Top 5 Kid-Friendly Lake Chelan Winter Activities
Fresh-air and fun await!
Got kids? Here are five fun activities to do at Lake Chelan in the winter. Sledding and skiing options abound. Swimming is a possibility at some resorts. And consider the Chelan planet walk. Coax the troops to Pluto and back and reward them with a movie at the Ruby!
Skier prepares to unload at the top of the Echo Valley Poma lift.
1) Sledding
Sledding was the go-to activity for my brother and me growing up in Lake Chelan. The granddaddy of Lake Chelan’s sledding hills can be found at the Lake Chelan Golf Course.
Turn right at the roundabout on the north shore and climb to the golf course plateau. As you approach the clubhouse, look left and you will see tracks zipping down the steep slope. (Hole #18 for you golfers.)
2) Tubing and Skiing at Echo Valley
In the 1950’s, a collection of families started the Echo Valley Ski Hill. Located in the hills above Lake Chelan’s north shore, Echo continues to offer family fun.
Enjoy three rope tows, a Poma lift, and a hair-raising tubing hill. In town for New Year's Eve? Don’t miss Echo’s New Year's Eve celebration complete with night skiing, tubing, and a torch-light parade.
3) Swimming
Got toddlers? You know the value of a pool. With a set of water wings, your young ones can splash contentedly for hours. Lake Chelan will enjoy a public indoor pool in a few years at the new community center. But for now, wintertime swimming is limited to a handful of resorts.
Wapato Point Resort and Chelan Resort Suites both enjoy indoor pools. The Lookout and Lake Chelan Shores have outdoor pools with bubbles over the top.
4) Snowshoeing, Cross-Country Skiing, and The Planet Walk
Perched six-hundred vertical feet above Echo Valley, Echo Ridge offers miles of groomed cross-country skiing as well as routes for snow-shoeing.If you have never cross-country skied before, read my Echo Ridge how-to blog. After an afternoon of skiing, the entire family will return home ready for bed.
Or consider getting out closer to downtown. The Chelan Planet Walk offers a 2.4 mile round-trip route extending from downtown Chelan to the Reach One parking lot and beyond. Most of the trail is typically plowed in the winter, however the last stretch from Neptune to Pluto is not, so make sure you wear winter boots.
5) Bowling and a Movie
Finally, this top-five list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Ruby Theater and the Chelan Lanes Bowling Alley. If the snow quality is poor, or the kids are low-energy, consider either option.
Also, dangle either as a reward to get the troops motivated to ski or walk. Returning downtown for a movie or bowling after an outing is a great way to end a winter’s day in Lake Chelan.
