood Springs covers two city blocks. After an exhilarating day on the slopes, nothing feels better than soaking in the steamy waters of the large pool, which spans the length of a football field, or the smaller therapy pool. And you can soak until 10 p.m. every night before turning in (check out the late soaking opportunity on New Year’s Eve).

Lodging choices include locally owned inns, nationally recognized franchised hotels, ski-in-ski-out condominiums, a mountainside chalet, cozy cabins or historical properties in downtown Glenwood Springs.

A one-day “Ski Swim Stay” package costs $99 per person. Package rates are valid through Jan. 2, excluding Dec. 26. Get details and book your stay online at www.sunlightmtn.com or call 1-800-445-7931.

While in Glenwood Springs, you can also enjoy spa treatments and natural underground steam baths at the Yampah Spa and Vapor Caves, and the Glenwood Caverns and Adventure Park offers aerial tram access to cave tours and thrill rides on the mountaintop. Information, www.glenwoodcaverns.com.

Unearth the past at Crow Canyon center

If you dig exploring the mysteries of the human past, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in southwestern Colorado (Cortez) offers domestic and international cultural and archaeology adventures for all ages.

Crow Canyon trips offer top scholars and cultural consultants as trip leaders, privileged access to remote locations and rarely visited sites, museum collections and limited group sizes.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being an archaeologist, you can work alongside professional archaeologists at Crow Canyons’ current excavation site and in the laboratory, where you’ll unearth and analyze ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) artifacts.

For all the trip dates and details for 2012, visit www.crowcanyon .org, or call 1-800-422-8975, ext. 160 or ext. 146. Sign up for a 2012 travel adventure by Dec. 31 and receive $100 off with an early bird discount.

Here’s a sampling of what 2012 has in store:
• “Turquoise in Southwestern History, Art, and Culture,” May 6-12
• “Chaco and the Hopi Pueblo World,” May 13-19
• “The Natural and Cultural Wonders of Namibia,” July 11-22
• “Ute Culture and Beading Workshop with Rebecca Hammond,” Aug. 5-11
• “Enchanting Ireland: The Archaeology, History and Culture of the Emerald Isle,” Aug. 26-Sept. 7
• “Backcountry Archaeology: Hiking in Canyon de Chelly,” Sept. 16-22
• “A Thousand Years of Taos History,” Sept. 25-Oct. 1
• “Cahokia, Chaco, and Mesoamerican Connections,” Oct. 6-14
• “Burma-Myanmar: Past and Present,” Oct. 29-Nov. 10

JOY HARPER, THE GAZETTEe