We're big fans of trying out the smaller local ski hills, and Granby Ranch has been on my list for a while. It was especially intriguing to me because our favorite campground - River Run - is nearby, and they have very affordable cabins for the winter.
This was one of my favorite family ski trips we've taken so far! Not only did we love skiing Granby Ranch and staying at River Run, but as the kids get older we're able to ski more as a family, and it was just so darn fun!
Granby Ranch
Granby Ranch has three chairlifts at the base. One slow chair that serves the bunny hill (magic carpets are only for ski school), one express chairlift that serves the east mountain with greens and easy blues, and then a third chairlift that serves the west mountain with blues and blacks.
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My son is a hesitant beginner, and it's been two years since they had skiied, so we started with the bunny hill, and after a few runs, we convinced him to go up the express chairlift. We started with the greens, which the kids loved. My son's favorite was Buckhorn to Deer Trail to Fox Den, we ran that about 20 times!
I loved the blue cruisers on the other side. My favorites were Easy Money and Ghost Rider.
On our second day, the kids both did lessons and had a fantastic time. Because Granby Ranch is a smaller resort we ran into them several times while they were in lessons, which was really fun. One drawback is that their lessons don't go above a level four, and my daughter was a little bored since she already has parallel turns down. But my son learned some tools that made him much more confident. We thought the kids would be wiped after their ski lessons, so we sat down for a long lunch to take a break, but they were ready to go back out before we were!
On the third day, we weren't sure how long we'd last but we ended up skiing from open to about 2 pm, and the kids wanted more! My daughter was cruising blues with us and my son was flying down his favorite green run by the end of the day. This last day was a Saturday and I was worried about lift lines, but it actually wasn't too bad, and because there are so many runs it seemed like people were spaced out pretty well.
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When we took breaks we'd grab chicken fingers and french fries from the cafeteria, which were reasonably priced. And after skiing we enjoyed food from the restaurant - our favorites were the deep-fried cheese curds! They have a decent happy hour and on Thursday night they had live music.
The one thing that was strange is that they don't offer lockers. I hate walking in ski boots, so we typically walk up to the lodge to change into our boots, and there was nowhere to put our shoes. We stashed them in a corner like a few other people had done and it worked fine. If you don't mind walking in ski boots, the parking really isn't that far from the lodge.
Granby Ranch also participates in the Gems card, which means you can get 2 for 1 adult lift tickets (or 30% off one ticket) twice during the season. They also participate in the 4th, 5th, 6th-grade Passport program, so my daughter could ski up to four days for free. That made it super affordable for our family to ski for three days!
River Run Cabins
We love River Run in the summer time, and were so excited to experience it in the winter!
We rented a 2-bedroom cabin, which was perfect for us. It wasn't huge, but it had a nice kitchen, a large couch, and a small area to sit down and eat, which is really all that we needed. There was plenty of storage for us to bring all our gear in at night, the and the kids loved the bunk beds. The best parts were that it was only 15 minutes away from the ski resort and we enjoyed the hot tub every night (even in the single digits 🥶).
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We're already planning to do this same ski trip twice next year because we had so much fun!
