Sunrise Park Resort — Hotel in Four Corners States

I have been visiting Sunrise for over 30 years and it is the mountain where I first learned to ski and then snowboard. My wife and I rode there the last 2 days along with 3 of my nephews (ages 12, 15 and 17), two brother-in-laws and a sister in-law. I was saddened and concerned by the overall experience we had. The resort seems to be falling into dis-repair. My wife and I own our gear but most of our family members were renting and two of them had issues with their snowboard bindings breaking and it appeared like the rental equipment in general is aging/poorly maintained.

The lift attendants seemed to have little interest in maintaining the loading and un-loading areas for the lifts and with the exception of one attendant at the Apache lift just sat in the lift shacks the whole time hanging out. Not once during the day did I see any of them shoveling snow or using scrapers to smooth/even out the loading and unloading areas and fill in the holes and grooves that are created from use throughout the day. I'm a more advanced rider so this does not effect me but several of the people I was with are beginner/intermediate or it was literally their first day (after taking a 2 hour lesson) and the condition of the loading and unloading areas was unacceptable. In one particular instance at the end of the day I was un-loading at the top of Sunrise chair and there was not even anyone attending the lift, seriously?

Luckily the snow was fresh from the 3-5 inches that had fallen on Wednesday evening and Thursday. Unfortunately very few of the runs were groomed which again made conditions challenging for beginners and some intermediates. Why the Ridge run for sure and arguably Nastar and No Name runs as well are not being groomed nightly is puzzling? It appears Cyclone mountain is closed and will not be opening for the whole season (I’ve heard because of repairs that need to be performed) but can’t say that for sure? Many of the buildings are closed as well including the lodge/deck at the top of Sunrise peak and the lodge at the top of Apache peak. I understand not having food concessions at theses building when the foot traffic is slow (like during mid-week) but the restrooms are not even open? I did not ride every run that was open during the days we were there so I can't say definitively but I did not see any terrain park features on the mountain either, at least not where they have historically been on Lodgeview run for the last 15 years or so.

I have ridden at many ski areas including Big Bear, Snow Summit, Mountain High, Mammoth and Heavenly in California. Park City, The Canyons, Brighton and Brian Head in Utah. Telluride, A Basin, Keystone, Crested Butte and Wolf Creek in Colorado. Mount Bachelor and Timberline in Oregon and Brundage in Idaho. I’ve told many people that out of all the places I've been some of my best days / best powder days have been at Sunrise and that it’s one of my favorites places to ride and also where I have some of my best memories. That being said I really hope that Sunrise can get things back on track and offer a better experience than we had the last couple of days. The competition at Snowbowl have elevated their game over the last two seasons in most regards and unless Sunrise wants to see their customer visits erode they need...

This place doesn't need much of a base to be fun. I've been skiing Sunrise for 30 years and everyone I've introduced to it is always pleasantly surprised how good it is. There's a high speed quad on the main front 'Sunrise' mountain that moves people up the hill pretty fast. There's also a midway 'Rustler' lift on the front mountain that takes you back up to the upper runs and I've never seen a long line at this lift. All the upper runs on Sunrise Mountain are fun but they all converge at midway which can be sketchy if you're not paying attention. Cyclone Mountain has some fun steep bowls. The lift is slow but the runs and lack of crowds makes it well worth it. There are some mellow green and blue runs off to one side of Cyclone that are great if you have kids. These runs are wide open and they don't converge into one run like they do on the front Sunrise Mountain. This makes Cyclone way safer for kids in my opinion. If the resort added a high speed lift here it would be a game changer and would pull a lot of the crowd from the front mountain...just sayin' Also, I almost don't want to reveal this but I would advise parking at Cyclone and avoid the parking zoo that happens at the main mountain on crowded weekends. Apache Peak is the middle mountain and sits between Sunrise and Cyclone mountains. This is also pretty wide open and a nice beginner / intermediate mountain. There are a couple of steeper runs on this mountain as well. I've spent a lot of time skiing Colorado, Utah and Oregon. The snow conditions at Sunrise often rival these places but the runs are much shorter. The payoff is Sunrise is often warm, the snow is dry like Colorado and it's a pretty short drive if you're in AZ. Don't expect Colorado resort amenities but you can expect to have a lot of fun on three great local mountains. I don’t have much experience with the hotel, but I did stay here with friends a couple years ago. The decor is a bit dated but its vibe is warm and the food was surprisingly great! Also, thanks to Sunrise for continuing the October food drive and free passes for kids under 12! This is such an amazing thing they do and I would recommend keeping in touch with their facebook page for details on this one. If you have kids and participate in this please don't bring one can of food, bring a bag full of canned food; you're getting free ski passes after all! Last but not least are the people. The Native Americans up here are usually very friendly. This is their land and they should be respected. I have seen people yelling at them over...

Bottom line - this resort seems like a massive scam. Make your decision to visit with caution- we advance reserved tickets and couldn’t even get in after driving 5 hours and have yet to receive a refund even after being assured numerous times we would over the last month.

Essentially, my girlfriend and I decided to drive up one weekend after calling numerous times to confirm they had an RV camping spot available and accessible (given winter conditions). We arrived to find a lot completely snowed in with no access and got stuck attempting to pull off the road to sleep for the night. Thankfully in the morning the plow driver towed us out and we headed up the slopes after talking with a manager who told us take up our issue with someone else. We entered a long line of cars for the resort only to find they had overbooked and weren’t letting anyone else in even though we had advance reserved tickets.

In summary, The customer service is not adequate here, not safe, and the employees unfortunately seem to be dysfunctional (and drunk!) at best. As excited as we were to have a great ski day and say great things about this resort, we were incredibly disappointed and we have to recommend against going to this resort for anybody who is interested. It is one of only two resorts in Arizona that are worth driving to, so it seems the management is taking advantage of this fact and this seems like a scam. Even season pass holders who were attempting to go to the resort that weekend we went said they were denied entry and multiple people in line on the road got out of their cars to discuss the passes they paid for but could not be reimbursed for. This resort seems like a massive scam. We’re grateful that we could laugh at this situation and that we found ways to stay warm throughout this crazy night, but we feel this resort is unsafe and poorly managed. Make your decision to visit...