Taking the Kids: Fun in the snow off the slopes
Feel like an Olympian as you race down the bobsled course at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, built for the 2002 Winter Olympics; race around the Olympic Skating Oval in Lake Placid, N.Y., celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Winter Olympics when Team USA took home six gold medals, including the famous gold won by the men's hockey team.
Try a new winter sport like ski biking at Adventure Ridge. It's the size of a football stadium and at the top of the Eagle Bahn gondola at Vail Resort. There's the chance to race down the mountain tubing, ride a mountain coaster and more. Go snowmobiling, like at Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont, Colorado ski towns like Breckenridge or Crested Butte, Maine, Montana or Wyoming. Check out the Maine Dog Sledding Adventure.
Commune with the animals. Take a sleigh-ride tour of the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Thousands of elk migrate to this refuge in the winter months. See bison, elk, moose and more in Yellowstone National Park. See how many different animal tracks you can identify in the snow. (An app like the free iTrack Wildlife Lite or others from iTrack can help.)
Soak in outdoor hot springs like in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where visitors have been coming to "take the waters" with some 15 minerals for more than a century. There's also Strawberry Park Natural Hot Springs and Old Town Hot Springs in Steamboat.
Stargaze on a winter Lake Tahoe Snowshoe Tour, ideal for kids eight and older. Thanks to limited light pollution that makes for very dark skies, Lake Tahoe is perfect for star lovers.
Hit a museum for an hour or two like at the interactive free Breckenridge Welcome Center and Museumwhere you will learn how Breckenridge evolved from a mining camp to an international resort. Learn more about the history of snow sports at the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail, also free, or the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum in Stowe, where the suggested donation is just $5.
Who is ready to make snow angels?
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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid's Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid's guide series, will be out this spring.)
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