Taking the Kids: Fun in the snow, despite COVID-19

Ranches offer the opportunity to stay in private cabins and spend time outdoors whether back-country skiing, snowmobiling, sledding, or snowshoeing. They are intimate and often all-inclusive so guests can hone skills in a new sport or activity without paying extra for lessons or kids’ activities. (Have you ever made snow graffiti or fed horses in a snow-covered meadow? Have you ever snowshoed in deep powder?) “This is one place we can come that everyone gets to do what they want and still all be together as a family,” said Alex Hoffman, a North Carolinian whose family we met last winter – pre-pandemic—at Vista Verde Ranch.

This winter, the deluxe Brush Creek Ranch, touts exclusive access to Green Mountain, a private 600-acre area for downhill skiing and riding at all skill levels and for just 12 guests at a time.

The more affordable YMCA of the Rockies, with individual cabins, meanwhile, offers free guided snowshoe hikes into Rocky Mountain National Park, ice skating, winter hiking, as well as plenty of indoor activities — basketball, a craft center, an indoor climbing wall among them. It’s sister resort, Snow Mountain Ranch even has dog sledding. (Check out their Cyber Monday deal offering 25 percent off through the end of March.)

In New Hampshire, the Appalachian Mountain Club lodges offer plenty of fun in the snow and the advantage of borrowing gear that you need, from snowshoes and trekking poles to hiking boots.

And in Minnesota, your family can sign on for a multi-day dog sledding adventure at Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge.

See an entirely different Yellowstone in winter when most roads are closed and crowds gone. We snowshoed right by a bison at Old Faithful! (You can stay at Mammoth Hot Springs Cabins.) Take your older teens and 20-somethings for a different kind of holiday with Yellowstone & Tetons Family Snow Adventure Tour where you might even spy an elusive gray wolf. (Check with Backroads about availability of private trips for groups of eight.)

Keystone Resort, one of the closest major snow resorts to Denver, has long been popular with families because kids ski free all season with a stay at the resort, and there has always been a plethora of off-the-slopes activities, including a huge top-of-the-gondola ice fort that sadly won’t be constructed this season because of the pandemic.

That seems a small price to pay, families suggested, if the resort and others in ski country can stay open all season.

“If the mountains shut down again, it will really mess up our local economy,” said Emmy Massey, a medical social worker who lives in Vail with her family.

Vail Resorts, like virtually all in the industry, have implemented a series of wide-ranging protocols that they believe will keep skiers and riders safe — everything from having guests ride lifts and gondolas only with their group to more grab-and-go food options to mask wearing and far smaller ski school classes that now will require reservations .

Said Massey, mom of a 10-year-old, “We’re excited and we’re here, but it is all an unknown.”

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, 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, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)