Things to Do in Beaver Creek

At three in the afternoon, wherever you are on this mountain, everybody starts drifting toward the bottom of the lifts. Chefs and volunteers are handing out chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven, as they have every day since 1985, at a rate of roughly half a million cookies a season. It tells you most of what you need to know about the place. Beaver Creek is a mountain that runs on small, reliable rituals, and the good ones are almost all free.

What follows is the honest version of the best things to do in Beaver Creek, season by season, from the team that works in this valley.

• Be at the base of the Centennial or Haymeadow lift at 3pm for Cookie Time, a tradition since 1985 and about 500,000 cookies a season.
• Skate the village ice rink, open late November to early April, with fire pits and couches around the edge.
• Hike the Beaver Lake Trail from the village to a lake at 9,746 feet on the edge of the Holy Cross Wilderness.
• Walk or ride the Village to Village Trail, roughly three miles linking Beaver Creek Village, Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead.
• Ride Centennial Express to Spruce Saddle for lunch and the length of the Gore Range.
• Learn to ski at McCoy Park: 250 acres and 17 runs of beginner terrain at nearly 10,000 feet, opened in 2021.
• Watch the Stifel Birds of Prey World Cup each December, on a course built in a single summer in 1997.
• Raise a stein at Oktoberfest over Labor Day weekend, in honour of Lech, Austria, Beaver Creek's sister village.
• Take a naturalist-guided hike or a snowshoe tour with Walking Mountains, down the hill in Avon.
• Turn the teenagers loose at Hawk's Nest Cabin and get your evening back.
• Stay in a Beaver Creek luxury vacation rental.

The snow leaves the village long before it leaves the summit, and for a few weeks in June the mountain is green at the bottom and white at the top. Once the lifts spin, everything opens at once: miles of trail, three villages connected on foot, a golf course almost nobody outside the resort can play, and a chairlift that carries your bike up so you do not have to.

Hiking

The Beaver Lake Trail is the one to build a day around. It starts at the base of the Centennial Express, follows the creek past the old fishing ponds, climbs through aspens and thimbleberry on what used to be a wagon road, and finishes at Beaver Lake, at 9,746 feet, right on the boundary of the Holy Cross Wilderness. Plan at least 4 hours for round trip and take ample water.

Know what you are walking into. The Holy Cross Wilderness was designated in 1980, the same year the resort opened, and covers 122,918 acres across two national forests. It takes its name from the 14,007-foot Mount of the Holy Cross and the 1,150-foot cross of snow on its face. Be prepared as there is no lift-access and minimal cell coverage in the wilderness area.

Closer in, the Village to Village Trail runs about three miles and links Beaver Creek Village to Bachelor Gulch and on to Arrowhead, so you can walk to another village, have lunch, and ride a lift or a shuttle home. The Overlook Trail climbs through the aspen glades to the top of the Centennial Express, and most people take the lift up and walk down instead. The Royal Elk Trail traverses the face and crosses the Birds of Prey race run, which is a strange thing to do in hiking boots. The Five Senses Trail is the gentle one, and the right choice on your first morning.

Mountain Biking

Centennial Express takes bikes, which makes the trails easily accessible, without a significant climb. From the top there is rolling single track in every direction, plus the shorter connectors on the lower mountain, Lost Buck at about 1.7 miles and Elkhorn at about 2.4. Bike haul and the upper trails both depend on snowmelt, so bike haul typically opens in mid-June.

Golf

The Beaver Creek Golf Club sits on the valley floor below the village, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. course, narrow and tight through the trees, and Audubon Sanctuary certified. The part worth knowing is that it is not open to the public. Play is limited to members and to guests staying in Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead, which is a real reason to think about where you sleep. It opens around the middle of May, several weeks before the lifts. Red Sky Golf Club, further down the valley, is the second option and opens at about the same time.

Scenic Rides and the Adventure Center

Centennial Express runs as a chairlift and a gondola through the summer, roughly 9:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon, and takes you to Spruce Saddle with panoramic views of the Gore Range. Enjoy lunch at the top of the chairlift. At the base of the same lift, the Adventure Center is where guests can find the bungee trampoline, and 4x4 tours, and it is the answer on the afternoon when the weather turns and nobody wants to walk.

Down the Hill in Avon

Avon is five minutes away from Beaver Creek and most visitors never stop there, which is a mistake. Walking Mountains has run natural science programmes in this valley since 1998 from a campus behind the hospital. The visitor centre is free and its naturalists lead guided hikes and snowshoe tours at every age and speed. If you want somebody to tell you what the aspens are doing and why the elk are where they are, this is the best-value morning in the valley. Nottingham Park, on the valley floor, has the lake and most of Avon's summer events.

The second half of September is the quiet secret. The aspens turn on the Overlook and along the Village to Village Trail, the summer lift operation drops to weekends only after Labor Day, Oktoberfest closes out the season, and the whole valley exhales before the ski crowd arrives. If you want the mountain largely to yourself and the light at its best, this is the fortnight.

Two of these are worth planning a trip around. The rest are worth knowing so they do not surprise you.

