RISD shifted one week on the Christmas holiday calendar and White Rock North announced it in August 2018. With a series of cancellation and re-booking, we decided to go to two different resorts so we could get reasonable lodging for the hottest ski weeks. South Fork and Salida, here we came!
Will prepared our new jeep for this long distance drive. With rooftop box installed, engine block heater in place, we headed out on Sunday 10am after a frenzy of stuffing our luggage in. I even brought my frying pan this time! Wichita Falls was a natural place to stop for lunch around noon. And after kids nap time, we made a stop at Cadillac ranch. Weather was cold and windy. Before we got close, we smelled paint and saw many people over at the Cadillac. The cars were covered in layers and layers of graffiti. And those people we saw were actively spraying more on those poor cars! Empty cans littered the space around. This is a tourist attraction spot that is more interesting to see from the highway than up close.
After a stop at Dalhart at 5:45 for dinner, we drove on to our hotel in Raton, New Mexico. It was 8:15 CST when we checked in Best Western Raton Plus. It is a nice hotel with a heated pool and friendly staff. I really like their restaurant from the free breakfast experience we had there. It was more like a stand alone restaurant with a New Mexico charm to it.
Total drive time for Sunday was 9 hours. We concluded that if we would leave one hour earlier next time, this is a good drive distance for the first day.
Monday Dec 24, we left the hotel at 8:30 MST. Today we only have 3 hours of drive to South fork. Because of late check in hours, we stopped at Alamosa at 10:30 and stocked our groceries at City Market. And we took our time to eat lunch at the Burger King nearby since it had a play place. When we arrived at South Fork about 1:30, the owner texted me that the house was ready. What good luck!
I booked a riverside house for South Fork stay. We didn't take advantage of the river but we all enjoyed the over-sized lot, big space inside and the supersized garage. It wowed us when we opened the front door. It's clean, it's spacious, it's beautiful and it's our home for the next four nights!
There was still some old snow in our front yard at the shady space. Jackson and Norah immediately started playing with the snow. He built a sledding hill on the deck with the snow and would enjoy hours of snow play out there in the next few days. After settling in our house, we headed to Wolf Creek to buy tickets for tomorrow and try some sledding.
Tuesday morning, kids found Santa's gifts under the trees. We managed to get to the slope a little after 9:30 even with the special Christmas morning activities. Upon arriving the mountain, we splited in two teams. Since it's Norah's first time ever ski, Will took her to Lynx lift to start with the basics. I took Jackson to Nova chair and started our day on the green runs.
Jackson had no issues on those runs last year. But this time, he struggled. Each time he made a turn, he would turn his way up the mountain and his skis would slide with him facing backwards. He would fall on every turn and his skis tangled up. He started to get more and more frustrated. I haven't taught him how to ski in the past and couldn't figure out what posture needed to change. I could tell that he was a bit afraid of his speed so he leaned upward the mountain. But my advice of leaning down the mountain only upset him more.
We heard later from a ski instructor that kids only start to build their muscle memory from they are 7. I couldn't find any research to support the saying but it made sense to us. Jackson's body changed so much from last year that is is normal he didn't pick up skiing from where he left it a year ago.
After an exhausting morning with a kid at the edge of meltdown, four of us reunited at the Lynx lift. Jackson was much more comfortable at this easier slope. In the early afternoon, both kids ran out of energy from the altitude, no nap and constant falling. We sent Will to do a few laps and headed home.
Wednesday we skied together as a family at Lynx. It's one of my favorite ski days on this trip. Jackson could ski on his own lap after lap including stopped right in front of the magic carpet and went up without assistance. Norah is a fearless daredevil as her brother. She was too small to control her leg muscle to make snow plow. So she would point her skis down the mountain and ski at full speed towards the crowds at the foot of the bunny slope. To avoid collisions, one of us would catch and stop her using our body. It was scary to see a 30-pound cannon ball shooting at you at a high speed. We eventually stopped letting her free skiing like that to save our back.
When ski resort was about to close, Norah cried that she didn't want to go home. We got what we wished for -- another skier to our family!
