We love our mild Phoenix winters (and all the sun!) but we still miss the snow the beauty of a fresh snow fall on the trees and the fun – sledding, snowball fights, snow angels, skiing. What’s awesome about Arizona is that we can drive up north 2-3 hours and enjoy a fun day in the snow. Arizona has several ski resorts including Snow Bowl in Flagstaff and Sunrise in Greer. But sometimes you just want to go sledding. We’ve made a few trips up north already this winter and on our last trip checked out the new Flagstaff Snow Park.
Snow Tubing at Arizona’s Flagstaff Snow Park
UPDATE: I wrote this post in 2017 when the park first opened. Because this post goes viral every winter when snow hits, I’m updating it with current information.
Flagstaff Snow Park is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Due to the park’s popularity and with 2020-2021 Covid restrictions, tickets are only available online. Tickets become available 2-5 days in advance when they know the conditions will be right.
The first year the park opened, they relied on snowstorms. After a year without snow and not being able to open, the park added in snow-making so they are able to open so many more days for snow play. They are great about sharing snow condition updates on their social media pages so check those out before heading up north. They have also added additional runs since our initial visit. 4-8 runs are open each day, depending on the condition.
With Covid-19 restrictions, in addition to ticket sales only being online and capacity restrictions, they do require temperature checks at the entrance, and masks are required.
There are picnic tables and a variety of food trucks selling food. There are also fireplaces for roasting marshmallows.
Flagstaff Snow Park Ticket options:
Tickets are available for morning, afternoon, and night sessions or you can purchase an all-day pass. Ticket prices start at $10.
Morning: 9 am – 1 pm
Afternoon: 1 pm – 5 pm
Evening: 6 pm – 9 pm
All-day: 9 am – 5 pm
*check the Flagstaff Snow Park for the latest information
We had a blast at Flagstaff Snow Park
We LOVED it. So much fun. Such a great concept. It’s only open when the snow coverage is good to check the Flagstaff Snow Park website or Flagstaff Snow Park Facebook page for updates. Tickets can be purchased online so you don’t need to worry about being turned away once you arrive.
Snow tubing. It’s not sledding but snow tubing. No need to bring your sleds. I much prefer the tubes over sleds for so many reasons. First, our sleds are always breaking since they are just made from plastic. You stay drier because you’re higher up from the group than on a sled. As after living in Phoenix for so many years, we’ve become cold wimps so staying drier and therefore warmer, helped the day to be some much more enjoyable. And third, the tubes bounce off the sides of the trails and absorb the bumps better – as a mom in her mid-40’s I can really appreciate how much less my body ached the next day. I love to spend a day having fun with my kid, but sometimes the next day I really feel it.
The park has 6 runs plus a kiddie hill. The runs are very long, much longer than any hill that we’ve found at any of the popular sledding spots in Flagstaff. The not-so-fun part is walking up the steep hills with your tubes but it’s not too bad (wears the kids out – they will sleep well!)
We went on a Tuesday right after the holidays – because many people went back to work or school that day, the crowds were very light. Also relatively new at that point, many people hadn’t heard of the park yet. I expect the crowds are higher now on the weekends with all the snow we’ve gotten the past few weeks.
The park also has an area with picnic tables and a few food trucks.
