Archive for the 'Rocky Mountain States' Category
Coeur d’Alene to the North Pole: An Idaho resort goes all out for Christmas
November 21, 2009 6:49am
When not in Vegas, 1.5-million lights can only mean someone’s putting on one heck of a holiday party. Northern Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Resort, which claims to hold the world’s tallest living Christmas tree, puts on a family-friendly Holiday Light Show annually on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. This year, the event runs Nov. 27 to Jan. 1.
One of the show’s highlights is a “Journey to the North Pole” boat cruise, which includes a visit with Santa at the North Pole Toy Workshop. And that towering tree? At 161 feet, the green giant beats, in height, the 76-foot Norway spruce in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. What’s more, each ornament on the Coeur d’Alene tree will be 10 feet tall.
The following accommodations package offered by the resort makes a Christmas-themed trip easy.
Deal: The “Holiday Light Show B&B” package, which starts at $145 per night (pre-tax), includes your room, two tickets to the “North Pole” and breakfast for two. Read the rest of this entry »
Fly to Park City, Utah, for free ski/snowboarding lift ticket
November 10, 2009 8:25am
Wintertime recreation in an A-list celebrity destination doesn’t have to be too pricey. As was the case last winter too, the home base of the Sundance Film Festival — Park City, Utah — is full of great deals, especially those tempting to skiers and snowboarders. For instance, take this offer, which encourages you to waste nary a second in getting on your mountain gear.
Deal: Your airline boarding pass gets you a same-day lift ticket with the “QuickSTART” program. The gist: Non-Utah residents flying into Salt Lake City International Airport on certain dates this winter can hit the slopes for free at a resort of their choice (Deer Valley Resort, the Canyons Resort or Park City Mountain Resort) during the remainder of their Park City arrival day.
You must pre-register on the Park City Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau website to take advantage of this offer. To get your ski and snowboarding pass once at your chosen resort, you’ll present your voucher (sent to your e-mail address after registering), your boarding pass and an out-of-state photo ID. Read the rest of this entry »
For a sane holiday, consider Hotels.com’s Thanksgiving sale
October 31, 2009 6:51pm
If bunking up with Cousin Lenny sounds like the worst way to spend your Thanksgiving holiday away, why not treat yourself to your own peaceful quarters this year? Booking a room close to (but not with) the family doesn’t have to break the bank, thanks in part to promotions like Hotels.com’s Thanksgiving sale. Through it, you can find a range of properties for up to 30% off in 100 cities.
One of those is Denver, where 30%-off rooms at the Burnsley All-Suite Hotel are attainable. In Orlando, Fla. — where, it must be said, accommodations bargains are never rare — you can get a room for $41 per night, pretax, at the Seralago Hotel, a few miles from Disney World. Up in New York, stay for 20% off at the Time Hotel, close to Broadway shows; rates here around Thanksgiving start at $183 per night (the usual average is $229).
But there are lots of options closer to home too, for instance:
Palm Springs
I stopped into Riviera Resort & Spa’s reservation system for a stay Wednesday through Friday of that week, and got a total of about $600, after taxes and fees, for the two nights. The total price I found via Hotels.com was $478. Read the rest of this entry »
Big Bear and Mountain High ski resorts opening Friday in Southern California
October 29, 2009 4:26pm
Two of Southern California’s most popular and convenient ski resorts are opening Friday after a surprise cold snap allowed snow-making for several days. Early-season rates apply, in one of the earliest debuts in decades.
Mountain High in Wrightwood, which opened a top-to-bottom run (Chair 4) today to season-ticket holders, will be offering early-season rates of $35 for four-hour passes and $40 for eight-hour passes. The resort has been making snow almost full time since Tuesday and boasts an 8- to 12-inch base. Six to 10 terrain features were open today, and up to 20 were expected to be open on Friday. Dress warm. Though sunny, the mountain this afternoon was breezy, with temperatures hovering in the high 30s.
At Yellowstone, wolves and winter deals
October 24, 2009 9:00am
While it can’t compete with the 25-cent hotel rooms recently offered in the U.S. Virgin Islands, or $20 rooms at Hooters Casino in Las Vegas, Yellowstone National Park is offering up some interesting snow packages that include wildlife tours, snowmobiling and ice skating.
The “Winter Getaway” packages are available just after the holidays, Jan. 3 to March 6, a period often ripe with snow-play specials.
Particularly appealing: “Trail of the Wolf,” a guided snowmobile trip to the interior of the park, which is known for its wolves, and wildlife watching by special van in the park’s northern range. The package includes three nights of lodging at Old Faithful Snow Lodge or Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, two breakfasts per person, a one-hour hot tub rental, unlimited skating and skates. Prices begin at $411 per person pretax, double occupancy, for two nights at Mammoth Hot Springs and one night at Old Faithful. Two nights at Old Faithful and one night at Mammoth Hot Springs runs $546 per person.
Ski Sundance? The town is not just for film festivals
October 23, 2009 3:33pm
If you thought about Sundance, Utah, only when the famed Sundance Film Festival took over the mountain town, think again. It’s a ski destination too. Sundance Resort is offering “Early Bird Gets the Powder” ski deals before its winter ski season kicks off on Dec. 11. Never been? The resort boasts about its great snow. It was also ranked second by Conde Nast Traveler’s 2007 readers’ poll for the top 50 U.S. mainland resorts.
