Hogadon Basin Ski Area — Attraction in Casper

Pros: Great little ski hill within a short driving distance of Casper. Well-groomed intermediate runs and challenging black runs. The staff are really friendly and the lodge is new and very pretty. The "Sam's Lounge" bar is a nice place to hang out and has good local beer options. There is a wide variety of terrain and Hogadon has really good snowmaking equipment and grooming is a priority.

Cons: The food and drink at the lodge can be improved, it's mostly frozen food that you can find at Sam's Club. Having fresh "scratch" options would be great. The biggest con is the antiquated ski lift, which has broken 3x over the last season, only carries 2 passengers per trip, and has an 8 minute lift ride up for a 600 foot vertical lift (8 minute ride up for a 2 minute ride down). Ticket prices are expensive given the place only has one (slow, low volume, old) lift and only 27 runs (if you run Glades, be warned that 3/4 down the hill is used as a jump by skiers off Dreadnaught, can be a blind spot and a potential collision, so that run is off-limits for me). Upgrading lift capacity, signage, and setting up the dismount on the lift (or lifts) to reduce the time you have to "pole" to get to the Hurricane Bowl side of the mountain would be a welcome improvement.

Also, (not the fault of the mountain), Casper Mountain Road (the road between town and the hill) isn't maintained as often as it could, which means be careful driving up/down on...

We visited to ski over Christmas holidays, on a Friday while the resort was open. Myself being a beginner and having gone skiing only a handful of times, and my partner having never skied before. The facility was beautiful, new, and incredibly clean and welcoming. We waited some time to check in on arrival. Tip: booking/paying online in advance makes this process much quicker. The ski/snowboard rentals were easy to access and in the same building (which unfortunately wasn't super clear online). The lessons offered were what I'd consider affordable, however the time slots weren't the greatest for the plan of our day. Aka lessons at 10 and 2 but we arrived at 10 and had to leave the resort at 4 as that's when our passes were up. So my partner and I took to the bunny hill so I could show him the basics. We had fun and quickly the bunny hill got old. The biggest problem I have with this hill is that none of the beginner slopes were open this day so the only option we had for longer skiing and making the most out of spending $200+ for the day was to try the advanced hill and it was absolutely not beginner friendly. It was a beautiful sunny day, so im unsure why most of the slopes were closed/not maintenenced. After a terrifying ride down, we took the lift back up and decided to call it a day.

Overall beautiful resort, but not...

Went there for easter "brunch" which to them constitutes of a selection of finely selected walmart bargain bin frozen foods of the not so highest quality. The tables were horrible and they tried to be "fancy" but had us grab our own drinks, and offered stale overcooked food as a feature of their "classy" dump and excuse of an easter service.

I can see why this cruddy establishment is losing money out the yin yang. You can blame garbage like this on our high property taxes. It was embarrassing dressing up for the occasion, only to be served food that is worse than a continental breakfast at a days inn.

However there is merit to the one star that I was forced to leave, as I forsee a future sashimi chef in the making, the steaks were cut so thin, and I mean so paper thin, that when turned sideways, I thought I was eating paper, I mean thats what it tasted like!

Also don't forget that it was by "reservation" only. Which was laughable considering that I could have reserved some dump motel, and been served the same food, but would have the opportunity of avoiding the horrible service that we recieved this day.

Dont go here, in sure the skiing is just as bad as their...