Thursday intense ski caught up on Norah and she was exhausted after two laps on Nova. She asked to go home and I drove her back to our house after our early lunch. She had a beautiful nap at the house and I enjoyed my down time too. Next time we should plan ahead for a break day every couple of days for her. Jackson and Will skied on the mountain till we picked them up on 4:15.
Will and I enjoyed daily hot tub visit in the backyard after skiing. It helps relaxing our muscles quite a bit. Hot tub was situated next to Rio Grande with clear stargazing above. This house was almost perfect except their HVAC system made big noise in the master bedroom that interrupts our sleep in the first few nights. It was also priced not very friendly.
Friday is our moving day to Salida. I negotiated an extra hour to check out. Two kids loved the extra play in the front yard because fresh snow has fallen over night. After the adults packed up, we joined them for sledding fun on the quiet street. Making fresh snow tracks and racing to the bridge brought so much laughter to our family. We reluctantly said bye to our winter wonderland and drove another 1.5 hours to our next destination.
I booked a completely different style of place in Salida. It was newly built 2 bedroom 3 bathroom condo that situated right in the center of downtown. It had a garage spot but take some stairs to get there. After saw how much the kids enjoyed the big outdoor space of our first place, I was concerned that kids might get bored easily in a much smaller condo.
We couldn't check in early because of previous renters. Lisa recommended Boathouse Cantina for our lunch stop. It sits right next to Arkansas River and our seating perched on the second story. It felt like we were dining above the river. This restaurant location used to be Manhattan hotel so it has tons of sitting space. We loved it as soon as we entered. The meal was delicious too, maybe because we were so charmed by the beautiful place.
Since the condo was still not ready, we headed towards Monarch mountain to check tickets and lessons. We've decided to enroll the kids in private lessons because Will ran out of ideas to teach Norah to snow plow. Monarch pass was breathtakingly beautiful in the winter. In some sections, whole forest of trees were covered in white snow, afternoon shone in making the whole mountain glistening.
When we checked in the condo, my worries went away. The place had a unique character that made us all felt comfortable. Both kids loved the equally big upstairs and downstairs space and they explored and played pretend games. The owners were European and the unit had a modern feel. And we loved the walking distance to almost every nice restaurant (we were right next door to Boathouse Cantina), the big riverside park, S mountain, Arkansas River and Safeway.
Saturday was possibly the coldest day I have ever skied. It read -1F when we got to the mountain. My ski gear wasn't designed to keep me warm under -1F. Yet we already signed the kids up for private lessons and we stuck to our plans. Ski class didn't allow parents to watch. We left the two instructors with Jackson and Norah wondering when would we got the phone calls. Norah was unhappy when we left but she was in great spirit when we came back. Both kids got rave comments from the instructors and we were thrilled. Will and I finally skied together for 90 minutes ever since three years ago. That felt great despite the frigid weather.
Sunday I decided to have an off day with Norah. Will and Jackson stayed with us in the morning. We explored the river trail, the playground and hiked to the S mountain. Jackson really wanted to hike to the top but we ran out of time before lunch. This town has a bit of everything that we looked for in a winter CO town. It has ski resorts nearby, has easily accessible hiking trails, two playgrounds, an indoor hot spring center, gourmet restaurants and big name supermarkets. Its downtown has art murals everywhere and on one wall, colorful decommissioned kayaks lined the space. One night when I walked to Safeway to buy groceries, I turned my head and saw a huge Christmas tree lights lined the S mountain! I read later that it is the biggest Christmas lights demonstration in a tree shape.
In the afternoon, Norah took a nap and the boys headed to the mountain for some ski fun. I picked up some books on the bookshelf and did some reading with the afternoon mountain view from our window.
Monday (Dec 31) was another family ski day. Norah was voted by fellow skiers as the cutest skier on the mountain. Monarch was busy when we got there but it was less busy than Wolf Creek. We got a bit scared by the crowd we saw this year on Wolf Creek. Even at 11am, their cafeteria ran out of tables to sit. The lines at the lift were not bad but somehow none-skiers just took up all the space in the warm dining area to wait for their skiers to join for lunch.
