Sporty Adventures in Colorado: River Rafting, Dogsledding, Skiing & more

Hiking, biking, rafting, kayaking, jeeping or ballooning—no matter what type of outdoor adventure you're looking for in Aspen or Snowmass, Blazing Adventures will put you on the right track. Based in Snowmass Village, and with more than 30 years' experience in the industry, Bob and Laurie Harris and their team of expert guides offer a variety of adventures: white-water rafting trips on three Colorado rivers; bicycle tours through the Rocky Mountains from easy downhill descents (Maroon Bells and Ashcroft Ghost Town) to the more challenging Rio Grande Trail; jeep excursions through forests of aspen and pine and stunning mountain scenery; and sunrise balloon flights over the rugged Colorado landscape.

From $75 for bike tours and hikes. From $245 for balloon flight.

My Telluride insiders say Helitrax is the only heli-skiing operator in Colorado because its standards are so high no-one dares compete with it. This top-notch company offers skiing and snowboarding packages lasting one, three and seven days to the wild and remote San Juan range of the Rocky Mountains, the highest skiable area (13,800 feet) in North America. Group size is limited to four skiers per guide with accommodations in a luxury lodge with natural hot springs. The season runs from mid-January to mid-April with flights available from Telluride, Vail, Crested Butte, Steamboat and Aspen.

Single days from $945 a person.

If you love skiing but hate crowded slopes, Aspen Powder Tours will take you to places where the snow is untouched, the tracks are fresh and the terrain wide open. This terrific day-long adventure starts at 8:15 a.m. at the base of Aspen Mountain for the short gondola ride to the summit where a 12-person snowcat and two guides will be waiting to take you to pristine stashes on the backside of Aspen Mountain, chosen according to daily snow conditions. After a short orientation, you can ski as you please (snowboarders are also welcome) with lunch served in a cozy cabin in the spectacular Elk Mountains.

$350 per person for a full-day tour.

Why stop at a single adrenaline rush when you can have four? Aspen Expeditions, one of Colorado's leading adventure travel companies, offers the chance to paraglide, fish, rock climb and run a river in a four-day test drive of the area's adventure activities. On Day 1, you'll fly on a tandem paraglider over the Aspen Valley with a certified pilot; the next day you'll go fly fishing in the Roaring Fork Valley and White River National Forest; Day 3 is spent rock climbing on the Independence Pass; and Day 4 has you kayaking or white-water rafting with qualified river guides from the Aspen Kayak School. The program runs Thursday to Sunday.

$1,295 per person (based on two people).

This is my kind of camping—or should I say "glamping"—a luxe wilderness experience which brings a little safari-style glamour to Montana's great outdoors. From June to September, The Resort at Paws Up in Greenough opens its Tent City with six lavish tents wired for electricity, equipped with king-size feather beds and serviced by a Camping Butler. There's an elegant bathing pavilion with private bathrooms (one for each tent), a separate dining pavilion, dedicated Spa Tent, and activities from horseback riding to fly-fishing in 37,000 acres of pristine wilderness. Roughing it has never been so refined.

From $595.

Want to fly like an astronaut? Zero Gravity Corporation is the first and only FAA-approved provider of commercial weightless flights to the general public with a specially modified Boeing 727 offering flights from Kennedy Space Center. After a brief training session, passengers board G-Force One for a 90-minute flight during which parabolic maneuvers—controlled ascents and descents of the plane—are performed with flyers experiencing Martian gravity (1/3 gravity), Lunar gravity (1/6 gravity) and zero gravity, just as the astronauts do in outer space. Each loss of gravity lasts about a minute but the memory of this extraordinary flight will float for many years.

$3,675 per person.