What is the closest skiing destination from Arvada?
4 Answers
Bunch of great ski areas all within one hour or slightly more from Arvada. If you're looking for close but quality ski area with a great variety of terrain and ability levels then Winter Park is hard to beat. If you don't mind going a little further Keystone is also excellent. Night skiing at Keystone can be fun but really cold!
Because Arvada is on the western edge of Denver Metro, access to skiing is quite good. Most of the close ski areas have beginner slopes: Eldora, Loveland, Copper Mtn., Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail, so it just depends on how far you want to drive. You're probably looking at minimum one hour, unless you choose to go when everyone is going. Traffic on I-70 to the slopes is a big challenge both going and coming, and so one would be wise to travel at non-traditional times. Eldora would be the easiest to get to with the least traffic issues.
I'm living in Boulder and Eldora was the only place I skied last year, snow was lousy statewide so I stayed local. Loveland is more of an adventure but you have to to trek all the way to Eisenhower tunnel up I-70--I'd say overall I prefer Eldora.
The closest ski resort was Echo Mountain but they will not be opening for the 2012 ski season, so I guess heading up I-70 to Loveland is the closest skiing now from the Denver Front Range area including Arvada. But there is also Eldora just 30 minutes up the Canyon from Boulder, maybe from Arvada Loveland & Eldora are about the same distance time wise.
I'd say Eldora is the best for teaching kids, but there are parts of Loveland that work for beginners too