We liked both resorts has reasonable lift price. Will stumbled upon a discount coupon of Monarch from his climbing gym that sold ticket at $54 instead of $89. Wolf Creek's beginner pass is only $29. This ticket price enabled me to ski at a leisure pace with the kids. :-)
Monarch is a smaller mountain but we liked the base much better than Wolf Creek's base. Wolf Creek's bathroom is about three stories below the lift and in a different building than the cafe. For little kids, Monarch is a better mountain to navigate.
Salida got about 10 inches of snow today, much more than Monarch. After dinner, we treated the kids with a walk to the snow covered park. It was pretty rare that Salida had that much snow. It is located in the "banana belt" and is known for it's desert like mountains scenes. Snow has made the slides super slippery. We made snow packed landing blanket under the slide. The two kids played shooting human cannon balls from the slides until they were exhausted. And we made many deep snow angels, big and small. The world's largest Christmas tree lights glowing merrily in the background. It was a memorable New Year's Eve.
Tuesday we decided to take a break from the mountain again. It's Jan 1st and mountain might be overwhelmed. Snow covered Salida looks beautiful in every corner. Jackson had wished to climb to the top of the S mountain and I agreed to do it today. But I didn't realize that the snow would cover to his thigh in some area.
We crossed the abandoned rail yard. That already exhausted Norah so she and Will headed back to playground. Jackson and I hiked on for our ascend. He fell constantly but didn't want to give up. We reached a compromise goal to hike to the Christmas lights. I was relieved that he agreed to it. We turned back after we saw the light installations. Hiking down was much easier, we slide down over some steep sections.
By this time, both kids ran out of steam. We walked to Amicas Pizza to have some gourmet pizza. Both kids got a dough they could shape to bake later. Will and I loved the pizza and local tap beer (Little Mo Porter, named after a blue run on Monarch mountain). But both kids were not happy our pizza was not pepperoni. Lessons learned: order a small regular pizza for the kids.
Will headed to the mountain for some powder fun when both kids (actually just Norah) napped. I've got them two sketch books and markers in Salida. They have drew the daily experience on those books and we loved how much art work could calm them down. We drew pictures together until Daddy came back.
Now it's time for check out the biggest indoor hot spring recreational center. It's run by the city and looked clean. We loved the shallow pool area for kids. Jackson loved the water slide jumping into the 85F water. Norah tried it too and did it several times. I liked this pool for family fun. It's more like a pool than a hot spring.
Wednesday was our last ski day of the trip. It's a little warmer than the last few days. Norah got tired quickly. Will managed to motivate four of us ski together again for 2pm to the terrain park. Despite being low on battery, Norah loved the terrain park and cried to come back. Jackson's favorite was the terrain park and the whoop-dee-doo. (The up and down at the edge of a snow fence) Till next time, Monarch!
Thursday we played again at the playground downstairs. We left Salida at 10:45am and headed to Amarillo. Between 10:45am to 12:45, there was nothing along the road. No gas station, no shops, no restaurants, just the foothill of Sangre De Cristo Mountain stretched from Colorado to New Mexico. Abandoned ski resort was not far from our country road.
We stopped at Walsenburg pizza at 1pm for lunch. Arrived Amarillo about 7:10pm CST. Total drive time is about 6 hours.
Home2Suite Hilton looked new and clean. We used their indoor swimming pool to burn off some energy. This might be the first hotel swimming pool I have ever swum in and it was a very nice one. Our room had three beds and small kitchen, even had a dishwasher. Also their free breakfast selection was plenty. We would stay here again.
Friday left Home2 Suite about 9:45 and got home at 4:40. We stopped at Vernon at 12:50 for Pizza Hut. Another 6 hours of drive.
We loved our ski trip this year and especially happy to check out another charming little Colorado town. But we will keep our lodging at one place next time to avoid so much packing and unpacking. Also thirteen days on the road felt a bit extended. We will try 11 days next year.
