National Park Diversions from Ski Trips

[ChrisC]

Utah national parks

I find Utah's National Parks to be the best value for your time and effort of any state. You can easily visit any of the major parks and see the highlights in a single day, especially when considering ease of access, crowding, and scenery.

(From Telluride, I would visit Arches and Canyonlands, which are only a 2.5–3-hour drive, making them a long day trip or a quick overnight stay. Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado are also viable options.)

However, keep in mind that Utah's NPs winter operations can be affected by high elevation and snow:

* Bryce Canyon is the most impacted due to its 8,000–9,000-foot altitude. If the access road closes early, many of the trails through the hoodoos become inaccessible.
* Arches: The hike to Delicate Arch can be quite difficult and icy in winter conditions.
* Canyonlands: The Island in the Sky district remains generally accessible.
* Zion: This is actually a great time to visit since you can drive through the valley yourself. Just note that the trail to Angel's Landing can be treacherous due to ice.

However, you also get the benefit of incredibly quiet trails and peaceful vistas that you simply don't see during the peak summer months.

Bryce NP - internet image

The last time I visited the National Parks in this area (Arches and Mesa Verde) was Memorial Day Weekend 2024, and you need reservations a month plus in advance; I think I secured my Arches entrance time by watching for cancellations or additional release times.


Bryce - April 2005. Still a decent amount of snow. Bryce Point: 8300ft.

Canyonlands - December 2013

Arches - December 2013

April - 2008
(Note: the La Sal Mountains in the background are highly visible from Telluride)

 

[jimk]

5 May 2026, had a terrific day visiting Arches National Park, UT. Great weather, temps low 70s, and moderate crowds. First big takeaway - no reservations and no wait to get into the park. This is a big change from my last two crowded visits to Arches! Did the three mile round trip hike to Delicate Arch and my wife joined me . It's 500 vertical feet up beyond the rock ledge in background of this photo.

Money shot, yours truly under the arch:

 

[ChrisC]

Money shot, yours truly under the arch:

Yes, I tried to get a similar shot: me under the arch!

Result: me under the arch. But no Delicate Arch in the photo.

Unfortunately, my friends and family have zero interest in photography and aren't particularly skilled at it.

Back to the point: Try to avoid some of Utah's National Parks during stormy periods. Trails, access roads, etc., can be treacherous or closed, even in the desert.

Spring and Fall are the best times.

I don't post about National Parks here because the visitation advice for almost all West Coast parks is the same: Spring (as soon as snow melts) through Summer is best because of a giant dome of high-pressure parks over the region. For desert parks, avoid summer and consider spring or fall.



You can slide into the bowl/black hole at Delicate Arch.

 

[Sbooker]

I find Utah's National Parks to be the best value for your time and effort of any state. You can easily visit any of the major parks and see the highlights in a single day, especially when considering ease of access, crowding, and scenery.

(From Telluride, I would visit Arches and Canyonlands, which are only a 2.5–3-hour drive, making them a long day trip or a quick overnight stay. Mesa Verde and Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado are also viable options.)

However, keep in mind that Utah's NPs winter operations can be affected by high elevation and snow:

* Bryce Canyon is the most impacted due to its 8,000–9,000-foot altitude. If the access road closes early, many of the trails through the hoodoos become inaccessible.
* Arches: The hike to Delicate Arch can be quite difficult and icy in winter conditions.
* Canyonlands: The Island in the Sky district remains generally accessible.
* Zion: This is actually a great time to visit since you can drive through the valley yourself. Just note that the trail to Angel's Landing can be treacherous due to ice.

However, you also get the benefit of incredibly quiet trails and peaceful vistas that you simply don't see during the peak summer months.

Bryce NP - internet image
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The last time I visited the National Parks in this area (Arches and Mesa Verde) was Memorial Day Weekend 2024, and you need reservations a month plus in advance; I think I secured my Arches entrance time by watching for cancellations or additional release times.


Bryce - April 2005. Still a decent amount of snow. Bryce Point: 8300ft.

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Canyonlands - December 2013

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Arches - December 2013

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April - 2008
(Note: the La Sal Mountains in the background are highly visible from Telluride)
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We went to Arches one January yonks ago. I’m keen to see the others.

 

[ChrisC]

I’m keen to see the others.

Winter is a somewhat underwhelming time to visit the NPs; you get a taste, but you don't get to do the main sites/hikes.

Utah: Zion is at a lower elevation and would be great. Definitely the exception. Bryce - good if no storms, but equal chance of limited access..
Colorado: meh. Mesa Verde - only one cliff dwelling is open, maybe.
AZ: Grand Canyon - South Rim. OK-ish. It might be green vs. reds/gold. Monument Valley is good. Petrified Forest and Sagauro NP's are far away.
NM: Some pueblos are open. White Sands NP is great, but very far south.
CA: Too far from you, but Joshua Tree NP & Death Valley NP are worthwhile in the winter.