Deal or no deal? Get three nights’ accommodations, daily breakfast, two all-day lift tickets per day and an upgraded amenity bag with snacks upon arrival. Rates start at $375 per night pretax, based on double occupancy. I found the promotion available Jan. 12-15 for $379 per night. The 15.75% tax added nearly $200 to the price, bringing the total for the trip to $1,316 for two people.
I do think this package is of value to skiers.. Without the early-bird promotion, the best available rate was $399 per night for the room and breakfast. And in the past, day lift tickets have cost $45 per person.
JetBlue 1-day sale: $24 to $49 one-way fares from Long Beach (LGB)
October 15, 2009 6:20am
If you thought Wednesday’s $44 airfare sale wasn’t cheap enough, you weren’t alone. Apparently, JetBlue also thought that was hardly impressive. The JetBlue Sample Sale has fares as low as $24 one way, pre-tax. Even better, of the seven flights on sale from Long Beach, none of the fares are over $49 each way. So, what will it be, a quickie getaway to San Francisco for $29 each way, or how about Seattle for $10 more?
Starting fares in the JetBlue Sample Sale from Long Beach, CA (LGB) :
$29 to Oakland, CA (OAK)
$49 to Portland, OR (PDX)
$39 to Sacramento (SMF)
$49 to Salt Lake City, UT (SLC)
$39 to Seattle, WA (SEA)
$29 to San Francisco, CA (SFO)
$24 to San Jose, CA (SJC)
When: Book by 10:59 p.m. Oct. 15 for travel between Oct. 22 and Dec. 16 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
California and Colorado ski resorts in a snow daze
October 8, 2009 4:11pm
Southern California skiers are gearing up for an early season, with snow-making going on a full month before usual at Mountain High, thanks to an unusual October cold spell. Big Bear and Mammoth are biding their time, waiting for the real stuff as cold weather lingers and new storms approach. Meanwhile, at least one Northern California resort, Boreal, is planning to open this weekend.
Mountain High in Wrightwood, where wildfires threatened just a week ago, was making snow all week, the earliest that has ever happened at the popular SoCal ski destination.
“We are making snow and will open as soon as possible,” says John McColly, the resort’s director of marketing. “Could be a day. Could be a week.”
Bear Mountain is being more cautious, saying it prefers to wait until winter conditions arrive for sure. “I can’t imagine a scenario without a substantial natural snowfall that we would begin snow-making in October,” reports marketing director Chris Riddle. “While this has been an unprecedented cold spell for early October, we don’t want to waste our time, energy and water resources knowing we’re not going to be able to sustain operations through the winter.”
The Big Bear season usually opens in mid-November.
In Northern California, meanwhile, at least one resort is preparing to open this weekend.
Yellowstone fire abates under rain, snow; road may be reopened
September 30, 2009 3:35pm
A hoped-for cold front blew through Yellowstone National Park today, Sept. 30, bringing rain, snow and a welcome break for firefighters, who have been battling a lightning-sparked blaze for more than two weeks. After scorching more than 9,000 acres, the so-called Arnica fire appeared to be retreating, allowing abatement efforts that have involved more than 200 firefighters to be scaled down, officials said.
In the meantime, the National Park Service today was working to clear fire-damaged trees so that it can reopen about two miles of a roadway between the junctions at Lake Village and West Thumb. Regardless, drivers can expect delays in the park because another key route, between Norris and Madison, is scheduled to be closed until Nov. 2 as part of ongoing road construction.
Most of Yellowstone, including the iconic Old Faithful geyser area (pictured above), has been unaffected by the blaze, which is in the Lake Village region on the west side of Yellowstone Lake. The park is huge, with more than 2 million acres, and spreads across three states: Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
For updates, check the Yellowstone website or call its fire-information line, (307) 344-2580 or its road-information line, (307) 344-2117.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Photo: Old Faithful’s spray hits cold air above the snow-dusted grounds in this shot taken from the park’s webcam about 1:40 p.m. PDT Sept. 30. Credit: National Park Service
Wet and cold may douse Yellowstone fire, officials hope
September 29, 2009 5:11pm
Mother Nature may be coming to the rescue at Yellowstone National Park, where a lightning-sparked wildfire has burned more than 9,000 acres since Sept. 13. Firefighters just have to hang tough through high winds today and tonight before hoped-for cold and snow arrive Wednesday, said Tom Kempton, a National Park Service spokesman on the scene.
“The winds are what we’re watching very carefully now,” Kempton said.
Most of the giant park, which sprawls over more than 2 million acres in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, has been unaffected by the so-called Arnica fire, which is in the Lake Village region (pictured above) on the west side of Yellowstone Lake. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lake Lodge Cabins in Lake Village were undamaged, Kempton said. The area of the Old Faithful geyser, he added, was unaffected and was showing partly cloudy skies on the park webcams this afternoon.
But the blaze was spreading smoke in other areas and, along with ongoing road construction, was blocking some key in-park routes.