Notes:
Will prepared our new jeep for this long distance drive. With rooftop box installed, engine block heater in place, we headed out on Sunday 10am after a frenzy of stuffing our luggage in. I even brought my frying pan this time! Wichita Falls was a natural place to stop for lunch around noon. And after kids nap time, we made a stop at Cadillac ranch. Weather was cold and windy. Before we got close, we smelled paint and saw many people over at the Cadillac. The cars were covered in layers and layers of graffiti. And those people we saw were actively spraying more on those poor cars! Empty cans littered the space around. This is a tourist attraction spot that is more interesting to see from the highway than up close.
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| Cadillac Ranch |
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| Our ride |
After a stop at Dalhart at 5:45 for dinner, we drove on to our hotel in Raton, New Mexico. It was 8:15 CST when we checked in Best Western Raton Plus. It is a nice hotel with a heated pool and friendly staff. I really like their restaurant from the free breakfast experience we had there. It was more like a stand alone restaurant with a New Mexico charm to it.
Total drive time for Sunday was 9 hours. We concluded that if we would leave one hour earlier next time, this is a good drive distance for the first day.
Monday Dec 24, we left the hotel at 8:30 MST. Today we only have 3 hours of drive to South fork. Because of late check in hours, we stopped at Alamosa at 10:30 and stocked our groceries at City Market. And we took our time to eat lunch at the Burger King nearby since it had a play place. When we arrived at South Fork about 1:30, the owner texted me that the house was ready. What good luck!
I booked a riverside house for South Fork stay. We didn't take advantage of the river but we all enjoyed the over-sized lot, big space inside and the supersized garage. It wowed us when we opened the front door. It's clean, it's spacious, it's beautiful and it's our home for the next four nights!
There was still some old snow in our front yard at the shady space. Jackson and Norah immediately started playing with the snow. He built a sledding hill on the deck with the snow and would enjoy hours of snow play out there in the next few days. After settling in our house, we headed to Wolf Creek to buy tickets for tomorrow and try some sledding.
Tuesday morning, kids found Santa's gifts under the trees. We managed to get to the slope a little after 9:30 even with the special Christmas morning activities. Upon arriving the mountain, we splited in two teams. Since it's Norah's first time ever ski, Will took her to Lynx lift to start with the basics. I took Jackson to Nova chair and started our day on the green runs.
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| Cutest skier on the mountain |
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| Lynx magic carpet |
Jackson had no issues on those runs last year. But this time, he struggled. Each time he made a turn, he would turn his way up the mountain and his skis would slide with him facing backwards. He would fall on every turn and his skis tangled up. He started to get more and more frustrated. I haven't taught him how to ski in the past and couldn't figure out what posture needed to change. I could tell that he was a bit afraid of his speed so he leaned upward the mountain. But my advice of leaning down the mountain only upset him more.
We heard later from a ski instructor that kids only start to build their muscle memory from they are 7. I couldn't find any research to support the saying but it made sense to us. Jackson's body changed so much from last year that is is normal he didn't pick up skiing from where he left it a year ago.
After an exhausting morning with a kid at the edge of meltdown, four of us reunited at the Lynx lift. Jackson was much more comfortable at this easier slope. In the early afternoon, both kids ran out of energy from the altitude, no nap and constant falling. We sent Will to do a few laps and headed home.
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| After first day of skiing |
Wednesday we skied together as a family at Lynx. It's one of my favorite ski days on this trip. Jackson could ski on his own lap after lap including stopped right in front of the magic carpet and went up without assistance. Norah is a fearless daredevil as her brother. She was too small to control her leg muscle to make snow plow. So she would point her skis down the mountain and ski at full speed towards the crowds at the foot of the bunny slope. To avoid collisions, one of us would catch and stop her using our body. It was scary to see a 30-pound cannon ball shooting at you at a high speed. We eventually stopped letting her free skiing like that to save our back.
When ski resort was about to close, Norah cried that she didn't want to go home. We got what we wished for -- another skier to our family!
