Elk Run Assisted Living on Frost Way and Gaia's Remedy Assisted Living on County Highway 73 account for 2 short-stay options in Evergreen, both tucked into the pine-forested Jefferson County foothills southwest of Denver. A respite guest at either settles into the community's standard daily life: a private furnished room, three meals, personal care and medication management, housekeeping, and overnight staffing, until a scheduled end date.
Elk Run spans 62 beds on Frost Way. Gaia's Remedy is a 12-bed mountain residential home on County Highway 73, a close-knit household scale for guests who prefer fewer neighbors. Both are assisted-living communities with no secured memory-care wing.
Inside a Foothills Respite Stay
At Elk Run, a short-stay guest joins meals, activities, and care routines alongside more than 60 permanent residents. Gaia's Remedy delivers the same personal care and overnight supervision in a home with roughly a dozen total residents, a quieter mountain cadence. Neither building is suited to a guest who needs locked doors and staff trained specifically for dementia, and a local advisor can clarify what that search involves without pointing a family in the wrong direction. Minimums at both communities tend to fall in the two-to-four-week range, though Gaia's Remedy's 12-bed total means a short-stay slot disappears faster than it would at a larger building.
Respite Costs and Coverage
Respite at Elk Run and Gaia's Remedy is billed per day as a private expense, distinct from the monthly long-term figure shown on each community's listing. Jefferson County foothills assisted-living respite runs roughly $175 to $240 daily; the per-day amount climbs above the prorated monthly equivalent because the building commits a room for a brief stretch. Current 2026 cost-of-care benchmarks put the Denver-area foothills above the national assisted-living daily average.
For this kind of stay, the family covers the daily charge. Medicare's respite provision applies only to inpatient hospice patients, an unrelated situation. Health First Colorado, Colorado's Medicaid program, is built around sustained long-term placements for eligible residents rather than brief private community stays. Veterans' benefit programs and qualifying long-term-care policies may absorb part of the daily cost, worth checking before the stay is confirmed.
Availability and Evergreen's Older Population
About 24 percent of Evergreen's 8,600 residents are past 65, roughly 2,056 people, a notably higher share than Colorado's statewide figure. Two communities means finding an open room on the right week drives the search. Elk Run turns over rooms across 62 beds with more regularity; at Gaia's Remedy, one occupied short-stay slot closes the option until it clears.
Why Families Book a Short Stay in Evergreen
For a caregiver who needs surgery or travel time, Elk Run or Gaia's Remedy replaces improvised arrangements with structured meals and overnight staffing. For someone recovering after treatment at Saint Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, returning directly to an unoccupied mountain home on winding canyon roads is not always the right next step, and a short Evergreen stay keeps family visits local. For a household approaching a permanent decision, real days inside one of these buildings show things a tour cannot. Many short stays become permanent placements simply because living there resolved the uncertainty.
What a Local Advisor Brings to Evergreen
Elk Run and Gaia's Remedy serve different guests, and the practical details shift constantly: which has a room open on the needed dates, what daily rate it carries, and whether the minimum fits. An advisor covering Jefferson County confirms current availability at both Evergreen communities before a family commits.
Talk with a local advisor to see which Evergreen community has a room open on the dates you need.
