) Timeless, elegant, and famous, Aspen is Colorado's trendiest mountain town and a year-round resort destination, boasting some of the best hotels in the state. Whether you are traveling for the winter and early spring ski season or for the excellent hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, or fly fishing in summer and fall, there is always something to keep you busy in Aspen. Set in a valley surrounded by craggy, purple-tinged mountains and aspen tree groves, the natural location is stunning enough to visit on its own. But unlike many Colorado ski towns where the villages were developed around a ski resort, Aspen was a city of its own first. Built in the late 1800s, Aspen was once a wild silver mining town, and the original red-brick architecture still exists. After the mining industry collapsed, Aspen reinvented itself as an outdoor destination with top resorts.