Thursday intense ski caught up on Norah and she was exhausted after two laps on Nova. She asked to go home and I drove her back to our house after our early lunch. She had a beautiful nap at the house and I enjoyed my down time too. Next time we should plan ahead for a break day every couple of days for her. Jackson and Will skied on the mountain till we picked them up on 4:15.
Will and I enjoyed daily hot tub visit in the backyard after skiing. It helps relaxing our muscles quite a bit. Hot tub was situated next to Rio Grande with clear stargazing above. This house was almost perfect except their HVAC system made big noise in the master bedroom that interrupts our sleep in the first few nights. It was also priced not very friendly.
Friday is our moving day to Salida. I negotiated an extra hour to check out. Two kids loved the extra play in the front yard because fresh snow has fallen over night. After the adults packed up, we joined them for sledding fun on the quiet street. Making fresh snow tracks and racing to the bridge brought so much laughter to our family. We reluctantly said bye to our winter wonderland and drove another 1.5 hours to our next destination.
I booked a completely different style of place in Salida. It was newly built 2 bedroom 3 bathroom condo that situated right in the center of downtown. It had a garage spot but take some stairs to get there. After saw how much the kids enjoyed the big outdoor space of our first place, I was concerned that kids might get bored easily in a much smaller condo.
We couldn't check in early because of previous renters. Lisa recommended Boathouse Cantina for our lunch stop. It sits right next to Arkansas River and our seating perched on the second story. It felt like we were dining above the river. This restaurant location used to be Manhattan hotel so it has tons of sitting space. We loved it as soon as we entered. The meal was delicious too, maybe because we were so charmed by the beautiful place.
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| Boathouse Cantina |
When we checked in the condo, my worries went away. The place had a unique character that made us all felt comfortable. Both kids loved the equally big upstairs and downstairs space and they explored and played pretend games. The owners were European and the unit had a modern feel. And we loved the walking distance to almost every nice restaurant (we were right next door to Boathouse Cantina), the big riverside park, S mountain, Arkansas River and Safeway.
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| living room |
Saturday was possibly the coldest day I have ever skied. It read -1F when we got to the mountain. My ski gear wasn't designed to keep me warm under -1F. Yet we already signed the kids up for private lessons and we stuck to our plans. Ski class didn't allow parents to watch. We left the two instructors with Jackson and Norah wondering when would we got the phone calls. Norah was unhappy when we left but she was in great spirit when we came back. Both kids got rave comments from the instructors and we were thrilled. Will and I finally skied together for 90 minutes ever since three years ago. That felt great despite the frigid weather.
Sunday I decided to have an off day with Norah. Will and Jackson stayed with us in the morning. We explored the river trail, the playground and hiked to the S mountain. Jackson really wanted to hike to the top but we ran out of time before lunch. This town has a bit of everything that we looked for in a winter CO town. It has ski resorts nearby, has easily accessible hiking trails, two playgrounds, an indoor hot spring center, gourmet restaurants and big name supermarkets. Its downtown has art murals everywhere and on one wall, colorful decommissioned kayaks lined the space. One night when I walked to Safeway to buy groceries, I turned my head and saw a huge Christmas tree lights lined the S mountain! I read later that it is the biggest Christmas lights demonstration in a tree shape.
In the afternoon, Norah took a nap and the boys headed to the mountain for some ski fun. I picked up some books on the bookshelf and did some reading with the afternoon mountain view from our window.
Monday (Dec 31) was another family ski day. Norah was voted by fellow skiers as the cutest skier on the mountain. Monarch was busy when we got there but it was less busy than Wolf Creek. We got a bit scared by the crowd we saw this year on Wolf Creek. Even at 11am, their cafeteria ran out of tables to sit. The lines at the lift were not bad but somehow none-skiers just took up all the space in the warm dining area to wait for their skiers to join for lunch.
