Is Snowbasin Family Friendly?

Looking for a family-friendly ski / snowboard resort isn’t always the easiest feat. There are things to consider like: costs, accessibility, the amount of terrain variability, the safety concerns, and of course an all time favorite – après ski options! So is Snowbasin the right spot for your next family ski / snowboarding trip? Let’s find out!

Our family spent 7 weeks at Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah (thanks to house swapping – see our “House Swapping” blog post) so we definitely had a lot of time to gather info for you all while we were exploring the mountain.

How Does Snowbasin Compare To Other Family-Friendly Ski Resorts?

Over the past decade, snowboarding as a family has become one of our favorite things to do. The mountainside memories that we have made together are priceless!

Having snowboarded all around the country, we prefer snowboarding the Rocky Mountains over anything on the East Coast. The runs are longer, it normally isn’t as icy, and the lanes are typically wider.

But, how does Snowbasin compare to the other Rocky Mountain resorts that our family has been to like Park City, Sundance, Vail, Beavercreek and Breckenridge, you ask?

Each resort brings it’s own uniqueness and there are things that we love about each place.

Snowbasin may not have the hot cookies delivered to everyone coming off the mountain promptly at 3pm like Beavercreek, or the Legendary Back Bowls like Vail, but they have their own unique family-friendly aspects that this snowboarding mom loved!

Let’s get into the details of why I loved Snowbasin as a snowboarding family…

Family-Friendly Things To Love At Snowbasin:

1. Lots Of Terrain For Intermediate Levels

Varied terrain is super important to me as all 4 of us are comfortable at different levels.

I would consider my daughter (age 9) and I super happy to stay on greens and blues, while my son (age 12) and husband love blues and blacks.

So the blue runs are the middle ground that we enjoy as a family.

Let’s break down Snowbasin’s runs through the eyes of a snowboarding family that has varied abilities.

🏂🏻Green / Beginner Runs

If greens are your jam, you won’t find as many options at Snowbasin for your family as they only offer 20% of their mountain to green runs.

I’m not saying that if you are newer to the sport that Snowbasin isn’t a good fit though!

There are a lot of great things about the resort that you will still love and that trumps other resorts! You just may not have as much access to the mountain as those who are a little more advanced.

In fact, they have a great spot called Little Cat for people who are learning. (I will talk about Little Cat later in this post.) We brought my sister, who had never snowboarded before, and taught her on Little Cat!

A little bit of local background – Snowbasin is more of a “locals” mountain since they don’t have a village. (I’ll talk more about that later also).

A lot of the locals learn how to ski / snowboard at another local mountain, Nordic Valley, as kids ski free there.

Once they have learned the basics, they move to Snowbasin as it is bigger, at a higher elevation, and has more adventurous runs.

So with all of this, I would consider Snowbasin a more intermediate to expert mountain.

🏂🏻Blue / Intermediate Runs

With Snowbasin’s 3,000 skiable acres, 50% of it is made up of blue / intermediate runs. For comparison’s sake, Breckenridge offers 30% of it’s mountain to blue runs, while Park City’s blues are at 42% of the mountain.

And when I say “intermediate”, I am a slow snowboarder who prays the whole time for our safety! It’s not like I am clocking 50mph without a care in the world!

In fact, my highest speed clocked was 12mph haha! Lame, I know! However, I am out there doing it whereas I could let my fears keep me from doing it at all!

There are 3 main areas of Snowbasin’s mountain – the Strawberry side, Needles, and John Paul.

Because each area has intermediate terrain, my daughter and I were still able to explore each part of the mountain.

I found that a lot of Snowbasin’s blues are varied in difficulty, ranging from light blue to dark blue.

If you’ve conquered green but are still leery about blues, I would suggest these easier blues for you:

• School Hill
• Bear Springs
• Main St (on the Strawberry side – keep reading for a more detailed explanation)
• Mt. Ogden Bowl Road
• Beaver Slide
• Dogleg
• Sunshine

🏂🏻Blacks / Expert Runs

If you have some experts in your family, Snowbasin has plenty of options for black runs.

Most of the time, we would ride the blue runs together. However, when the boys would want more difficult terrain, they’d hop on over to a black. I loved that a lot of the blacks ran next to the blues so that we could stay somewhat together.

However, some of their blacks should be considered gray lol. Both my daughter and I did a few blacks that were way easier than some of their blue terrain!

If you want to give a black a try, we suggest these runs:

• Rocky J
• Pineview
• Mouse Mound

If you ever wanted to try a more natural half pipe, try LMM near the base of Wildcat Express.

