Taking the Kids: Visiting a snow resort when you don’t or can’t ski

Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on Mar 16, 2023

Near Waterville Valley, New Hamphsire, visit Ice Castles in nearby North Woodstock with ice slides, ice caverns and crawl tunnels.

The alpenglow is an optical phenomenon that illuminates the mountains at sunset with a peach and purple hue. See it in Kalispell, Wyoming, at Lone Pine State Park. Winter kayak at Flathead Lake.

Museum hop in Santa Fe while the rest of the family skis. Take your pick of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the Museum of International Folk Art or the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. There are 250 art galleries too.

Ride horses in the snow – or watch them from your porch hot tub at Vista Verde Ranch outside of Steamboat, Colorado, where a variety of winter sports is on tap away from the crowds at a big ski resort. (Ready to make snow graffiti?)

But if that’s what your kids crave, the ranch will shuttle back and forth while you relax honing your Nordic skiing skills, on a guided snowshoe walk or just cozying up to the fire while someone else cooks and cleans for you.

Stay on the outskirts of Yellowstone Park at Lone Mountain Ranch, in Montana which dates back to 1915. Go dog sledding on the forest's snow-blanketed floor.

Park City, Utah, with Deer Valley Resort and the Park City Mountain Resort, boasts Main Street lined with buildings built during the 19th-century silver boom and Utah Olympic Park (Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics) with its museum, luge and bobsled runs. There are fabulous spas. (I’m partial to the one at the Montage at Deer Valley) art galleries, upscale eateries (High West Distillery is right downtown) and shops. We took the chance to snowshoe in the back country with a guide.

Now, are you ready for some fun in the snow?

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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 and The Kid’s Guide to Camping are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)