Frisco

You reach Frisco after an about 75 to 90 minutes drive west from Denver on I-70 and land at 9,097 feet between Lake Dillon and the Tenmile Range. The town calls itself Main Street to the Rockies, and you feel that the moment you stroll past Prosit’s Bavarian brats, Tavern West’s creative plates, Kemosabe’s sushi rolls, Foote’s Rest candy jars, Rivers Clothing’s outdoor gear, and the treasure-packed Frisco Emporium. The street ends at Frisco Bay Marina, your launch pad for paddleboards, kayaks, fishing rigs, pontoon boats, sailboat tours, and lakeside bites at the Island Grill. Mountain views frame every step, and a 55-mile paved rec path network lets you bike, run, or longboard past trailheads that lead into public land on all sides.

Winter turns Frisco Adventure Park into a lift-served tubing hill, a beginner ski and ride slope, a Nordic center with cross-country and snowshoe trails, and horse-drawn sleigh rides. Summer swaps in a bike park, skate park, 27-hole disc golf, chuck-wagon rides, and nearby camping. Six world-class ski areas sit minutes away: Copper Mountain in seven, Breckenridge in fifteen, Keystone and Loveland in twenty, Arapahoe Basin in twenty-five, and Vail in thirty, which is why the Wall Street Journal tagged Frisco one of the coolest under-the-radar ski towns in the West. You can hike Peaks Trail’s seven-plus miles to Breckenridge, climb Mount Royal, or cast for trout, then wind down at Ten Mile Music Hall, the highest year-round music venue in the country.

The town’s roots run deep. Ute people lived here first, mountain men trapped beaver in the early 1800s, and Henry Recen founded Frisco in 1873 when silver fever hit Summit County. The name came from the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, hoped-for but never built, and the charter arrived in 1879 before incorporation in 1880. Silver riches once made this one of America’s wealthiest counties, yet by 2025 soaring housing costs forced some workers, ski instructors, restaurant crews, even emergency-room nurses, to sleep in their cars under strict local rules. The Frisco Historic Park and Museum preserves that back-and-forth story through a dozen restored buildings and hundreds of photos.

Frisco keeps the calendar full with more than seventy-five events a year. You can taste ribs at the Colorado BBQ Challenge in June, cheer a big Fourth of July parade and fishing derby, browse August’s Main Street to the Rockies Art Festival and Free Family Fun Fair, dance at Thursday summer Concerts in the Park, sample cider during December’s Wassail Days, and run or paddle in the Frisco Triathlon, Mountain Goat Kids Trail Series, Turkey Day 5K, and the costumed BrewSki on Nordic skis. Dogs get their own spotlight in the Mardi Gras 4Paws parade and the summer L.A.P.S. K94K Run + Walk.

When it’s time to rest, you pick from cozy B&Bs, national chains, historic hotels, vacation homes, or lake-view campsites. Retail and rental shops often beat resort-town prices, and locals who keep lifts spinning and kitchens humming give the place an easygoing vibe. Frisco may sit between six huge mountains, but it still feels like a tight-knit basecamp where you can chase powder, paddle calm water, groove to live music, and wake up to another blue-sky day in the Rockies.