🏂🏻Is Snowbasin’s Strawberry Side Family Friendly?

My answer to this question is yes, but with caution.

Caution #1:

If it is a windy day, stay away from Strawberry’s peak!! It is very narrow at the peak, which you can see in the photo above.

I have had very experienced skiers tell me that they were scared on windy days there. They said it felt like they were going to be pushed off the side of the mountain from the wind!

This narrow spot is really short and ends up opening up to huge, wide runs. So if your family wants to see Snowbasin’s Strawberry peak, I say do it – but on a blue bird day.

If wind and visibility are in your favor, you’ll be able to see down into Ogden. Here is another view of the peak to show you how narrow it is, so take caution!

Caution #2:

Try Strawberry during the week, not on the weekends as it will be less crowded.

Monday – Wednesday seemed to be the most empty times for us when we were there. There were multiple days where we felt like we had the whole Strawberry side to ourselves!

You can see in these photos below what it looks like on Strawberry during the week.

We especially loved playing in Gordon’s Gully during the week.

I probably wouldn’t have even attempted the gully on a weekend due to crowds though. But during the week, it was like our own private playground!

Strawberry If You Are A Beginner

One woman told me that she was sad she never saw Strawberry since she was only comfortable on greens.

If I would have known at the time of talking to her, I would have offered her this solution:

• Take Strawberry Traverse to Main St. These are considered blues but we feel that they are lighter blues.
• Main St. is so wide that you can navigate your run to make it as easy or as difficult as what you want.
• To return to base, take Penny Lane, which is a really long, flat green run.
• One other solution to enjoy Strawberry as a beginner would be to take Becker to Bear Springs. This is also a blue but it only has one semi-steep section.

If you follow these guidelines above, I believe that your family will have a sweet time on Strawberry!

From the views to the wide lanes, Strawberry offers a different experience.

Snowbasin’s website has their map and the mountain reports but here is the map for you all as well.

2. Snowbasin Has A Big Family-Friendly Learning Area

While we were on this 7-week Snowbasin family adventure, my parents and sister came out to visit us.

My sister wanted to learn how to snowboard and my parents were there to take in the stunning views.

Both goals were achieved as I showed my parents around the mountain while my husband worked with my sister.

The area that they have for beginners and / or for people working on their skills is called Little Cat. Little Cat was a perfect area for my sister to learn on as it isn’t a “bunny hill”.

Little Cat VS. A Bunny Hill

Bunny Hills are really hard for snowboarders. They typically aren’t very long and are hard to get any kind of speed. With snowboarding, a little bit of speed, even as a beginner, is your friend. But on a bunny hill, you are at the bottom before you know it, unbinding and riding up the magic carpet once again.

Little Cat, on the otherhand, is .31 miles long and much wider than a normal bunny hill. Snowboarders have plenty of room to learn how to traverse from side to side before reaching the bottom.

With this, more time is being spent on the board than working your way back up to the top.

Plus, with it being so wide, there is plenty of space for everyone to work on their skills without being on top of each other.

The Little Cat Lift Is Great For Beginners

Since it is almost a third of a mile, Little Cat has a chairlift instead of a magic carpet. So for the first time ever, I let my kids ride a chairlift by themselves! (I could see the whole chair lift and watch them the whole time.)

I was a nervous wreck but they did great!

Once I saw how well they did on it, I let them do the Little Cat lift quite a bit. Points to me for loosening the reins haha! (They know they MUST put the bar down and if they don’t that they will be done for the day.)

So, grab a coffee from Earl’s lodge, sit by the fire pit, and let your kid’s play on Little Cat!

It’s Not Just For Beginners, But For Developing Skills Too!

There were some days where we even stayed on Little Cat to work on developing our skills.

Right next to Little Cat is a terrain park where my son practiced his jumps. While he did that, my daughter and I worked on tightening our carving. I could see both of my kids the whole time.

We really enjoyed our days on Little Cat improving our skills!

Save Money With The Little Cat Pass

Another thing that is awesome about Little Cat is that they have a “Little Cat Only Pass”. This helps beginners save money as they’re not buying a lift ticket for the full mountain.

My sister really loved this option! She was a little reluctant to go on any of the big runs, so she stayed on Little Cat for the 2 days that she was there.

While we would have loved for her do a full run with us, she left feeling good with her first time snowboarding and with her money saved lol.

This is definitely a family-friendly win for Snowbasin!

3. The Stunning, Family-Friendly Snowbasin Lodges

We overheard a fellow skier say, “If you are looking for the #1 place to take a #2, then Snowbasin’s lodges are it!” Haha!

