Estes Park is a vacationland, and to prove it there’s even an annual publication named Estes Park Vacationland.
Owned by Susie Masterson, Vacationland celebrated its 75th anniversary last week as the 2025 edition came off the press.
To mark its diamond jubilee, editor and publisher Susie Masterson hosted a reception for supporters, advertisers, and photographers at the Twin Owls Steakhouse last week.
The official visitors guide to Estes Park is a 146-page full-color magazine – known in the printing trade as “digest” sized – whose cost is “priceless,” according to the front cover.
Masterson, a dynamo of enthusiasm for the community, has owned the publication since 2011 when she and her mom, Helen, bought the vacation guidebook from Tamara Jarolimek who had owned it since 2000 with her partner James Frank, a photographer.
Jarolimek had bought it from Kathy Sullivan who had owned it since 1983, and she had bought it from Lois Schmidt in 1970, who bought it from Ruby Marden who started the business in 1950.
“It’s the oldest magazine of its kind in the whole country,” Masterson said. “And it has been owned by five women.”
Masterson says each owner has put her imprint on the style of the publication during their tenure.
The guidebook began as a small brochure “Estes Park Vacationland: What to Do.” She also produced a smaller brochure “Estes Park Vacationland: Where to Stay.”
Masterson knew the area well. She had family roots in Estes Park going back three generations. She had also been a counselor at Cheley Colorado Camp and worked under Bo Winslow as a wrangler teaching campers how to ride. Years later, Winslow worked for Masterson helping to distribute the vacation books.
Masterson and her mother, a seasoned travel writer who served as editor in chief, began publishing a dining guide to area restaurants in 1995. When Jarolimek saw Masterson’s restaurant book, she convinced Masterson to buy Vacationland, and Jarolimek and Frank opened the Aspen and Evergreen gallery. On the advice of a friend, Masterson blended the guidebook with the restaurant guide into one publication beginning in 2020.
Today, the guide is a treasure trove of information for visitors to the Estes Valley, including how to cope with the altitude, navigating the reservation system in Rocky Mountain National Park, traveling to the area with a pet, planning a high-country wedding, enjoying the fall rut, and weathering the winter.
“The number one question visitors have is where to find the elk,” said Masterson. The other big thing visitors want to know is how to navigate the timed entry system to get into Rocky Mountain National Park, she said.
Not only is the book an insider’s tip sheet of what to do and where to go, but it is replete with foldout maps, including a month-to-month calendar of events and festivals, and tidbits of local history and trivia.
Last year, Masterson changed the colors on the maps to highlight the Bear Lake corridor, which requires a separate timed entrance permit.
Masterson is passionate about sustainable tourism. The books are printed by Publication Printers in Denver on chlorine-free paper and using soy-based ink in which is low in VOC.
Other sustainable practices include recycling the shrink wrap used to bundle the booklets on the shipping pallets, reusing the shipping boxes, and making sure any surplus books from the previous year are shredded and recycled.
The guidebook provides information about sustainable tourism and how visitors can reduce their environmental footprint by doing things such as not using single use plastics such as water bottles and the little shampoo bottles provided by hotels, to reusing their towels during hotel stays to cut down on the amount of laundry that must be done.
One of the things Masterson is proud of is the distribution system for getting the press run of 101,000 copies of Vacationland into the hands of visitors. She and a team of drivers take boxes to welcome centers in Burlington, Sterling, and Julesburg, and places farther afield including the Estes Park Visitor’s Center and dozens of locations around town.
In addition to the Estes Park Vacationland and Estes Park Restaurant Guide, Masterson publishes the Moab to Monument Valley GuestGuide, and the Grand County Menu Guide.
You must be logged in to post a comment.