Eli doesn't start back to school until January 7, so we took advantage of the weekday post-Christmas lull to visit Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain Park on Friday. More fun than a barrel of monkeys!
The Snow Zone nestled at the foot of the mountain offers a play area complete with periodic spurts of new snow (sent high in the air via a high-powered tube), snowball target practice, buckets and shovels, snowman making supplies (hats, scarves, pegs for facial features), and igloo brick molds.
After playing in the snow a bit, we were ready to tackle the big slope. For those of you who know Stone Mountain in warmer months, this is Memorial Lawn usually used for picnics and watching the laser show on summer nights. Now the lawn is deep in man-made snow divided into lanes, launching/landing areas, and flat "people-mover" escalators to take both visitors and sledding tubes back to the top.
We tried "Avalanche Alley" first. That is the 400 foot run using big blue rafts that hold three to five people. Eli and I got to rocket to the bottom while sitting side by side.
Once I was sure Eli loved zipping down the hill and felt confident, we moved on to "Tube Runners." Visitors ride solo on a tube with a fabric-covered bottom and handles. There's Eli in the photo below, ready to launch.
This photo cracks me up. Doesn't it seem like Eli is an official Olympic Tube Sledder, giving discourse about his last race? "Well, I came out of the chute pretty fast. There were bouncy bumps and I got some snow in my face, but I held on and beat my mom to the bottom to win the gold!"
After umpteen rides down, we decided to get a snack. SnoFire Point offers hot chocolate and warm pretzels, but we went for the s'mores kit complete with wooden skewer.
Park staff keep track of visitors to Snow Mountain with tags on their jackets. Sledding times are for two hours only, so after our time was up we went back to the snow play area. The smile says it all.
One Mama's Two Cents:
At $27 per person (regardless of age), this is a somewhat pricey adventure. Thankfully, we have annual Mountain Memberships, so we got free parking (usually $10 per car) and our Snow Mountain tickets were discounted to $18 each. And we had so much good, clean, outdoorsy fun that it was completely worth it. (Next year we're getting the Mountain Membership Plus, which means as much free sledding as we can handle!)
The main thing to remember is that Snow Mountain gets quite crowded. It is open until February 18, but from here on out it is only on weekends except for Jan. 21 and Feb. 15 & 18. Staff urge visitors to get tickets online to avoid long ticket lines and sold-out slopes.
What to wear? Layers! We were there on a cold and cloudy day, but we still got hot while sledding or snowman-building. As soon as we slowed down, we got cold again. As far as footwear goes, boots were nice to keep Eli's feet dry in the slush but I did fine in sneakers. Eli had on his waterproof Discovery Pants over his clothes, which worked great. Our clothes did get a little wet, but I had towels and complete changes of clothes waiting in the car.
What else to bring? I found a zipper baggie was handy for making sure little items like lip balm, tissues, credit card, etc. didn't fall out of my pockets. (And I should have added a mini pack of wet wipes for sticky marshmallow residue!) The plastic bag also helped me be sure my cell phone stayed dry.
What not to bring? They don't allow loose items on the sledding hill, so I had to hike back up to the car to drop off my camera. (Guest services has lockers, but I didn't have change with me. I'll make sure I have some next time! The small lockers are $8 a day and you can access them as often as you'd like. $5 of the price is a deposit that you get back when you return the key.) FYI...they won't let you go down with scarves, purses, or with long hair that isn't secured in some way.
Got a wee tot? Kids below 36 inches can't ride in the Avalanche Alley rafts and kids below 42 inches can't ride Tube Runners. But they do have a "Little Angels" area for kids three and under with sleds, very gentle slopes, and a snow play area away from roughhousing. As far as strollers go, I saw some parents parking theirs on the edge of the snow play area. A stroller would be handy as Snow Mountain is fairly far from the parking lot but also for holding mounds of coats, mittens, hats, etc. when you're hot enough to toss them off.
The final word? As we were leaving the park, Eli looked up and earnestly declared we should come back every Christmas holiday. My thoughts exactly!
Very nice place, thanks to share.
Posted by: cpr renewal | 19 March 2013 at 04:08 AM
When we heard of Snow mountian at stone mountian, we thought it would be fun. Stone mountian is a great place, fun and beautiful. In the summer that is. We went to stone mountian during snow mountian.
Posted by: CPR for health professional | 19 March 2013 at 07:15 AM
Thank you very much, CPR folks!
Posted by: Valerie J. Frey | 22 March 2013 at 01:37 PM