What can you do in Aspen for free?

Jump to: In town · Trails · Art & music · With kids · Winter · Worth paying for anyway Let's say the quiet part first: Aspen is expensive. You know it, we know it, the ten-dollar coffee knows it. Which is exactly why it matters that the best of this valley — the part people cross oceans for — is free. Locals live on this list. Now you can too. FREE IN TOWN The John Denver Sanctuary is the town's favorite quiet place: river sounds, song lyrics carved into boulders, benches made for doing nothing. Wander the historic core with your neck craned — this was a silver boomtown for barely a decade and the buildings still tell it. Wagner Park is the town's front lawn (rebuilt playground and all), and in summer the Saturday Market takes over downtown with the whole valley walking past. And the bus is free. Genuinely. RFTA in town costs nothing — ride it like a local and save your parking money for dessert. THE TRAILS (THE MAIN EVENT) This is the section that beats every paid attraction in town. The Rio Grande Trail is flat, gorgeous, and yours for as long as you feel like walking or riding. Smuggler Mountain Road is the locals' daily — a steady climb to a platform with the whole valley at your feet, and half of Aspen's dogs for company. Hunter Creek feels like deep wilderness ten minutes from a coffee shop. Marolt Open Space is meadow-wandering at its finest. And in summer, the Grottos up Independence Pass hand you ice caves and river-carved rock for the price of the drive. Every one of these is on our map with the paw rating for your dog. Storms build after lunch in summer — go in the morning, like everyone who lives here. ART AND MUSIC, ACTUALLY FREE The Aspen Art Museum — a serious contemporary museum in a building people photograph from the street — is free, every day it's open, courtesy of its donors. Not free-on-Tuesdays free. Free. In summer, the Aspen Music Festival fills the valley with world-class musicians, and the lawn outside the music tent is the town's favorite picnic: bring a blanket, the symphony comes to you. Lawn access has traditionally been free for most concerts — check the day's schedule at aspenmusicfestival.com before you plan the picnic. There's also a rotation of free summer concert series around Aspen and Snowmass — our This Week in Aspen list on the homepage keeps the current ones. FREE WITH KIDS Print our Birdie & Goose History Hunt — a free scavenger hunt through Aspen's mining history where kids ask real questions of real people at each stop. Add the parks (Wagner and Herron have playgrounds; Herron adds a shallow river edge — hold hands, the snowmelt runs fast and cold), the library's storytimes, and throwing rocks in the river, which remains the highest-rated activity for anyone under ten. FREE IN WINTER The Rio Grande Trail under snow is a different, quieter kind of beautiful. Downtown at dusk — lights on, snow falling past the streetlamps.. is the postcard, no purchase necessary. The gondola plaza people-watching as skiers clatter home is better theater than most theaters. And the stars up here, any clear night, any season, are the show the altitude throws in for free. AND THE TWO THINGS WORTH PAYING FOR ANYWAY We'd be lying if we ended without this, and this site doesn't lie to you: the gondola ride up Aspen Mountain and the Maroon Bells trip both cost money, and they're both worth it. Budget for those two, do everything else on this page for free, and you'll have had the richest cheap trip in Colorado. FREE-ISH: THE UNDER-TEN-DOLLARS HALL OF FAME Some things aren't free but feel like a bargain in this zip code: [COFFEE SLOT — the under-$10 cup you'd actually send someone to], [TREAT SLOT — the ice-cream or pastry stop], [BREAKFAST SLOT — the cheap-and-wonderful morning option]. The people behind every one of them are on our map. — Written in Aspen by Chloe, with supervision from Birdie & Goose 🐩🐩