• The Stifel Birds of Prey Audi FIS Ski World Cup, every December. The course was cut in a single summer in 1997, designed by the Swiss downhill champion Bernhard Russi, and first raced that same December. Its six jumps are named for birds of prey: Peregrine, Goshawk, Screech Owl, Golden Eagle, Harrier, Red Tail. Women raced the downhill here for the first time in 2024.
• Beaver Creek Oktoberfest, over Labor Day weekend, September 4 to 6 in 2026. Three days of bratwurst, steins, axe throwing and a great deal of lederhosen, with Lech's own Trachtenkapelle playing. It is not a theme: Lech, in Austria, is Beaver Creek's sister village, and the whole thing is a nod to it.
• Creekside Concerts, free, at Creekside Park, on scattered dates through the summer. Bring a blanket.
• The Colorado Showcase Music Series, free, on the Village Green on Saturday evenings all summer, and BC Unplugged on Thursdays.
• The Tree Lighting and Ice Spectacular over Thanksgiving weekend, which is how the ski season formally starts.

For what else is on across the valley in the warm months, read our guide to summer events in Vail and Beaver Creek.

This was a cattle ranch until 1972, when Willis Nottingham sold 2,200 acres of it to Vail Associates. The reason they wanted it is the reason the place exists: Denver had just been awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics and the alpine events were to be raced here. That November, Colorado voters refused to fund the Games, three to two. Denver remains the only city in the modern Olympic era to win the Winter Games and then hand them back. They went to Innsbruck, and this valley was left as an Olympic venue with no Olympics to hold.

It opened on December 15, 1980, with 425 acres and 28 runs. Robert Redford and Jean-Claude Killy were there. So was Richard Lamm, who had led the campaign against the Olympics and was by then governor of Colorado, and who stood up at the ceremony and called it the "Tiffany's" of ski resorts. It has been trying to live up to that ever since, and the World Cup that arrived in 1997 is the closest the alpine racing ever came back.

The other thing to understand is that Beaver Creek is not a town. There is no mayor and no main street. It is governed by the Beaver Creek Resort Company, a Colorado non-profit incorporated on April 30, 1979: a homeowners association and a resort association with municipal services bolted on. It runs the shuttle, the escalators up to the lifts, the snowmelt under the walkways, the rink, the parking and the events calendar. That is why you drive through a gate, why the pavement is clear in February, and why the village welcomes you the way a good host does — everything anticipated, nothing left to chance.

Not a dining directory. These are the ones that match the day you have just had.

• Northside Kitchen, down in Avon, opens at seven and makes its doughnuts and pastries in house. Breakfast before a trailhead, and the pastry you put in your pack.
• Blue Moose Pizza, in the village and a valley fixture since 1995. New York-style, hand tossed, for the evening when nobody is changing out of their base layer.
• Hooked, for the night the day has earned a proper dinner. Fish flown in daily, which is a peculiar and welcome thing to find at 8,000 feet.
• Coyote Cafe, the oldest bar in the village, for a margarita on the patio when the lifts stop and nobody is ready to go inside.

The cookies are the star of the show in Beaver Creek. Beyond that, the skating rink is the evening, every evening, and they will ask to go back. Creekside Park has been rebuilt around a nest-themed playground named after the race course, with a covered pavilion and paths along the creek, and it costs nothing. Walking Mountains will take them out with a naturalist and send them back knowing something. And McCoy Park is beginner terrain with a view worth having, so the learners are not stuck at the bottom of the hill all week.

Hawk's Nest Cabin is the one parents of teenagers should write down. It is an evening club for older kids in the village, with arcade and table games, a ski simulator and a lounge, and it exists precisely so that you can have dinner. Sitting services are available for the younger ones, and our concierge can arrange one.

Once you are through the gate you can stop driving. The village is built to be walked: heated walkways, escalators up to the lifts, a free shuttle circling inside Beaver Creek. Park once in the village structure and leave it. The trailheads for Beaver Lake, the Overlook and Five Senses all start within a few minutes of the Centennial Express base, which is unusual and one of the genuine pleasures of the place,

For everything beyond the gate, Core Transit is the answer, and almost no visitor knows about it. It is the valley's regional bus network, rebranded from ECO Transit in 2024, and fare-free on nearly every route since. Only the runs to and from Eagle County Regional Airport, Gypsum and Leadville still charge. The Vail and Beaver Creek Express connects the two mountains directly, and a seasonal route links Avon to the village. For a day on the other mountain or dinner down the hill, it costs nothing and you can have a drink.

You will want a car for the drives further out, and for Red Sky. You will not want one inside the village, where the parking rules are enforced with some enthusiasm.

More of the things to do in Beaver Creek are seasonal than people expect, and the two seasons do not touch. Ski season runs roughly late November to early April, and the rink runs with it. Then the mountain closes almost entirely. Summer lift operations run mid-June through late September. Golf opens earlier than the lifts, around mid-May. The high trails and the bike haul wait for snowmelt, so late June is safer than early. Beaver Lake and the wilderness trails are summer into early autumn. Oktoberfest lands on Labor Day weekend, the World Cup in early December. Between mid-April and mid-June there is not much going on, and the prices show it.

All of this is easier from a home with a local team behind it: the trailhead nobody mentions, the tee time on a course the public cannot book, the table on World Cup weekend.