Winter Fun in Traverse City

When it comes to skiing, tubing and snowboarding, the region’s premiere full-service winter destination is undoubtedly Shanty Creek Resorts, a 4,500-acre recreational complex in the beautiful Chain of Lakes region. Ski Magazine rated Shanty Creek the Midwest’s Number One destination in value, dining, lodging, weather and après ski activities, and it’s easy to see why. Its two ski areas (Summit and Schuss Mountain) feature a 450-foot vertical with 49 runs for every ability level, plus four snowboarding terrain parks and a tubing park.

A $10 million renovation has transformed Shanty’s former Summit Village Hotel into the Lakeview Hotel & Conference Center, an upscale “lake house” design with an entirely redesigned lobby, restaurant, lounge and bar, guestrooms, meeting and banquet facilities. Summit Mountain’s 12 slopes, which were closed last season for the renovation, will open this winter with several terrain and equipment upgrades. Its most popular slope, Greenway, was widened and expanded, and the hill has installed all-new snowmaking equipment.  At nearby Schuss Mountain, the halfpipe was moved and enlarged, increasing its overall length and width of the pipe, and the popular tubing park was moved to the backside of Schuss Mountain and enlarged with more and longer lanes.

Some skiers, on the other hand, have discovered the fun of staying closer to town, taking advantage of low lodging rates and a broad choice of shopping, dining and entertainment options. For them, Traverse City’s two day ski areas, Mt. Holiday and Hickory Hills, provide a welcome alternative. Mount Holiday is a community-run ski area just east of town with 16 runs, two chairlifts, a tubing run and terrain park, a pleasant day lodge, and awesome views of East Bay. On the other side of the city, Hickory Hills is a small municipal ski area nestled in a deep bowl of tree-topped hills less than five minutes from downtown, with eight runs served by old-fashioned rope tows that hearkens back to a time when skiing was simpler and just plain fun.

Snowmobilers tend to head south and east of town, where more than 200 miles of the country’s finest and most diverse snowmobiling wait for them in the enchanted Boardman and Jordan river valleys. There’s something for every taste – whether it’s twisting and turning through dense hardwood forests, touring over hills, bridges, and waterways, or racing across wide-open spaces with plenty of room to enjoy the fresh white powder. Best of all, both trail systems are close to Traverse City’s hotels, resorts and restaurants – an important consideration at the end of a long day of sledding.

The Boardman Valley Trail, just minutes from downtown, is an 81-mile trail system in the Pere Marquette State Forest, where sightings of turkeys, eagles, deer and other wildlife are commonplace. The Boardman is also linked to several other regional trail systems, offering even more opportunities for extended distance riding. The Jordan Valley Trail, about a half-hour to the northeast, is a network featuring over 130 miles of spectacular trails not far from Shanty Creek and the picturesque village of Bellaire.

On the other hand, you don’t have to be an accomplished athlete or own a snowmobile to enjoy some winter thrills around Traverse City. Snow tubing, one of the nation’s fastest-growing winter pastimes, is offered at many nearby ski hills – and doesn’t require much more than the ability to sit down, hang on tight and do a little high-pitched screaming as you hurtle downhill on a large inflated rubber tube. Timberlee, a former ski resort in the hills just northwest of town with breathtaking views of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Leelanau, is Michigan’s largest snow tubing hill. They even have tandem tubes that allow friends and families to hurtle down the hill together, and an automatic lift to bring them back to the top when the ride’s over. (Mt. Holiday and Shanty Creek also have exciting tubing hills.)