Explore Mt. Zirkel Wilderness
Mt. Zirkel, at 12,180 feet, is the highest point in this wilderness that consists of the jagged Sawtooth Range along the Continental Divide. Scrub oak and sagebrush give way to aspen, lodgepole, spruce, fir, and alpine tundra at higher elevations. Keep your eyes open for pine marten, wolverine, and black bear. Check the skies for bald eagles and peregrine falcons.

Camp at Cold Springs
Surrounded by the Flat Tops Wilderness, the Cold Spring Campgrounds offers access to 110 alpine lakes and ponds. Just above the campground, the Stillwater Reservoir cascades down into the Bear River through dense spruce-fir forests. Nearby trailheads will get you on the North Derby Trail, Bear River Trail, East Fork Trail, and the Devils Causeway. The campground is a 16-mile drive southwest of Yampa along CR 7.

Ski Steamboat Springs
Steamboat's 141 trails make it Colorado's second largest mountain with 2,939 acres of terrain and 3,668 vertical feet. The Silver Bullet, a high-speed eight-passenger gondola, can whisk you up the mountain in 9 minutes. Trails like Pony, Colt, and Tumbleweed, are great for beginners while Thunderhead Express and Storm Peak Express are strictly for experts.

Drive the Flat Tops
The Flat Tops Trail, an 82-mile scenic byway from Meeker to Yampa, traverses some drop-dead gorgeous terrain. You'll pass ancient lava flows, deep canyons, alpine peaks, Rattlesnake Butte, Devils Grave Mesa, and the site of the Meeker Massacre. In 1878, Nathaniel C. Meeker became the agent of the White River Indian Agency and instituted a series of oppressive measures meant to convert the nomadic Ute Indians into sedentary Christian agrarians. It didn't work - - the Utes rebelled on September 29, 1879, killing Meeker and eleven of his men.