Some People Think Winter is Cool

Well, it’s January and if you live in a colder climate you will have resigned yourself to a few more months of mittens and boots. Some of you are even excited about snowfall and the potential for all sorts of winter fun (snow and fun are two words that don’t belong together in my brain, unless we’re talking hot chocolate and a nice rousing game of Scrabble by a fireplace).

Winter Fun

If the idea of bundling up and then trudging around in the cold snow sounds fun to you, there are many options available to you. Heck, some people even roll snow into weapons and then hurl them at each other for kicks- so apparently the bar has not been set very high when it comes to outdoor activities after a snowfall.

Snow Parks

Snow parks are set up for various family activities in the freezing cold: sledding, innertubing, snowshoeing, and other forms of snow play. Here are a few examples:

Snow Bunny Lodge

Snow Bunny Lodge, in the Mt. Hood area of Oregon, has been around since the early 1950′s. They have innertubing and sledding. You can find a list of other snow parks in Oregon at TripCheck.

Leland High Sierra Snow Play

This snow park is 3 hours away from San Francisco in the heart of ‘Gold Country’ (their description, I’m not sure what that means). The Leland snow park is the largest snow play only attraction on the west coast. They tow you up groomed hills and then you can innertube down. There are also kiddie hills where smaller children (or snow newbies) can just have fun building snow men or sliding down the little hills. And, of course, we can’t write about a venue without mentioning their concession: Leland has a snack bar, located in the 4,000 square foot day lodge, offering your standard (yet tasty) concession fare (burgers, hotdogs, nachos). They also have some interesting menu items, such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some nice ways to warm up after some snow fun: bowls of chili or soup. Almost makes me want to play in the snow!

East Coast Snow Parks

I didn’t see any examples of snow parks or snow play areas on the east coast other than the rather fancy looking Homestead in Virginia. If you know of any great snow parks across the country, please let me know in the comments below.

If you’re looking for something fun to do outdoors in March, don’t forget about Frozen Dead Guy Day, which takes place in Nederland, Colorado.