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Find out what this Colorado ski haven has to offer you and your older children during the summer months, when mountain bikes soar and prices at local area condos and resorts fall.

If your family has even a modicum of an adventurous spirit, Vail Valley in the Colorado Rockies is the place to come in summer, a veritable Mecca for sports and outdoors enthusiasts of every stripe and every age. Your teenager will see Vail as hip; you will see it as chic.

20 Below Youth Center (970 479-2292), which offers programs for under 20s after 6pm, is just one great resource. There is so much families will enjoy together. Whitewater river-rafting, taking a trail ride on horseback or a float fly-fishing trip really provide memorable parent-child experiences.

Essentially everything that adults can do, even young children can do in a camp environment, at Camp Eco Fun (children 4-11), Camp Vail (5-12 years) and Pre-Kamp Vail (30 months-5 years.) Contact Vail Recreation District (970 479-2279) for more information. Early enrollment is suggested.

Vail's Popular Adventure Ridge

Adventure Ridge (970 476-9090) will have special appeal for everyone, but especially teens. This is an on-mountain playground at 10,000 feet altitude; eateries ranging from casual to posh offer breathtaking views. In winter, it's for tubing and snowmobiling, and in summer it's even more fun. Families together or teenagers on their own can enjoy disc golf, horseshoes, croquet, bocce and volleyball, play Laser Tag, jump on a trampoline and even rent a mountain bike  to try the easy, one-mile Eagle's Loop.

Many of the ski facilities do double duty in summer. You can brave the Thrill Sled (winter or summer) and slide face first from the top of the mountain to the bottom on a sled you control with hand-held hydraulic brakes. At Beaver Creek, another Vail Resorts property nearby, families can enjoy outdoor summer ice skating (open evenings.)

Biking & Whitewater Rafting

Just as Vail has become a world-class destination for downhill skiing, it has become a biking Mecca.  If you wanted to experience mountain biking from the summit, there are relatively easy trails, as well as clinics, and performance workshops. You can rent your own bike or take a workshop designed to suit your level and style.

If road biking is more your speed, families can enjoy together 135 miles of paved trail over Vail Pass, at 10,400 ft., to Copper Mountain and on to Breckenridge and beyond. (Biking outfitters can take you to the top of Vail Pass, so you  ride 20 miles down.) But a really spectacular paved and relatively flat trail for biking or rollerblading is through the 18-mile length of Glenwood Canyon (also popular for whitewater rafting.)

There are whitewater rafting trips that families can take together, but the trip that is sure to excite a teen is a night vision raft trip, available through Lakota River Guides (866 724-8340).  You are provided with Navy SEAL-issue (but declassified) night-vision goggles, wetsuits and life jackets, plus plenty of ghost stories. The river flow along the Colorado is gentle, allowing for lots of creature spotting such as beaver, foxes, coyote and deer.