As I have shared before, one of our favorite places is Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA Camp, between Winter Park and Granby, Colorado. It is one of two YMCA of the Rockies locations, providing endless mountain fun for families. On our winter trip to Colorado this past weekend, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit SMR for a day.
You have not experienced sledding until you have gone tubing at Snow Mountain Ranch. After this weekend, I fear that my children have been spoiled for life. Never have I experienced such a smooth, yet ridiculously fast ride. Check out the video below!
Unlike the summer tubing hill there, the winter hill does not have a conveyer belt back up, so it can be quite the workout, especially if you choose to pull your smallest ones back up in the tubes like me.
I haven’t had many chances to exercise recently, so I was happy to do it. Boy, is it a blast though! All of our kids were smiling ear to ear-
we were having so much fun there, we spent most of our day racing up and riding down, so we never found time to partake in other winter activities during the day, but we will be back again another time!
Most of the winter activities at Snow Mountain are done at Camp Ouray, which is on SMR property, but closed during the summer to SMR visitors due to residential campers. Winter activities include a Nordic Center to sit and eat lunch, ice skating, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing (they have rentals if you don’t have your own).
We always manage to find time to roller skate while there, so after the tubing hill wore us out, we raced over to the Kiva to practice our skills (the Kiva also has indoor rock climbing and archery during the winter for $5/person). The skates are free to use, or you are able to bring in your own rollerblades or skates if you prefer. The first couple times we tried skating, it was difficult with 5 kids to teach, but all of them have surprised us and love roller skating as much as any other SMR activity.
Snow Mountain is famous for their popular free s’mores schedule. When we saw they were doing s’mores down at the craft center, you can bet we made sure to made it down to the campfire for a tasty afternoon treat.
As daylight came to an end, the snow continued to come down, so we headed over to the Buckboard Grill for some free tea
and a little cartoon downtime while I picked up some of the kids’ favorite fuzzy little creatures from our favorite little gift shop right there next to the front desk.
What a great way to spend our first full day in the mountains!