It is true that Snowbasin’s bathrooms are awesome. From the crew that are constantly cleaning them to the marbled floors and gold trimmings, you’ll feel like a king or queen in those restrooms!

Added plus, the doors are full length so you get full privacy and plenty of room to move around.

But lodges have more than restrooms so let’s talk about why your family will love the lodges at Snowbasin.

I have been in several lodges where I have felt underwhelmed by their lack of fireplaces, their jammed in tables, their carpet that should have been replaced 5 years ago, and their subpar food. But underwhelmed is not a term that I would use for any of the 3 main Snowbasin lodges and here’s why:

Earl’s Lodge

Earl’s Lodge is at the base of the mountain and the biggest lodge at Snowbasin.

Their fire places are massive and always have a fire roaring in them – which I very much appreciated.

I counted 5 fireplaces in Earl’s. One fireplace is even next to those royal restrooms that I told you about!

As much as I love being on the mountain, I love to also take time to “just be” in the lodges. So there were a few days where I grabbed a coffee and read or worked on this blog while my family shredded Snowbasin.

It was a bit easier to do this in Earl’s since it is bigger and I wasn’t taking a table from anyone. (Don’t try to do this during the busier days, Fri-Sun.)

I would work for a little bit and then stare out the window and watch people coming down the mountain. I truly enjoyed my time here!

Below are a few more pics my family took of Earl’s lodge while we were at Snowbasin.

Earl’s Lodge Food

Earl’s offers plenty of food options ranging from the All-American chicken & fries, chili, and burgers to more international food like Pad Thai and Coconut Red Curry.

We found that for our family of 4, we could share 2 plates and be satisfied as they put a lot on the plates.

If you are there for coffee or hot chocolate, I was told that they make their own chocolate sauce for their drinks – yum!

Something to note – they have a bar in Earl’s but due to Utah law, you have to order food with any alcohol purchases. However, they had a beer cart outside of the lodge where you could purchase a drink without food.

Needle’s Lodge

Needle’s Lodge sits at the top of the mountain and can be reached by riding the Needle’s Gondola. The 360 degree views are absolutely stunning! Especially on a “blue bird” day!

Needles allows foot traffic, meaning those who don’t ski / snowboard can ride up the gondola and then ride the gondola back down.

This was perfect so that we could have lunch at Needles’ with my parents who don’t ski. Huge win to make Snowbasin family-friendly!

Their fireplace sits in the middle of the lodge and has 4 sides, allowing 4 different fires to be going at the same time. Super cozy!

Props to this lady who would literally crawl into the fire to stoke it. Super thankful to her for keeping us all warm!

Needle’s Lodge Food

There are a variety of food options at this lodge, including the sandwich that I got and really enjoyed, the Braised Beef Chopped Cheese. My dad and I split this and it was plenty of food for the two of us.

Needle’s Lodge Pro Tip

If you are foot traffic, then a fun thing to do is to watch your family/friends ski or snowboard as you ride back down the gondola. You have to time it right and here is how I suggest you do it:

• The skiers / snowboarders start down the mountain first.
• The foot traffic people will wait a few minutes before boarding a gondola.
• The skiers / snowboarders will stop where Needle’s Run and the gondola meet. They then call the foot traffic people (or use walkie-talkies like we did) and tell them to board the gondola.
• The gondola riders will let the skiers / boarders know which numbered gondola they get on.
• The skiers / boarders then watch for the gondola.
• Once they see it, they start to ski / snowboard alongside of it the whole way down.

We did this a couple of times so that my parents could watch us as it was their first time ever seeing us snowboard. It is a cool experience for both parties!

John Paul Lodge

The JP Lodge is much smaller than Earl’s and Needles, but the rocky face view to your back and the view to your front are spectacular!

Like Needles’ Lodge, there is a fireplace in the center with 4 sides allowing for 4 fires. The warmth of the fireplaces are definitely needed after riding the long JP lift up to the lodge.

The JP Express chairlift is a long, cold lift as it is on the shady side of the mountain. It is still definitely worth it though. Just plan accordingly – have those face masks, gloves and be ready to take in really beautiful terrain.

JP Food

I believe that JP’s food is probably some of the best on the mountain. You can smell the aroma as you are riding up the JP chairlift!

Get the black forest waffles and request chicken on it (sans the whipped cream). They will ring it up as a chicken and waffle plate. It was SO good that we ended up getting this twice!

One frustrating thing to be aware of is that we organized our last week around getting one of JP’s wood-fired pizzas. On the day that we planned to get it, a Monday, we were told that they decided not to do pizzas on the weekdays anymore.

