Walking Downtown Aspen: Free Aspen Art Museum (Rooftop Café), 1889 Wheeler Opera House & West End

In the 1970s, Aspen closed the central blocks of Cooper Avenue, Hyman Avenue and Mill Street to car traffic and transformed them into tree-shaded red-brick pedestrian malls lined with fountains, flower beds, outdoor bistros and 1880s Victorian silver-baron architecture. You can walk the downtown core and the quiet Victorian West End in two relaxed hours.

1. Top 3 Architectural & Cultural Stops in Downtown Aspen

1. Aspen Art Museum (637 E Hyman Ave, Free Admission, Open Tues to Sun): designed in 2014 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban and clad in a woven wood-and-resin screen inspired by basketry. Thanks to an endowment from Amy Phelan, admission to all three gallery floors and the Rooftop Sculpture Garden & Café is 100% free (check hours on the official site). Take Ban's indoor-outdoor staircase or the glass lift to the Rooftop Deck looking straight at Aspen Mountain ('Ajax').
2. 1889 Wheeler Opera House & 1889 Hotel Jerome: at Mill and Hyman Streets rises the red-sandstone Romanesque 1889 Wheeler Opera House, built by silver magnate Jerome B. Wheeler, who also opened the 1889 Hotel Jerome on Main Street (the only Aspen hotel to survive the 1893 Silver Crash and stay continuously open). Step inside Hotel Jerome to admire the vintage tile floor and visit the historic J-Bar.
3. Cooper & Hyman Pedestrian Malls + Wagner Park: browse independent bookshop Explore Booksellers (inside an 1890 Victorian house at 221 E Main St), see custom western hats at Kemo Sabe (217 S Galena St), and watch paragliders land on the lawn of Wagner Park.

2. Walk West into the Historic West End & Benedict Music Tent

Walk 10 minutes west of Mill Street along leafy Bleeker, Hallam and Francis Streets into the quiet residential West End, lined with preserved 1880s Queen Anne Victorian miners' cottages and mansions. Visit the 1888 Wheeler-Stallard Museum (620 W Bleeker St, Aspen Historical Society HQ), and from late June to late August walk two blocks further to the open-air Benedict Music Tent, where sitting on the grassy lawn outside for Aspen Music Festival rehearsals and afternoon concerts is 100% free.