Colorado

Winter recreation has been around a long time in Colorado. Yea, we know, that's kind of obvious.

The point we're trying to make is that the mountain ranges that dominate the western half of the state have been explored, hiked on, skied on and snowmobiled on for a lot of years. We don't imagine there are too many stones left unturned-to borrow a phrase-when it comes to finding new places to ride a snowmobile.

But then, we're not really talking about actually finding new places to ride. We're talking about diving off the groomed trails-which Colorado has plenty of-and playing way back in the trees, on countless bowls and shooting up nose-bleed high mountains.

Most areas we've explored off-trail are close to existing groomed trail systems.

We've been sworn to secrecy on a couple of the spots we've been in Colorado that are amazing places to ride.

One we will tell you about is the headwaters of the Illinois River. This is big horsepower country with numerous drainages, some awesome bowls and excellent tree riding. At the farthest point back in where the headwaters actually begin, you're surrounded by Wilderness. Generally speaking, the Wilderness boundary follows the ridgetops.

Another great backcountry spot is west of Crested Butte near Lake Irwin and the small hamlet of Irwin. We snowmobiled there years ago when the Irwin Lodge was still open and saw more backcountry skiers than snowmobilers. Riding here isn't as extreme as it is in the Illinois River headwaters area but it can be if you look hard enough.

Farther south near Creede is even more great backcountry riding while up north check out between about Steamboat Lake and the Colorado/Wyoming border.

There's also a lot of country on BLM land that, when the snow conditions are right, you can sled. For more information, log on to www.blm.gov/co/st/en.html.

Regardless of where you decide to ride in Colorado you might want to bring the big hardware. Remember that Colorado has the highest average elevation of any state in America-6,800 horsepower-robbing feet. We've ridden as high as 12,000 feet in Colorado but we could only get to those spots on an 800. Oh, and by the way, we weren't even at the top of the mountain-we were only on the saddle.

Backcountry skiers are looking for the same untouched powder that snowmobilers are so don't be surprised if you come across a skier or two way back in the sticks.