Kelly Canyon Resort — Attraction in Idaho

Much better than I anticipated.

Natural Terrain The train is actually a lot of fun. I was expecting one gradual grade from top to bottom, but the little mountain has a lot of character to it. I found some spots with some little side hits. They keep the groomers in good shape, which makes for a lot of fun laying down euro carves. The magic carpet run is so perfect for beginners. It’s long so they get plenty of time on their skis or board. Unlike snowbird with a very short run. It’s not steep, although steep as a relative term, but this is more gradual than the magic carpet at Sundance, which made it easier to teach my kids.

Terrain Park Fun for kids but nothing big which I’m fine with as I’m old now and no longer hit big tables or anything. (Edit I started spinning tables again at age 40. Perfect size IMO. Fun without harsh consequences.)

Ski School Amazing! Can’t beat the price either! After literally 10 years of trying to coax my kids into snowboarding, I never saw much progression or interest because they said “it was too hard”. So we put them in ski school. Ages 14, 11, and 8. After just one day, all of my kids have progressed in amazing ways. My 14 year old who was always very nervous was now linking turns and excited to go back. My 11-year-old was also now linking his turns. My eight year old who has almost 0 athletic talent, and who I thought would never be able to stand up on her own is now the most excited about going. We have now been going multiple times a week and it’s a dream come true. She can get off the lift by herself, sideslip on her hillside all the way down without falling, and get on and off the lift by herself. She is small, more like a 6 year old. (Updated - Three years later all my kids are stoked on snowboarding and progressing! Thank you, kelly Canyon ski school!!!)

Lifts The lift lines are never long, and weekdays there is never a line until the school ski bus gets up there in the evening. Even then the lines are short! The three person lift doesn’t slow down and doesn’t detach like some high speed quads when it comes around to get you but it’s not scary for little kids. It’s not super fast.

Food (Update - huge improvements from three years ago. The mountain is really coming together and I really appreciate them having Big Judds on the mountain. Big Judds is our local burger place that people rave about).

Parking If you’re local, and you go late in the day, you might think to complain, but compared to resorts in Utah these days, their parking lot is great.

Atmosphere In the winter, they have a little ice castle thing for the kids to play on. It doesn’t look like much but my eight year old has a blast just messing around for a minute after we ride. It makes it a lot of fun for her. The lodge is nice and big for the size of resort. They have a tiny bit of shopping inside where you can buy gloves or goggles, etc..

Overall, this is a super fun family resort. If you’re up here on vacation and don’t want to mess with the crowds, the family will have a lot of fun. If you’re local, I think the season pass for the family as well worth it if you have the money to get it. Hit the pizza place in Heise on...

February 25, 2023 Update:

I believe our family has skied its last time at Kelly’s this past week. It has become all about the $$ at Kelly’s. They have even removed the hamburgers off the menu. When asked why, staff indicated it was because, “they were not making enough money by selling them.” (I’m not sure how they were not able to make enough money off $10 burgers?) They even charged for the fry sauce! I grew up with Kelly’s, I learned to ski at Kelly’s, and have many, many great memories at Kelly’s. Memories that I would like to share with my family, but cannot do because of the cost and the new approach where it is obvious the dollar comes first.

I took my family to ski this weekend at Beaver- 4 lifts (that work), 2 magic carpets, friendly staff, great food - $60 for all day adult pass! I will be making the long drive down so my family can have the experience I did at “Old Kelly’s.” And, they serve hamburgers. Even better, you are not charged for fry sauce! (See pic below!)

So long, old friend, I really wish management would see that the drive for profit margins is strangling the business. 😢

December, 2022 Update:

So, I'm updating an earlier review based on my most recent experience at Kelly's. I write this review in the hope that these comments will be taken into consideration by management at Kelly's and to advise other locals in the area looking for a positive skiing experience.

As additional background, I consider myself partial to Kelly's, due to living close and the many great memories I have there. I have previously been a season pass owner at the resort.

With that being said, I was very disappointed on my most recent visit for a few reasons that I believe could be rectified easily.

First and foremost, the price. Night skiing is 4 hours long and is currently priced at $59. For comparison, Pebble Creek is $25, Pomerelle pre-purchase is $25, and Bogus is $39 from 3pm to close.

Second, although the new lift is up and going, it replaced lifts 1 and 2 and the previous lift 4 is not going and doesn't look like it will be going for some time. In other words, there are only half of the lifts going now (2) compared to a few years ago (4).

Third, many of the lights were out. If you choose to go night skiing at Kelly's, I would definitely take a flashlight and be very careful about visibility. Runs that were previously well lit are largely dark now. I would not recommend night skiing.

I was surprised to see how few people were there compared to previous years. I can't help but think that the pricing structure is the leading reason. Taking into account the new pricing structure along with fewer acres of skiable terrain, I would not recommend this resort currently.

Please Kelly's, we like you and want you to succeed. You are not Targhee, Sun Valley, or Teton Village and we don't want you to be. We want you to be a place we can afford to take families after hours or on the weekend. At the current prices, we...

An honest review from a 20+ year Kelly Canyon goer.

I’ve been skiing since I was very little, (snowboarding since high school in the 90’s), and been all over the world to experience all different kinds of resorts and ski hills. Have a combined 5 years of experience volunteering for Ski Patrol. I feel like I know what I’m saying when I say, Kelly is not what it used to be. And it’s not just because we have new owners either. The first two years Mike owned the mountain, it was wonderful. Great management and employees spanning from the rental shop to the new restaurant in the lodge, to the lift operators and maintenance staff. You would even see some of these guys working in town! It was great! Many of them being locals that we all know very well! Something happened that third year and it’s been all downhill since. I don’t think any of those locals we loved returned that third year and the restaurant was a skeleton crew. Over half the menu items were gone which was really disappointing because there was some really great options for food for all ages. We now are getting food trucks… like what??

My gut says they’re trying to save money. I don’t want to believe it’s anything more than that but so many locals have been affected by poor business decisions from the new management running the mountain. Most employees are now out of state, coming from BYUI and it probably saves the mountain money by not having the local managers back expecting raises every few years or so. But it kills the heart of the mountain and hurts that community vibe it used to have. It’s really not there anymore. Prices are ridiculous. There’s no food options. Just not worth it anymore! It’s sad, really! We budgeted traveling to other ski destinations in the area from Targhee to Lost Trail and were able to get it in the same wheelhouse price wise and they are significantly better places to go (if you can handle a drive.) It’s just a no brainer to go elsewhere. To add to all the disappointments, the snow has been absolutely terrible these past few seasons too. They haven’t been able to work it like they used to. Just eats your expensive gear. If you’re gonna go, might want to keep those ski’s and snowboards that you were originally going to donate to the ski swap! 😂

I think the good ‘ole days of Kelly are sadly...