Best Ski Resorts Adventures
Here’s a selection of activities you can enjoy, and a few of the resorts where these outdoor adventures are available. If you’ve already decided where you’re going to vacation this winter, call ahead to learn which of these outdoor experiences are waiting for you.
You’ll find so many entertaining outdoor adventures at winter resorts that you may not want to ski or snowboard every day of your trip. Why not spend a day snowmobiling up to the Continental Divide? Or, you could sit behind the musher steering your dog sled on a trail through a pine forest. Chat with friends as you all snowshoe to a lodge for lunch or dinner. Try snowbiking, a growing craze, down the ski slopes. Don ice skates and twirl around a mountaintop rink that delivers a spectacular view of Lake Tahoe. Catch a brown trout while fly fishing in Colorado’s gold-medal streams.
Dog Sledding
Riding in a dog sled is a novel way to enjoy the outdoors. You tuck behind a driver steering the sled pulled by a team of barking dogs, racing on narrow trails through forests and across open meadows. Jackson Hole’s Continental Divide Dog Sled Adventures (http://www.dogsledadventures.com/ ) will take you into the Teton and Shoshoni National Forests on half- or full-day trips, or arrange for an overnight dog-sled trip, which could include lodging in a yurt. Combine a dog-sled ride at Krabloonik Kennels (www.krabloonik.com) in Snowmass with lunch at the popular restaurant, which features tasty wild-game dishes. The Mountaintop Inn & Resort (http://www.mountaintopinn.com ), 11 miles from Killington, Vermont, offers 1/2-hour dog-sled rides.
Snowmobiling
Steering your snowmobile on trails and racing through wide snowfields lets you explore mountainsides intimately. If you’re skiing at one of the resorts in the canyons surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah, check out Snowmobile Adventures Thousand Peaks (http://www.thousandpeaks.com ). Snowmobilers are taken to a private ranch, which has more than 60,000 acres of backcountry terrain, so you’ll get to explore untouched areas. Good Times Adventures (http://www.snowmobilecolorado.com/snow.htm ) in Breckenridge offers snowmobile rides up to the Georgia Pass at the Continental Divide. Alpine Adventures (http://www.alpinesnowmobiling.com) in Lincoln, New Hampshire, offers snowmobile rides up through Franconia Notch.
Snowshoeing
Snowshoeing is an option at just about every winter resort, and it’s a great way to catch up with friends and family members. You just put on a pair of snowshoes and start walking either on trails or creating your own path through unbroken snow. Unless you’re challenging yourself on strenuous uphill treks, it’s easy to chat along the way. Many ski rental shops in resort towns rent snowshoes and can offer advice about the best trails in the region. You can walk for free on trails designed for hikers in the summertime in many national and state parks. Many nordic centers and some dude ranches groom winter trails for both cross country skiers and people who like to go snowshoeing, but charge trail fees.
Tubing
Tubing is lots of fun and takes little energy. Just plop down on a big inner tube and start sliding downhill. (Many tubing centers have a special lift to pull you, sitting on the tube, back uphill. ) Once you get the hang of it, friends often hold hands or hold onto each other tubes and slid downhill as a group. You’ll find tubing centers in or near such diverse resorts as Mount Snow, Vermont (http://www.mountsnow.com/tubing.html ); Keystone Resort at the top of the gondola (http://keystone.snow.com/info/winter.tubing.asp ) and Copper Mountain (http://www.coppercolorado.com/plan_and_buy/snow_tubing/index.htm ), both in Colorado; and
Heavenly, California (http://www.skiheavenlytahoe.com/tubing.html ).
Tubing photo: Bob Winsett/Keystone Resort
Snowbiking
Snowbiking is growing in popularity. Picture a bike that has skis instead of wheels. Sit on it and ride downhill, steering with your handlebars and balancing with the aid of snow blades (very short skis) on your feet. You’ll find snow bikes at Winter Park Resort, Colorado (http://www.allwinterpark.com/winter_recreation/snowbikes.php) Friday and Saturday nights, and at Heavenly Resort, which straddles the California/Nevada state line. You’ll need to take a lesson first, then head out to explore the slopes in this novel manner.
Snowbiking photo: Heavenly Mountain Resort
Ice Skating
If you’re looking for free or cheap fun, go ice skating. Many of the major resorts, from California to Maine, have ice-skating rinks. (If you’re not bringing your ice skates, check ahead about rentals.) Ride the cable car up to High Camp in California’s Squaw Valley USA and you’ll have a view of Lake Tahoe while gliding around the Olympic Ice Pavilion. At Sun Valley, you’ll skate on a rink where the world’s most famous skaters have taken to the ice. You may see a celebrity or two on vacation, while skating on rinks in the heart of Aspen or Beaver Creek in Colorado. Prefer an Eastern resort this season? Head to Sunday River, Maine.
Fly Fishing
Even in the winter, skilled fly fishing guides can lead you to gold-medal water. Fly Fishing Outfitters ( http://www.flyfishingoutfitters.net/ ) based in Vail, Colorado, know where the brown trout hide on the Eagle River and great spots in gold-medal stretches along Gore Creek. With Yampa River Outfitters (http://www.steamboat.com/plan-vacation/activities/details/index.aspx?id=27 ) you’ll take a snowmobile ride to Pleasant Valley and fish the Yampa river.
Fly fishing photo: Steamboat/Larry Pierce