We liked both resorts has reasonable lift price. Will stumbled upon a discount coupon of Monarch from his climbing gym that sold ticket at $54 instead of $89. Wolf Creek's beginner pass is only $29. This ticket price enabled me to ski at a leisure pace with the kids. :-)
Monarch is a smaller mountain but we liked the base much better than Wolf Creek's base. Wolf Creek's bathroom is about three stories below the lift and in a different building than the cafe. For little kids, Monarch is a better mountain to navigate.
Salida got about 10 inches of snow today, much more than Monarch. After dinner, we treated the kids with a walk to the snow covered park. It was pretty rare that Salida had that much snow. It is located in the "banana belt" and is known for it's desert like mountains scenes. Snow has made the slides super slippery. We made snow packed landing blanket under the slide. The two kids played shooting human cannon balls from the slides until they were exhausted. And we made many deep snow angels, big and small. The world's largest Christmas tree lights glowing merrily in the background. It was a memorable New Year's Eve.
Tuesday we decided to take a break from the mountain again. It's Jan 1st and mountain might be overwhelmed. Snow covered Salida looks beautiful in every corner. Jackson had wished to climb to the top of the S mountain and I agreed to do it today. But I didn't realize that the snow would cover to his thigh in some area.
We crossed the abandoned rail yard. That already exhausted Norah so she and Will headed back to playground. Jackson and I hiked on for our ascend. He fell constantly but didn't want to give up. We reached a compromise goal to hike to the Christmas lights. I was relieved that he agreed to it. We turned back after we saw the light installations. Hiking down was much easier, we slide down over some steep sections.
By this time, both kids ran out of steam. We walked to Amicas Pizza to have some gourmet pizza. Both kids got a dough they could shape to bake later. Will and I loved the pizza and local tap beer (Little Mo Porter, named after a blue run on Monarch mountain). But both kids were not happy our pizza was not pepperoni. Lessons learned: order a small regular pizza for the kids.
Will headed to the mountain for some powder fun when both kids (actually just Norah) napped. I've got them two sketch books and markers in Salida. They have drew the daily experience on those books and we loved how much art work could calm them down. We drew pictures together until Daddy came back.
Now it's time for check out the biggest indoor hot spring recreational center. It's run by the city and looked clean. We loved the shallow pool area for kids. Jackson loved the water slide jumping into the 85F water. Norah tried it too and did it several times. I liked this pool for family fun. It's more like a pool than a hot spring.
Wednesday was our last ski day of the trip. It's a little warmer than the last few days. Norah got tired quickly. Will managed to motivate four of us ski together again for 2pm to the terrain park. Despite being low on battery, Norah loved the terrain park and cried to come back. Jackson's favorite was the terrain park and the whoop-dee-doo. (The up and down at the edge of a snow fence) Till next time, Monarch!
Thursday we played again at the playground downstairs. We left Salida at 10:45am and headed to Amarillo. Between 10:45am to 12:45, there was nothing along the road. No gas station, no shops, no restaurants, just the foothill of Sangre De Cristo Mountain stretched from Colorado to New Mexico. Abandoned ski resort was not far from our country road.
We stopped at Walsenburg pizza at 1pm for lunch. Arrived Amarillo about 7:10pm CST. Total drive time is about 6 hours.
Home2Suite Hilton looked new and clean. We used their indoor swimming pool to burn off some energy. This might be the first hotel swimming pool I have ever swum in and it was a very nice one. Our room had three beds and small kitchen, even had a dishwasher. Also their free breakfast selection was plenty. We would stay here again.
Friday left Home2 Suite about 9:45 and got home at 4:40. We stopped at Vernon at 12:50 for Pizza Hut. Another 6 hours of drive.
We loved our ski trip this year and especially happy to check out another charming little Colorado town. But we will keep our lodging at one place next time to avoid so much packing and unpacking. Also thirteen days on the road felt a bit extended. We will try 11 days next year.
Notes:
- Use Yoga blocks for skis in roof top box.
- Norah skied in 70cm, size 16.
- Jackson skied in 90cm, size 18.
- Pinon vacation rental has cabins 5 minutes away from Monarch in Garfield.
- Creek side Chalet has cabins 10 minutes from Monarch.
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