Cold weather shouldn’t be a barrier to getting outdoors in the winter and cities around the country are doing their part to erase the doldrums with fun, snowy activities, often run by parks departments or by partnering with festival organizers and nonprofits.
According to a study by the nonprofit Project for Public Spaces, parks and plazas play a big role in fostering public activity in winter, providing people with places to sled, cross-country ski, ice skate or just mingle.
“So long as winter weather is associated only with difficult driving conditions and potential frostbite, as happens with most TV weather reports, people in northern cities will continue to hole up in their homes or make plans for moving south,” according to the study, which references the popularity of winter markets in Canada and across Europe.
Sledding, Snowshoes & Snowmen
In Arizona, the city of Flagstaff partners with the Flagstaff Nordic Center to promote downhill sledding and tubing at Crowley Pit, just off Highway 180. Here several hills with various grades and lengths are available, free to the public. The Nordic Center itself (about a mike down the road) offers day passes for cross-country skiing, snowman building, and pull-behind sledding and night play on Fridays when conditions allow.
Rochester, N.Y., bills itself as a Winter Wonderland and that’s hard to argue after perusing its Winter Adventure Series, which includes activities for children and adults – including snowshoe races, a Sweetheart Skate on Valentine’s Day, and a hiking series in collaboration with the Genesee Valley Hiking Club. The city offers plenty of indoor activities, too.
Avon Lake, Ohio, keeps it light with an annual Snowman Competition run by the city’s parks and recreation department. Avon Lake residents are encouraged to build a snowman in any city park -- or their own yard -- take a photograph and send to the parks department.
According to the entry form, snowmen can be nontraditional: “Create an animal, your favorite movie character, a snowman with Avon Lake spirit, or your own North Pole Village.”
Not to be outdone, chilly Minnesota hosts winter activities across the state, including the Twin Cities Snowshoe Shuffle, a fundraiser for a summer youth program. The series, sanctioned by the U.S Snowshoe Association, has 5- and 10-kilomter tracks for racers and walkers and a 5K dog walk.
In Minneapolis, Wirth Park is a winter recreation destination, with sledding, tubing, snowshoeing, off-road bicycling, and skijoring, a combination of cross-country skiing and dog racing. To make this happen, the city partners with the nonprofit Loppet Foundation, which promotes year-round activities in the Minneapolis area.
Winter Fun in All Climates
Marshall, Texas, will celebrate the 30th year of its famed Wonderland of Lights this winter, with millions of white lights illuminating Harrison County Courthouse as this East Texas city’s downtown is transformed into a Winter Wonderland.
Take part in the Wonderland of Lights’ Jungle Bell Run, Lighted Christmas Parade or outdoor Christmas market featuring a car show. There’s also a Santa’s Workshop, outdoor ice-skating rink, horse-drawn carriages and a carousel.
Want to go sledding in the Mother Lode region of California? The Union Democrat has you covered with a comprehensive roundup of gravitational destinations.
“Free, or cheap, sledding areas within easy reach are nestled throughout the high country in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties,” according to the newspaper. “People just need to know where to go, and abide by a few rules.”
On the Monterey Peninsula, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., there’s the Sunset Center, which recently produced “Windham Hill 30th Anniversary Solstice in its historic theater. The nonprofit Sunset Center partners with city for the community’s benefit, according to its website.
Further south, the city of Hermosa Beach, Calif., doesn’t allow a lack of snow get in the way of winter fun. Hermosa Beach holds an annual Sand Snowman Contest, with prizes for Most Unique, Most Traditional, Best Dressed and Funniest.
Most Morbid Ice Event
The most original winter celebration in the country could be Frozen Dead Guy Days, which will take place in the Colorado mountain town of Nederland.
‘Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras’ pays homage to Bredo Morstoel, who is frozen in a state of suspended animation in a shed on dry ice high above town. His family, cryonics advocates, froze him after his 1989 death. A few years later, his frozen presence helped frame a Nederland municipal code regarding the “keeping of bodies,” and he achieved posthumous fame, according to the event history.
The three-day event features 30 live bands, coffin races, ice-turkey bowling, brain-freeze contests, snowy human foosball and more.
