Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Yampa Valley Airport (KHDN) lies in Routt County, Colorado, two miles southeast of Hayden and roughly 25 miles west of Steamboat Springs, serving as the main gateway for ski traffic into the Yampa Valley. It offers a single long asphalt runway with an ILS approach to runway 10, making it usable by both general aviation and airline jets despite having no control tower. For simulator pilots it is a good high-elevation mountain-airport study, with terrain awareness and winter weather diversion tactics both relevant to the field's real-world operations.
Yampa Valley Airport, also known as Yampa Valley Regional Airport, is a Routt County-owned public airport near Hayden, Colorado, that provides the only scheduled passenger service in northwest Colorado and handles substantial business jet traffic serving the Steamboat Springs ski area. It sits at a high elevation of 6,594 feet and, despite being a fairly quiet general aviation field for much of the year, sees a notable seasonal surge of airline and private jet movements during the winter ski season. For a sim pilot the field is interesting both for its single long runway with an ILS approach and for the surrounding mountain terrain that shapes departure and arrival procedures.
The airport is in Routt County, Colorado, about two miles southeast of Hayden, roughly 20 miles east of Craig, and about 25 miles west of Steamboat Springs. It has no operating control tower, and all aircraft receive approach control services from Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center, which can be contacted on 120.475 MHz.
Yampa Valley has one physical runway, 10/28. Runway 28 is 9,954 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit; runway 10 is 9,445 feet long, hard-surfaced, lit, and equipped with an Instrument Landing System.
Traffic at Hayden operates on a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency shared with Unicom on 123.0 MHz, with airfield advisories provided by Unicom during hours of commercial operation. An AWOS-3 automated weather observation is broadcast on 119.275 MHz. Denver Center provides approach control services and can be reached on 120.475 MHz, with a secondary radio contact on 122.25 MHz. Runway 10 is served by an Instrument Landing System, useful given the winter weather that regularly affects the field.
There is no air traffic control tower at Yampa Valley, so aircraft operate under CTAF/Unicom procedures, receiving airfield advisories from Unicom during commercial operating hours and coordinating gate or parking assignments through Unicom or airline operations channels. All aircraft departing runway 28 are required to make a right or left turn after takeoff specifically to avoid overflying the populated area of Hayden. Snow and low cloud ceilings during winter months can cause diversions to other airports, including Denver International Airport, so pilots should be prepared for weather-related contingencies typical of a high mountain-valley aerodrome.
The airport lies two miles southeast of the town of Hayden, providing a useful visual reference for inbound traffic, with Craig some 20 miles to the east and Steamboat Springs about 25 miles to the west serving as broader orientation points in the Yampa Valley.
Yampa Valley Airport's scheduled service began with the original Frontier Airlines, which flew nonstop to Denver and via two stops to Salt Lake City using Convair 580 turboprops from late 1966 until early 1982. Rocky Mountain Airways later operated Denver flights but from the smaller Steamboat Springs Airport instead. Seasonal ski service to Yampa Valley itself began in the winter of 1985/1986 when Aspen Airways introduced British Aerospace 146 jet service to Denver, followed in 1986/1987 by PSA flying McDonnell Douglas MD-80s to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and American Airlines beginning regular seasonal service from the 1987/1988 season. Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and TWA also served the airport during the 1990s and 2000s.
The airport today has no control tower and functions on CTAF/Unicom procedures, with commercial operations supported by an FBO, Atlantic Aviation, which provides Jet A fuel. It covers 671 acres and has nine commercial aircraft parking spots and seven gates able to accommodate aircraft up to Boeing 757 size, along with a private ramp handling up to 40 business jets, though space constraints mean larger jets such as the Boeing 737 cannot be parked overnight in winter. Eighteen aircraft were based at the field as of the year ending 2021, and the airport maintains two ARFF trucks staffed for scheduled flights carrying more than 10 passengers, operating at a higher readiness level from December to March to match the winter ski season traffic.