We were super frustrated as it was our family’s last week at Snowbasin. There were no more weekends for us to get one of their pizzas.

(Snowbasin, if you are reading this, I suggest putting changes like this on the Mountain Report so that your people can plan accordingly.)

Tram To The Peak Off Of John Paul’s Lodge

Just outside of the JP Lodge is a tram that can take you to the peak for a view that is unbeatable!

I did not know about this until one of the JP lift operators said, “Make sure to take them (my parents) up the tram when you get up there!”

However, when we got to the top, we were told that the tram was closed. My parents only had one day to check out the mountain and missed seeing the views from the peak. Such a bummer.

Ben, the kids and I went up the tram on another day and saw what I so badly wish my parents could have seen. I say all of this to say, make sure to plan accordingly to ride the tram up and see the views from there!

On a blue bird day, you can see all the way to Nevada!

Strawberry Lodge

Although called “Strawberry Lodge”, this lodge doesn’t have any indoor seating, only a large patio with walk-up-and-order counters.

Every time we went to Strawberry, there was only one food counter that was open though.

So keep that in mind and pack a lunch if you’ve got picky eaters.

Mine aren’t picky but we tried to save on costs and packed a lot. However, I did try the hot honey chicken sandwich one day and it was so good. Super messy but good!

The patio sits at the bottom of the runs and not the top so the only views that you’re going to get here are people coming down the runs.

It is only accessible to skiers and snowboarders who journey over from other runs so it definitely doesn’t have as many people, which makes it a great resting spot.

The vibe is super chill. You can see how empty it is in the picture below.

It is also the perfect place to take a catnap after lunch. (I feel you judging me and that is ok – the nap was worth it!)

A Free Life Travel Extra Note – I think they are totally missing out by not having Strawberry Shortcake on the Strawberry side. But I may be the only one who likes little things like that lol.

Overview of Lodges

Each lodge’s portions are really big so I say that for a family of 4, 2 meals to split would be plenty.

Expect for each meal to range between $14-$20, with slight exceptions like a slice of pizza being around $8.

Even though I have spoken about the lodge’s food pretty extensively here, I am still very frugal and most days we packed our lunches to save money. There is plenty of outdoor seating at all lodges for you to eat your packed lunches.

One more thing to note is that the coffee shop at Earl’s closes at 3pm. This caught me off guard because I was hoping to let the family have their last run while I enjoyed a coffee, but when I went to order it at 2:45pm, they were already cleaning their machines and I couldn’t order. So get there in plenty of time if you need that afternoon pick me up!

Snowbasin’s lodges are definitely amazing and I hope that you get to spend lots of time at each of them!

4. Safety on the mountain

Snowbasin had some unique things to cover mountain safety that I haven’t found at other resorts.

First, they had a day where they were handing out stickers and talking about how important it is to be safe and “ride another day”. They had a man that was there who lost a daughter due to someone who crashed into her and killed her.

I had one incident where I was unstrapping my board and another boarder saw me, looked me in the eyes, sped up and then jumped over my shoulder. I was extremely mad at this as it was intentional and so dangerous. I told an employee and he went and talked with the guy. Not much happened after that though, which was a little disappointing. I think more could have been done to ensure that this guy doesn’t hurt anyone.

The second thing that I found unique was that they had a rescue dog demonstration.

The ski patrol team talked about avalanches, how they try to prevent them, how we can prevent them, and how the dogs work to rescue people out of the snow.

This was something we have never experienced at any other ski resort mountain.

5. Lifts – are they family-friendly?

I’m just going to say it – lifts scare me. I know you all must be laughing but hear me out.

We have a friend whose 13 year old son fell 30 feet from a lift in Park City and broke his hip. Thank goodness that it wasn’t worse.

In my eyes, lifts = danger.

There were two lifts that I didn’t like as a snowboard mom and are worth warning you about:

Becker Lift

I really hated the Becker lift but I have heard that they are replacing it next year – yay!

Not only is Becker super slow and miserable on windy days, the slope to get off the lift is so drastic that my daughter couldn’t reach it with her board and got stuck on the lift!

It was a pretty traumatic experience which ended up having our family come up with the saying, “Never Becker!” Haha!

But since they are replacing it next year, I hope that you all have a brand new lift that is awesome for your family.

Porcupine Lift

The Porcupine Lift is an old school lift that takes off super fast but then rides super slow. On cold, windy days, we avoided this lift. I would also ask the lift operator to slow it down when we got on and off.

We love the runs off of Porcupine so go play in that area but plan accordingly due to what I told you about the lift.

