After a day on Colorado’s slopes, it’s highly likely you’ll be thirsty. Who says you have to follow the crowds to that bustling, hip, well-lit scene of apres?

Look real hard across the glitz of ski country, and you’ll find other places to wet your whistle (and probably save some cash). These are some dives where characters thrive and history lives on:

Kochevar’s Saloon & Gaming Hall: Jacob Kochevar opened the place during Crested Butte’s 1880s mining days. While functions have shifted over the years — brothel, gaming hall, bowling alley — the old-time aesthetic has remained. As has a story: It is said the bar once kept Butch Cassidy’s gun.

Woody Creek Tavern: A very different side of Aspen exists on the other side of the tracks. This is the watering hole of the Woody Creatures, as regulars are known — rebels who made home here as everything else changed around them in the 1980s. Among them was writer Hunter S. Thompson.

Silver Dollar Saloon: Leadville’s Ski Cooper embodies the old way of skiing in Colorado. The humble hill produced men of the 10th Mountain Division who went on to pioneer the industry. The Silver Dollar Saloon, meanwhile, embodies an even older way of life. They say the ghosts of the Wild West lurk there.

The Minturn Saloon: The Minturn Mile is an ongoing tradition that has in-the-know Vail skiers veering out of bounds to land in the old haven. In more than a century, the saloon’s clientele has changed from railroaders to powder hounds. Little else has changed, however, including the steak and duck.

Last Dollar Saloon: A blogger on the website Snow Brains ranked this Telluride staple as the world’s best “skier dive bar.” Noted was a frosty pint for $3, a price you’d more so expect around the bar’s 1978 opening. A renovation in 2018 was careful to keep the original wood floor, brick walls and tin ceiling.

Mint: Between high-rise developments along Silverthorne’s Blue River Parkway, the old western facade stands as a symbol of perseverance. The building has miraculously survived three moves since 1862. It survives today as a steakhouse, but the bar honors the original purpose.

Goat Soup and Whiskey: After decades under Summit County governance since the resort opened in 1970, residents in 2023 voted to make Keystone its own town. Every town needs its own dive bar. This might be it, staking its claim over the years with $5 wells, a stained carpet and a list of banned customers.

Moose Jaw Food & Spirits: Locals know it as “The Jaw,” a Frisco staple since 1973. The nearby ski industry was still rising in those days, along with local prices. The Jaw has kept it cheap for grateful bums who devour burgers and wash them down with a cold one. “Mama Moose,” the original owner, is still around.