Personally, I would skip the National Parks in mid-winter. Unless I am already within two hours of a Colorado site or four hours of Yosemite, I find it isn't worth the effort. It feels like a waste to travel further for parks operating at less than 50% capacity regarding hiking trails and accessible sites.

Honestly, it's like planning a summer ski trip to the Alps... do you 'ski' the Alps? Kind of. You can see all the highlights/views of Zermatt-Cervinia in July, but terrain is very limited.



If I were looking to ski more, I would save money on flights, stay in Europe, and go to Les Arcs/La Plagne/Ste. Foy. I think an off-piste group there would be incredibly memorable. Also, the new S3 opens at Les Grands Montets at Chamonix!

Or go to Japan. I have no idea if the Chinese really clog lift lines. However, the Japanese were busy quarentining the Chinese in early 2020, so i could not see any crowding in early February. I somehow think this is like: avoid Courchevel (prior to Ukraine) during Russian Orthodox holidays because the Russians overcrowd it.


Again, I think the NPs are largely irrelevant to a winter trip if you have seen Arches, and no Arches-Canyonlands-Bryce-Zion is possible.


It's like an American visiting the Great Barrier Reef during a heavy coral bleaching year and being underwhelmed.

 

[tseeb]

A Taos Ski Week is not only a good deal, the amount of improvement possible with 6 consecutive lessons with a small group and the same instructor is hard to find elsewhere. My advanced ski buddies who I've done the most trips with started doing a Ski Week in 2017 or 2018. We haven't all gone every year since then but haven't skipped many seasons.

The key is that the quality of the instruction for a Ski Week is quite high. Usually PSIA Level 3 for advanced groups, but even the Level 2 instructors who get to teach Ski Weeks have plenty of teaching experience. I do enough trips to other destinations that it doesn't matter if I have a chance to ski steep trees or double-black terrain when I'm at Taos. What I've been able to learn during Ski Weeks during low snow situations when most teaching was done on groomers or blue bumps is one reason I feel confident skiing any black terrain at big mountains at this point . . . starting after age 65. That's in addition to semi-private lessons at other destination resorts (Alta, Crested Butte, Big Sky), plus Bridger and Wolf Creek, usually once or twice a season. The instructors I work with are all Level 3 with 20+ years of experience.

Ski Week groups are 7 or less. There is a ski-off on Sunday morning (a few turns on a blue groomer). Anyone not happy with their group on Sunday morning can switch on Monday morning. Sometimes it's not because of ability level but more a matter of chemistry with the instructor or other members of a group. For advanced groups, there are usually group(s) that hike the Ridge and groups that don't.
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The skier who does a Ski Week consistently in early February is the man who started the SkiTalk mini-Gathering for Taos in 2019. He wants to do a Ski Week early enough in the season for it to be more useful by the time he goes to the SkiTalk gathering, which is usually late February or early March. He started doing Ski Weeks in 2018, a very low snow season. Fair to say, his ability to ski advanced/expert terrain at Taos is quite different at this stage.
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I meant to include something about Taos in my previous post in this thread. Lucia and I planned to take 4WD RV there for last week of Jan. 2022 to join mini-Gathering and do the Ski Week but the only thing I'd booked was a night at Joshua Tree on the return. Then Lucia suffered a concussion skiing on Jan. 13 that turned into something way more serious 3 weeks later. Instead of Taos, we joined her sister and family at Disneyland before we realized Lucia had complications from hitting her helmeted head.

I'm assuming you mean dbostedo when you say "his ability to ski advanced/expert terrain at Taos is quite different". He has been a great trip 'organizer' and has greatly improved his skiing since I first met him. We also had to cancel rooms booked to ski Steamboat and Copper then join the late Feb. Aspen Gathering. We only have a pre-Christmas days skiing Santa Fe, Taos and Angel Fire in 1992 when scenery and Christmas decorations were great, but it was too early for much good skiing.

I want to get to more of the UT national parks and ski Brian Head and Las Vegas. Good to see other posting about limits in Winter. Since others have posted photos from Arches, I'll re-post mine from stop we made between Aspen and Snowbird March 10, 2025. Delicate and Landscape Arches.

I hope we can find someone to commit to Mustang in Feb 2028 and pay deposit this February. In my post from Feb 2026 trip I'd thought my son would be a good candidate. Even though he has not skied much lately he runs 5K nearly every day so he would have the stamina for it. He probably would not have the time to make extended road trip out of it which I enjoy as much as Mustang but could fly to/from Spokane or Kelowna.

 

[MarzNC]

NM: Some pueblos are open. White Sands NP is great, but very far south.

If @Sbooker goes to Wolf Creek, the Great Sand Dunes National Park is worth a visit.

Can you see the people in the left center?

 

[Tony Crocker]

Arches NP, Sept. 2020:

Pandemic summer was very busy in national parks. Arches' entry was chained shut for capacity when we arrived 1:30PM, so drove up to Dead Horse Point and came back at 3:30. We did not take the usual pic directly under Delicate Arch because there was a line of 15-20 people waiting to do that.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Looks similar topography as the Aussie mountains. They are around 6000/7000 feet like ours?

