Monarch Mountain — Attraction in Four Corners States

Now, full disclosure: I've been to Monarch Mountain a few times, but I haven't actually utilized the facility myself in terms of skiing or snowboarding ... I've come along for moral support each time I've been there. So I really can't comment on the slopes and so forth. So my review mostly pertains to the facility itself.

The last time I went to Monarch Mountain was on opening day this season. I've been here before with my cousins and their kids, who are all avid snowboarders. This time I was bringing two of my out-of-state friends: one from Illinois and one from South Carolina. They desired the full Colorado experience, and what's Colorado without skiing, snowboarding and other snow sports, right? So the natural choice for me as a Cañon City dweller was Monarch Mountain. The prices for lift tickets are pretty reasonable if you're comparing with other Colorado ski resorts. They also had a military discount which one of my friends benefitted from.

Neither of them had skied or snowboarded, so it was their first time on opening day, no less! They were impressed by the fact that Monarch (unlike many other similar places) only has natural snow; no manmade, faux snow to be found. The staff was super helpful and encouraging to my rookie friends.

Myself, I stayed up in the lodge and caught up with some work and watched as my friends got their legs on the bunny slopes through the huge windows overlooking the slopes. I got some hot cocoa from the little coffee shop inside and it was awesome--it's from a local coffee establishment so that's pretty great. There was free wi-fi there, so I was quite productive while my friends had a blast with a newfound hobby.

My friends joined me in the lodge when they took a break and they said that the ski patrol people were super friendly and nice, giving them pointers and encouraging them to go on and venture to one of the beginner slopes. My friends were really impressed by how nice and welcoming everyone was--there was no judgment for being new or out of town. The mood in the place was pretty festive: everyone was wishing each other a "Happy Opening Day!" These are people who are passionate about their jobs and excel at them.

We also browsed the gift shop. There are some great mementos and ski/snowboarding gear and the staff in there is super friendly and helpful, too. In fact, one of them gave us some suggestions for our planned thanksgiving trip that ended up being perhaps the pinnacle of our two weeks together.

All in all, Monarch is a great place to go and enjoy that time-honored Colorado tradition of Skiing and snowboarding. They've even added a tubing area for those of us who are less inclined to want to go barreling down a snowy mountain with our feet strapped to boards but still want to get in on some wintertime fun. It's a great place for kids and adults, for n00bs and for the seasoned winter athlete. And it's a great place for lame-o people like me to sit and drink hot cocoa while watching the people you love fall on their bums. It's reasonably priced and full of helpful, friendly staff who are passionate about all that Monarch Mountain offers. It's in a scenic area, isn't too busy, and the facilities are clean. I definitely recommend Monarch for your Colorado...

We signed up our 2 girls for the ski school ages 9 & 10, we were very disappointed and had security concerns after observing the lessons. We expressed our concerns in a survey that we received and had a voicemail from management that they were unable to issue a refund and did not address any of the concerns that we had. After 45mins of our girls “attending the class” we were observing nearby, we decided it was time to step in and pull them from the class and ski with us. No instructor was keeping track of the kids or even acknowledging they were missing 2 girls. Another instructor “Gerald” not with our girls group, did come over after our oldest daughter was crying as she had been left in the snow unable to remove her skies and stand up for more than 5 mins. As that we the reason that we decided to intervene and Gerald did ask if we needed assistance. We took Gerald’s offer to take our youngest daughter up the magic carpet to the top and ski down with her for her first time. She got it pretty quickly and our oldest was still upset so we told him thank you and took our girls with us. “ the voicemail from management after my complaint via survey” said there were 2 instructors and 3 girls per instructor. Gerald was not one of them and supposedly our girls were not with the same instructor. The rest of the group had went in for what we o er heard to get hot chocolate but no head count was done and you would think if you had 3 girls and missing one in each group that you would notice! The girls were wearing a red tag on thier clothing as to who to release them to at the end of the class, no check was ever made and no one checked to see if our girls were just left in the snow somewhere! We told Gerald which he never told the assigned instructors because we watched and they were inside the building at that point. At 12:00 when the class was supposed to end, my husband went inside of the lessons text to ask if we needed to sign them out or notify anyone that we had our girls and he was told no, there was no procedure for that and none checked to even see where our girls were. They attended what was about 45 mins of the 2 hour lesson but as we observed they were unsupervised. They management that called me back said that we were a few minutes late to the lesson and they were having to divide the group of 4 kids into now 6 kids up making 2 groups of 3 but I left them with an instructor in the tent when we arrived and the others were still in the tent but he was blaming that on their negligence! He did not even address our security concerns which were much more alarming than the lack of ski education that we signed up to receive. They refused us a refund on the ski lessons which were 120.00 per kid. We dropped over 900.00 for 2 adults and 2 kids that day at Monarch. The snow tubing was a big hit on property but do not waste your money on ski school because your kid is...

I am from Minnesota and Monarch is the 3rd Colorado mountain I have skied (Keystone and Breckenridge). We were in Colorado in early April for our Spring break. My wife and daughters werent keen on skiing, and opted to stay back in the Hot Springs (at Mount Princeton - about 25 miles away). Not to be deterred, this meant I had the day to myself. I arrived at about 12 and got fitted for rental equipment. The staff was laid back, talkative, and made the experience fun. I got suited up a little before 1230 and was able to get on the lift 5 minutes early with an afternoon pass (I saved about $30 value on the full day lift). Skied pretty continuously to 4 pm when the mountain closed and went in to return my gear. The lifts were easy to use, with an RFID pass in the pocket. The mountain wasnt busy, but the wait for the lifts was always short, the snow falling was beautiful, and the sun kept ducking in and out of the clouds. The ski experience was phenomenal, though I was reminded the last time I skied in CO I was 25 and it is different! After the final run, I headed back to the lodge just after 4 pm. Needed to go out to the car to get my hikers. Got out to the car and my keys (I put them on my belt loop on a carabeaner) were nowhere to be found. So now I am locked out (with a rental car) 30 miles from my family, nearly sure my keys are buried in a foot of snow someplace on a mountain. I called roadside assistance and spent nearly 45 minutes on the phone with them trying to locate the mountain to send out a tow. I expected this to cost more than $500 because Budget could only send a tow truck from CO Springs, about 100 miles east. While on the phone with roadside, I go in the office to get the address to provide the exact location for the tow driver. I meet Scott P the VP of operations and Kathryn W the events manager. Both are very understanding of the situation, and helped me relax (needless, I felt stupid). I was fighting the sensation this situation was going to ruin a fun day on the mountain. After a little while on the phone, Kathryn wanders off and comes back a short time later, asking "Is your car a Black Mazda?". I turn and look wondering how she would know that, and see her holding my keys. I cancel the roadside assistance, return the ski boots, and return to my car relieved as what seemed like certain disaster had been averted!!!!!!! I am forever indebted to the kind person at Monarch who found and turned in my keys and to Scott and Kathryn for their patience and assistance. I got back to the family an hour later and made it for an evening dip in the Hot Springs. Thank you Monarch Mountain, for a pretty miraculous...