Best National Parks For Winter Sports

They may not have the Winter Olympics pedigree of Palisades Tahoe or Lake Placid, or an après ski scene of Aspen or Park City, but many U.S. national parks have a pretty cool winter sports scene.

Pun intended, because some of the parks — given their northerly location or sky-high altitudes — can get a whole heap of snow and pretty chilly come winter.

Here are some of the best parks for snow season fun:

Yosemite’s Olympic Pedigree

The legendary California park bid for the 1932 Winter Olympics and lost out to Lake Placid. But many of the winter sports facilities that park authorities constructed during that time are still around and very active.

With so much snow falling in the High Sierra during January, the Yosemite winter sports season looks to run well beyond its traditional finale in mid-March.

California’s oldest ski area, Badger Pass offers 10 downhill skiing and snowboarding runs ranging from beginner to advanced, plus a ski school established in 1928. It’s a great place for families and anyone learning how to attack the slopes.

Badger Pass also offers snow tubing, backcountry ski tours, and snowshoeing (included ranger-guided snowshoe walks). It’s also the jumping off point for the epic 21-mile roundtrip cross-country ski to Glacier Point and back, a journey that can be completed in one day or with an overnight at the historic Glacier Point Ski Hut.

Down in Yosemite Valley, the Curry Village Ice Skating Rink also dates from the Winter Olympics bid, an outdoor facility with a fire pit, mood music, and Half Dome as a backdrop.

Yellowstone’s Winter Wonderland

America’s oldest national park hibernates between mid-December and mid-March. The only road open to private cars is the route through Lamar Valley and Tower Junction between the North and Northeast entrance gates. Which leaves snowmobiles, snowcoaches, snowshoes and cross-country skis as the only means to access the Yellowstone interior.

The park offers 35 dedicated cross-country and snowshoe trails, but only those with extensive experience in winter backcountry camping should venture overnight. A handful of outfitters are authorized to run guided snowmobile and snowcoach tours into the park, with the town of West Yellowstone as the major hub. Snowmobile rentals are available outside each of the major entrance gates.

Old Faithful Snow Lodge in the heart of the park is one of the few accommodations open in winter. Reachable by over-the-snow shuttles, the lodge offers cross-country ski and snowshoe rental, lessons, and guided adventures. And there’s an outdoor ice rink with free skate rentals.

Voyageurs: Ice Road Warriors

Tucked up in Minnesota’s north woods, Voyageurs transitions from a watery wonderland in summer into a snow-and-ice covered paradise come winter.

Almost dead flat, the frozen over lakes and shorelines render almost ideal conditions for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling. Sphunge Island offers a sledding and tubing slope for kids.

Avid anglers should obtain a local fishing license and ice house registration — and check ice conditions — before venturing out onto the park’s frozen lakes in pursuit of walleye, perch, pike or bass.

It may not be a sport per se, but the park’s biggest cold-weather thrill is driving the Rainy Lake or Kabetogama Lake ice roads across the frozen surface. Although the routes vary from year to year depending on ice conditions, the roads are well marked and can support cars or trucks up to 7,000 lbs.

Olympic: Let It Snow!

Hurricane Ridge on the north side of the big Washington State Park offers what many think is the best downhill skiing and snowboarding among U.S. national parks. With an average snowfall of around 400 inches per year, the pistes are cloaked in plenty of powder.

Two ropes tows and a lift whisk visitors to the top of ten trails, including one with an 800-foot vertical drop. The Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Education Foundation offers skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing lessons to everyone from toddlers to novice grownups.

The ridge also harbors a terrain park, tubing hill, and plenty of cross-country and snowshoeing routes.

Cuyahoga Valley: Ohio’s Winter Playground

Located just south of Cleveland, this relatively new national park (founded in 2000) may not have the dramatic scenery or wilderness ambience of the Western parks, but it does provide a surprising variety of winter sports.

Between the family friendly Brandywine and Boston Mills ski resorts, Cuyahoga Valley is the only national park with downhill skiing and snowboarding east of the Mississippi.

More than 125 miles of trail — including the historic Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath — are ripe for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Children of all ages can glide down the Kendall Hills on dedicated toboggan and sledding runs. While the park’s frozen ponds and lakes expedite ice fishing.

Alaska Parks: Into the Winter Wild

With remote wilderness locations, extreme weather, and a variety of wild things that don’t hibernate, Alaska’s national parks offer a more rugged, radical version of exploring the great outdoors in winter.

Boasting its own kennel, Denali is the place to head for dogsledding either with your own hounds or ranger-guided treks through a snowy wilderness that seems straight from a Jack London short story.

Kenai Fjords offers winter boat tours, snowmobiling, and ice climbing on the terminus of Exit Glacier, although the latter is recommended only for experienced climbers.

The nation’s largest national Park, massive Wrangell-St Elias permits cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and winter hiking on a trail network that stretches more than a hundred miles into the wilds of southeast Alaska.