f13.net

In January, the wife and I are planning on taking a 3-5 day trip for my birthday somwhere next year. I'm kind of lost on where to go in the states. I've never been west of Michigan before so I would like to head out someplace new. Natural landscapes and a NHL team are definite pluses as the main birthday gift would be awesome seats at a game but not required.

I've been leaning towards Denver, CO since I can check out the Rockies and the Avalanche are playing the Red Wings the day after my birthday. What other spots should I take a look at?

What month is your birthday?

January.

Oops yeah you already said that. That narrows things down unless you don't mind the snow or rain. If you like the snow I would recommend Salt Lake City or Park City. If you want to avoid that sort of weather something like Las Vegas + Red Rock Canyon might work.

If you can afford the price, I recommend getting to the Vail/Beaver Creek area in Colorado. This would work since you're 2 hours from Denver, and if you wanted to see a hockey game after you're done skiing, it's well within driving distance.

There are two seperate skiing mountains there, the Vail trails and the Beaver Creek/Bachelor's Gulch/Arrowhead trails. Vail's a little bigger with some back bowls that are pretty wicked. BC is basically three connected resorts in one, and it's slightly less crowded unless you go on the huge peak weekends when everything is crowded.

I personally live up there about a month every year during the summers and winters combined, and I can tell you that if you love skiing it's a great location with a myriad of choices for great restaurants and accomadations as well. The downsides are the huge draw it has during the weekends that seriously dwarf the lifts and cause wait times to go through the roof, but they are putting in newer faster lifts in most places to help that. Also, it's not cheap by any means. Still, it's a trip most won't forget.

Here's a link to the mountain trail maps for Vail:

http://vail.snow.com/info/mtn.overview.maps.asp (http://vail.snow.com/info/mtn.overview.maps.asp)

If you end up choosing Utah, PM me and I will give you the skinny on places to go. No NHL team here although you will have the choice of ski mountains or redrock country down south as far as the "nature" thing goes. If you want redrock country, you could do the National parks down south in Utah then go down to Vegas/Grand Canyon, then fly out of Pheonix and try to catch a hockey game there. That is a fair amount of driving though for a 3-5 day trip.

Maybe you can plan a trip to Arizona sometime around Jan. 8th to go watch Ohio State play in the Fiesta Bowl for the National Championship....

Gotta take my shots at the damn Michigander (Assuming from the Michigan comment that you are from there)....

Not only am I a Michigander but I'm like 3 minutes from The Big House. I'm pretty passive when it comes to college sports anymore though, haven't even been to a game yet.

If you are a skier or enjoy other winter sports - Vancouver/Whistler. Stay up at Whistler Village and come down to Vancouver to catch a Canucks game. BC really isn't as bad in the winter as people think (certainly not as cold as Michigan gets), and if you are looking to enjoy the great outdoors, you won't find anything better - mountains, forests, and the ocean, all in the same place.