A lot of Colorado’s ski resorts do a great job catering to kids but Keystone Resort has upped the snow-coated ante by creating Kidtopia, a multi-weekend festival for the little ones. Group that with the Kidtopia Snow Fort’s climbable tunnels and turrets and a five-acre mountain lake for skating…and you have a ton of wintry family fun.
Why Keystone
As the largest mountain resort in Summit County with 3,148 acres of bowls, bumps, glades and groomers, Keystone has three mountain playgrounds—Dercum Mountain, North Peak, and the Outback. One of our most memorable vacations was a family getaway at this resort that is just 90 miles from Denver. Skating. Skiing. A mid-mountain fondue dinner at Der Fondue Chessel.
The bucket list is long here and should include visiting the World’s LARGEST snow fort atop Dercum Mountain, tubing at Adventure Point at the summit of Dercum Mountain and skating at the outdoor Dercum Square Ice Rink (free but skate rentals are extra).
Kidtopia
Skiing and snowboarding are plenty entertaining but an entire festival dedicated to kids that runs for the entire ski season? Talk about fun!
A smattering of activities occur during the season that include hat include Cookie Time, Winter Movie Matinee, Meet the Avy Dog (avalanche dog team), Meet & Greet with Ripperoo, Family Snowshoeing 101, Cupcakes and Canvas and Super Snowy Science. But Saturday is when the mountain comes to life with Riperoo’s Village Parade and River Run Fireworks that ignite the winter skies and are viewable from River Run and Lakeside Villages. Not to be missed: Kidtopia Holiday Spectacular (Nov. 24– Dec 24), the 2nd Annual Kidtopia Culinary Festival (Feb. 8-15), Kidtopia Music Experience (March 1-10)! Grab your spatulas and head to Keystone for this week-long celebration of all things food and family fun!
The Mountain
We have achieved a milestone in our family; we are finally able to ski together (insert moment of thankful silence for all those patient ski school instructors who have waged the teaching-our-kids-to-ski battle). Something we loved about Keystone is EpicMix, a cutting-edge smart card that tracks things like vertical feet skied and also offers free on-mountain photos, including free low-res downloads for sharing on social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
Keystone Lake: A Cut of Canada
Most families have some kind of initiation when someone marries into the clan. My American husband received a pair of hockey skates with the explicit instructions that any of our future half-breeds should be born on the blade.
But here’s the deal: a Canuck’s idea of skating is not circling around on some uninspired indoor rink with music blaring in the background. We like wide open spaces and we skate for miles on rivers and lakes. Frozen nose hairs are an added bonus.
Keystone Lake is about as close to the Real Skating Deal as I have come since moving to the United States. The resort boasts their five-acre lake is the largest Zamboni-maintained outdoor ice skating rink in North America. My little clan had the time of our lives cruising around, watching a pick-up hockey game, and marveling at the mountain grandeur as flurries of ice particles glittered in the swirling air. It was the perfect cut of Canada.
Minus the frozen nose hairs.
Kids Ski Free
Kids 12 and under ski/snowboard free with any two-night stay at Keystone’s accommodations. On a positive note, there are no blackout dates, so this deal is one for the taking.
Featured Photo: Jesse Starr
Author: Amber Johnson
Amber is the founder and editor of Mile High Mamas, travel writer and former columnist for The Denver Post. She is a passionate community builder and loves the outdoors. She has two awesome teens and is happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin.
