My family and I will always have a soft spot in our hearts for Winter Park Ski Resort, Winter Park, Colorado. It's where, years ago, I learned Alpine skiing after countless ski lessons—both group and private—at many other resorts. Finally, I skied with my son and daughter as long as they stuck to the green and basic blue runs. Prior to my breakthrough at Winter Park, the most exciting thing that I had ever accomplished on an Alpine ski weekend was learning how to stand up after falling down.

But the resort's Discovery Park, opened in 1993, freed me from endless runs—or slips—on the bunny hill, enabling me to join my son and daughter on real trails. That's because the 26-acre beginner's park gave me and other neophytes what many destinations didn't: room to learn. Instead of being crowded on a slab of icy snow with herds of other out-of-control skiers scrambling to stay upright, I knew that I could take 40 feet or more to stop and still not bump into another bumbling ski bunny.

Since then, Winter Park's undergone many transformations. In the last five years the resort spent $40 million in improvements to the mountain and that's not counting the creation of a new base Village, whose lodging and restaurants help make the resort friendlier to destination skiers.

Winter Park, Colorado's oldest ski resort, celebrates its 70th season in 2009/2010. Although locals skied the area since the 1920s, in 1937 the U.S. Forest Service created a few trails at Cooper Creek near the railroad. By December 1939, when the first J-Bar tow began service, the ski area was renamed Winter Park. Now, Winter Park consists of five adjacent mountains—Winter Park, Mary Jane, Parsenn Bowl, Vasque Cirque and Vasque Ridge—that are all connected by trails and lifts. That comes to 3,060 skiable acres laced with 143 trails and serviced by 25 lifts. Whether your family requires beginner areas, such as our beloved Discovery Park, intermediate terrain or gut-wrenching double black diamond runs, Winter Park delivers.

Winter Park is also glorious in warm weather. In Colorado, transplants have a saying: "We came for the skiing, but we stayed for the summer." That's when the mountains bloom with wildflowers and the hiking and mountain biking are prime.

At 67 miles from downtown Denver and 85 miles from Denver International Airport, Winter Park remains relatively easy to reach, a plus after a long flight.

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