The little sorrel mare plunges joyfully through the powdery drifts, like a carousel horse freed from its pole. Her shaggy winter coat is frosted with snow and when she pauses at the hilltop, she snorts steam and her sides heave with the effort. Yet, she tugs at the reins, seems eager to push on.

There’s at least one way to have a blast of snowy fun without even standing up. And that’s tucked into a sled, sitting behind a team of yapping, churning, happy Huskies. Dog-sledding has become increasingly popular in many Colorado mountain towns and ski areas as a different way to explore the winter wilderness.

Planning a trip for 2015, but need to watch your budget? Consider visiting a destination in its off-season, when airfares and hotel rates are lowest. You may have to deal with less-than-perfect weather, but there are compensations. Here are some places to visit in their off-season, where you might just find travel bargains.

This time of year, you can find Santa Claus in every mall in America. In department stores and even discount stores. Ringing bells and coddling toddlers. But if you want the real Santa experience, you need to visit him where he lives. The North Pole. Not the geographical North Pole, of course. St.

For a landmark wedding anniversary one December, we did what many people do to celebrate an accomplishment. We went to Disney World. We always meant to take the kids, but somehow it didn’t happen. And, actually, it wasn’t our idea.

The flotilla of fat blue and yellow inner tubes sorts itself into single file as we enter the first of five tunnels on our downhill journey through former irrigation ditches on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. The waterway’s banks are lined with tropical blossoms tucked into mosses and ferns.

Our small band of trekkers chuff-chuff-chuff across a snowy meadow at 9,000 feet on a crisp winter morning. A cloudless cobalt canopy stretches from mountain range to mountain range. A plump brown mouse darts across the crusted drifts, seeking a seed or other edible tidbit.

Thanksgiving automatically brings to mind all the stories we learned in school about how the Pilgrims came to America in search of religious freedom, landed on Plymouth Rock and were saved from starvation by friendly Indians. Much of what we think we know is wrong. Or at least off-kilter.

 On an end table in my living room sits a chubby, six-inch-high blue pottery owl with huge eyes. His name is Bernard. Bernard was also the name of the slightly plump, doe-eyed waiter who brought us strong coffee and a genuine smile every morning on a trip to Cancun some years ago.

The newest hot spot in Denver also is where the town got its start: at the railroad station. The newly renovated Union Station in downtown Denver echoes the past and celebrates the present.

As winter creeps into Colorado, it’s spring in the southern hemisphere. Time to head south! Way south. Movie-goers, even occasional ones, can not visit New Zealand without experiencing a keen sense of    déjà  vu.

At some Colorado hotels, not all visitors check in. Some don’t even require rooms. Still, they may overstay their welcome – by as much as a century.  Many of Colorado’s historic hotels have ghosts – or at least ghost stories. Take Denver’s Brown Palace, for example.

One of the delights of traveling – in Colorado or anywhere – is finding great local restaurants. They don’t need to be the fanciest, or most expensive – and often they’re not.

Lots of folks around Colorado head to Fort Collins on fall weekends to cheer on the CSU Rams. And though you could just go up for the football game and come home again, consider making it a weekend getaway.

Rocks. I love rocks. My mom and my sisters love rocks. We don’t know why. We just find them fascinating. Maybe that’s why I find the Paint Mines so intriguing. About an hour east of Colorado Springs, just past the town of Calhan, you’ll find the Paint Mines Interpretive Park.

In the arid, cactus-strewn hills of northern New Mexico lies Ojo Caliente, an isolated hot springs resort where the rest of the world fades away. From Colorado Springs, head south on I-25 to Walsenburg, then take U.S. Highway 160 west to Alamosa. From here, catch Highway 285 south through Antonito into New Mexico.