Yes, and similar latitude too (35.6 in these pics, 36.5 at Thredbo). But vegetation and climatology are very different. In July 2018 we drove from Liz' mother's summer home in Waynesville, North Carolina over the mountains to Tennessee.

That is seriously dense forest. So dense that at Clingman's Dome (6,643 feet, highest peak in Smoky Mt. NP, third highest in NC and almost exactly the altitude of Thredbo's top of lift service) they had to build a tower for visitors to get any kind of view.

What view? Yes it was foggy, and the reason they are called the Smoky Mountains is because it is chronically cloudy. That's why it's a popular area for Florida retirees like Liz' mother to spend their summers. I was surprised how pleasant Waynesville in July was despite modest altitude of 2,000 feet. High temps were typically low 80's, lows in low 60's with very little sun. The northern limit of the 2017 eclipse went through Smoky Mt. NP, and needless to say you didn't see it if you stayed there. You had to drive out of the mountains into South Carolina.

As far as skiing is concerned, both NC and Oz areas are plagued with rain but I think NC has it worse. The Gulf of (ahem) Mexico is a warm water source of storms all year long. Beech Mt., NC claims 80 inches snowfall. Farther north (latitude 38.4) Snowshoe's data averages 147 inches snowfall. The Spencer Creek snow records imply more snowfall in Oz, as the maximum base depth there since 1993 averages 71 inches (81 inches from 1954-1992).

 

[jimk]

Love all these scenic western photos. Here is Sand Dunes National Park, CO on 17 May 2024:

 

[EMSC]

You guys are doing it all wrong at Sand Dunes:

 

[Sbooker]

Love all these scenic western photos. Here is Sand Dunes National Park, CO on 17 May 2024:
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I had never heard of it let alone seen it. Looks interesting.

 

[Sbooker]

You guys are doing it all wrong at Sand Dunes:

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I hope those skis were freshly tuned for that outing!

 

[Tony Crocker]

You guys are doing it all wrong at Sand Dunes:

I investigated in Namibia but the German guy who rented skis to do that decamped to the Middle East a few months before our trip. Sand Dunes NP has the tallest dunes in the USA though not as tall as in Namibia.

 

[jimk]

You guys are doing it all wrong at Sand Dunes:

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I like that Walter Reed Army Medical Center t-shirt! Is that you? What's your connection, if you care to share? As you may be aware, Walter Reed merged with Bethesda Naval Hospital at the Bethesda, Maryland location in 2011 to form the ever growing Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). My Dad was retired Navy. I was born at the Navy Hospital in Bethesda in the 1950s. My Dad died at age 94 in 2013. He stayed mentally sharp until the end, but had a number of other medical issues late in life. My wife and I were his caregivers the last decade and made many trips to WRNMMC with him. It used to tear him up to see all the amputees from the various Gulf War actions being treated there

 

[Tony Crocker]

My Dad was retired Navy.

Career Navy? Annapolis? I recall my dad said during WWII when most naval officers like him were "90 day wonders" for the time to get through OCS, it was a high compliment if they thought you were "regular Navy" from Annapolis.

 

[ChrisC]

If @Sbooker goes to Wolf Creek, the Great Sand Dunes National Park is worth a visit.

Yes. It's probably ok in the winter.

Great Sand Dunes NP is more interesting than White Sands NP



White Sands NP - when it was only a National Monument.

January 2010

Ski Apache, NM - January 2010
Huge snow year! Likely 100+ inches by late January
White Sands 4k --> Sierra Blanca @SkiApache 12.3k

Sierra Blanca Peak 12,000

Powder in the upper bowls - Apache Bowl

 

[Tony Crocker]

Ski Apache, NM - January 2010
Huge snow year! Likely 100+ inches

I have estimated Ski Apache snowfall from SNOTEL records since 2002-03. 2009-10 is the top season at 305 inches. The average is 128. My visit was in early April 1993, another excellent year as Taos had a 130 inch base when we were there a few days before. Adam and I visited White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns on the same trip, and also Trinity Site, which was only only open to the public 2 days per year, one of these being first Saturday in April.

 

[EMSC]

I like that Walter Reed Army Medical Center t-shirt! Is that you? What's your connection, if you care to share?

Not too big of a connection for me personally. Had a brother-in-law get shot in Afghanistan and he spent several months and dozens of surgeries there, we simply visited him. He nearly lost an arm, but did eventually lose one finger. Though he still has nerve problems in that hand.

Ski Apache, NM

A place that has always looked interesting, but I think may have a worse/more volatile snowfall than even South America.

Great Sand Dunes NP is more interesting than White Sands NP

The 'runs' are definately shorter at White Sands.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I think may have a worse/more volatile snowfall than even South America.

About the same volatility, but average is about half Portillo's. The snowfall average and volatility are similar to SoCal but SoCal ski areas get a lot of rain along with the snow while Ski Apache is just dry. With the caveat that the Ski Apache data is SNOTEL and not snowfall, it is the most highly favored ski area in North America for El Nino, possibly as much or more so than Portillo.