6. Is the music at Snowbasin family-friendly?

Overall, I would say yes. In fact, my mom even commented on the music saying that she loved all of the 70s music that they were playing at the lodges lol.

I’m a pretty strong gate-keeper for the music that I let my kids listen to, so I really appreciated that they weren’t playing pop music.

They stuck to 60s and 70s music, which I understand can be questionable, but I didn’t hear anything that made my ears perk up. Everything to me was family-friendly.

So no Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Morgan Wallen, etc. We get enough of that everywhere else we go so it was nice to not be forced to listen to it when relaxing at the lodges.

I overheard one man say, “I’ve been coming here since the 60s and their playlist hasn’t changed one bit. I love it!”

7. Family-friendly church services

What an incredible surprise I had when I entered Earl’s Lodge one Sunday morning and saw a sign saying that there was a non-denominational church service that afternoon!

Held in the Huntington Room inside of Earl’s Lodge at 3pm every Sunday, a local pastor comes and has a small service with anyone that would like to attend. He has been doing this for 20 years at Snowbasin!

My daughter and I went to it while my husband and son did their last run of the day.

I met people from New Hampshire, Alabama and a few locals.

We discussed King Solomon and it was very much an open discussion where we all were able to speak about what the pastor had just gone over.

It was quick – about 20 minutes, but I could have had it go on for another hour. In fact, my new friend, Heika (who is from Germany but lives in Utah now) stayed and talked with me for a long time!

I definitely think you all should take the 20 minutes out of skiing / snowboarding and go to this church service if you are there on a Sunday. You’ll get fed some great words and get to meet new people!

8. Less likely to get altitude sickness

Every time we go to Colorado, we have to plan an extra day so that my son can get adjusted to the altitude. He gets migraines and throws up every time we land in Denver.

With skiing or snowboarding in Utah, he has never had a problem and he didn’t have any issues with altitude sickness at Snowbasin either.

Just something for you all to think about!

Not So Family-Friendly Aspects:

No Village

Unlike a lot of other ski resorts, Snowbasin does not have a village with ski in / ski out hotels surrounding the base.

If that is important to you, then you may want to book your trip somewhere else.

However, if driving the incredibly scenic drive to Snowbasin, not paying ski resort hotel costs, and living like a local are appealing, then Snowbasin just very well may be your place!

Just look at how beautiful our drive was each day!

Advantages Of Snowbasin Not Having A Village

We stayed in South Ogden, which is only a 20ish minute drive to Snowbasin.

We didn’t run into any problems getting to the resort due to weather conditions, but if we had, there are buses that we could have taken.

Après Ski does look different if there isn’t a village, but I think it is in favor for families who are more budget friendly.

Instead of spending $60 on hot chocolate (yep, we did that last year in Colorado…yikes!), you can go to a local coffee shop and pay a fraction of the cost that you’d pay at a village resort.

Instead of being limited to only village dining, go grab yourself some freshly rolled sushi at the Lee’s grocery store on their $5 sushi Fridays or any of their other deals that they have going on through the week. (We can say that we loved their sushi and their donuts!)

It’s deals like this that you may miss out on if you were staying in a village.

Also with a village, you tend to only see a small radius around the mountain but by coming to Snowbasin and staying in one of the towns nearby, you’ll explore a bigger area.

Immersing yourself into the local culture by not staying in a village definitely has it’s benefits!

As an example, Northern Utah has a ton of history and things to do for the family outside of Snowbasin that can really enhance your trip!

I will soon have a post up about all of the family-friendly things to do near Snowbasin so stay tuned for that post!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures for teasers. 🙂

Pro Tip

If you go to Lee’s, hit up the Ace Hardware next door to check out my mom’s artisan soap products that are selling incredibly well in that Ace!

It’s called FreeLife Soap Co. (yep, we are both Free Life – read more about our name here). Might as well smell amazing as you are riding down that mountain!

The Wrap Up: Should you visit Snowbasin for a family-friendly ski / snowboard trip?

Coming from an intermediate snowboarder, budget-friendly but love to be in beautiful places mom, I say YES!

There is a reason why it is rated the #1 Ski Resort in all of North America and why the Olympics chose Snowbasin in 2002 and will be there again in 2034.

The views are breathtaking, the varied runs appeal to all skill levels, the location is easy to get to, and the lodges are warm, cozy and make even the cheapest snowboarding mom (me!) feel super swanky!

So go shred that beautiful mountain, make memories with your family that will last a lifetime, and stay safe!

Thanks for reading…now go live that Free Life, my friends!