Mary Jane Base — Attraction in Winter Park

I'm still blown away at how many trails there are, how many varieties of each there are, and how amazing it is with the caliber of skiers here that it's also a great place to teach. Just a phenomenal day and exactly what we wanted for my 6 year old twin boys first time skiing. Our friends, who live in Denver, took my boys skiing and did their version of a ski school. One that will be far more effective for a one-day-event, once this year. When we return for a multiple ski-day trip, we'll do a bona fide ski school, but given the cost of that ($189 per child), we wanted to get my boys on skis first to see what they thought. They loved it. One of our friends involved in my boys first skiing event was amazing with the details in how to fall, how to get back up, how to pizza and French fry and whatnot. I truly believe she could teach them just fine. One of my boy's skis kept popping off, tension wasn't set as well as it could have been. He was getting frustrated and she managed to keep his mind off of that and on the fun he was having. Anyway, back to Mary Jane. My husband and I sat out, this time, preferring to watch our boys from a distance (not distracting them from the task at hand). I'm a Cali girl and he's a Texas native. I prefer surfing and he's had some not-so-good experiences skiing as an old girlfriend insisted his first time out that he didn't need ski school. And she had nothing to teach. Well...that didn't work so well. Both of us love skiing but know we are not good or confident yet. We both wanted our boys out there at a young age, as if we'd been out there as youngsters, we don't think we would have the head games going on with us continuing to learn. Bring on Mary Jane. My skiing experiences have only been in Cali. And they just don't compare. Mary Jane is amazing. I read reviews, now, for other resorts, and it all sounds amazing. But I think Mary Jane may just be super phenomenal for kids learning from their parents or friends. There's a small slope that has it's own 2-seater chair lift and it cost a mere $10 for each boy's pass. They didn't have access to the entirety of Mary Jane, but at 6, first time learners, being taught by our best friends, they didn't need it this time around. They skiied about 3 hours and then were done. Our friends then did their adult, confident, experienced skier skiing, and my husband and I took our boys around to the winter park side to go tubing. We had a blast. Just a phenomenal area. Couple all that with our rentals from Breeze...we'll be back and we'll recommend Mary Jane every time. And I think it goes without saying that our drive up was absolutely gorgeous. I do miss having mountains in my backyard, now...

Mary Jane base this year has been my go to for local snowboarding in the Denver area. There are only 2 reasons I didn't give a 5Catwalks.

Catwalks. As a snowboarder this mountain has a few too many Catwalks on the green side of the mountain. I brought my nephew who had never snowboarder before and we ended up moving to the blues because of the catwalks.

The seasonal events ive attended were lack luster. Now to preface, this could be a symptom of covid but even with that in mind their advertised "beach" days were lacking. Compared to the effort put into alot of the Copper Mountian events, winter park doesn't compare.

With that said, the mountain is beautiful and very well maintained with alot of different runs for new and experienced riders. As I said, this has been my go-to mountain for the 2020/21 season and I've been here 20+ times...

If you like skiing the bumps this is the place and if someone in your party likes groomers they can ski at Winter Park resort. Both ski areas are connected via chair lifts so you can access both. The town of winter park is not too exciting. One two story building that has some gift shops in it and then there are a few restaurants down the main strip. The only chain restaurant is McDonald's. There is a supermarket in town. It is a Safeway. Just past Winter Park is a town called Hot Sulphur Springs . They have you guessed it a hot sulphur springs to soak in after a day of skiing . I wish I could say go there but through the years I've seen the place get run down. The owners never spend a dime on the place. The locker room is gross and so is the one indoor pool. It's a must see at least one time but I wish it...