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Colorado Vacation Rental Cities Allenspark Aspen Beaver Creek Breckenridge Carbondale Colorado Springs Dillon Frisco Keystone Monarch Salida Silverthorne Snowmass Steamboat Springs Vail Winter Park Woodland Park	Bedrooms: 4 Sleeps: 9 Bathrooms: 3.5 Aspen Lodge Overlooking Roaring Fork River Rent this affordable 4 bedroom, 3½ bath chalet-style home by the week. The home sits on 2 acres overlooking the Roaring Fork River only a few minutes from d click here for property details >>	Related Articles Aspen

Aspen, Colorado Vacation Rental Houses and Condos.

Aspen, Colorado vacation rentals by owner condo and house rentals is in Aspen, the largest city and county seat of Pitkin County, Colorado. Founded as a mining camp in the Colorado Silver Boom and named because of the abundance of aspen trees in the area, the city is now a ski resort and cultural center. The city emerged as a skiing mecca following World War II and the foundation of the Aspen Skiing Company by Walter Paepcke, a Chicago industrialist who sought to create a utopian community of the mind and body. Paepcke's legacy of the Aspen/Snowmass resorts, along with such institutions as the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School, have made the city a year-round international destination for recreation, arts, business, and intellectual discourse. In the late 20th century, the city developed as an off-beat haven for misfits, attracting such free spirits as John Denver (who wrote several folk songs about the town, including "Aspenglow", and "Starwood in Aspen") and Hunter S. Thompson, who was glorified by many locals for his embodiment of the "freak power" ethic of the community. The city is the site of the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

This historic character of the city has been challenged in recent decades by skyrocketing property values and the proliferation of second vacation rental homes, increasingly shutting low- and middle-income workers out of the city and creating a large pool of commuters from nearby bedroom communities such as Basalt and Carbondale. At the same time, in stark contrast to its historic character, the city has emerged into international fame as a glitzy playground of the wealthy and famous, associated with such notable celebrities as Kevin Costner (who maintains a residence near the town) Michael Douglas, and Donald Trump. The downtown has been largely transformed into an upscale shopping district that includes high-end restaurants, salons, and boutiques. The booming real estate market has forced the city to struggle between permitting growth and restricting it. The city today remains a quirky mix of high-end luxury vacation rental homes and condos intermixed with legacy residences and mobile home parks populated by an old guard of Aspen residents struggling to maintain the unique character of the city.
The city sits along the southeast (upper) end of the Roaring Fork Valley, along the Roaring Fork River, a tributary of the Colorado River about 40 miles south of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It is surrounded by mountain and wilderness areas on three sides: Red Mountain to the north, Smuggler Mountain to the east, and Aspen Mountain to the south.