Mammoth Mountain has always been a favorite of mine, but the costs of going there has started to get ridiculous. I’ve heard of good things about Brian Head Utah and teamed up with CJ’s family to take a trip out there for President’s weekend. We also convinced Joy’s friends, and Ben and Tiff to go up the same weekend as well.
Thursday night we took off after work and headed to Vegas to sleep for the night before driving Friday night up to the Mountains which is 3 hours north of Las Vegas. We got a super cheap rate at the Rio hotel fro $14 (+40$ resort fee). First stop before checking into our hotel was to get some dinner at Izakaya Go since the kids wanted udon and Joy and I wanted some drinks.
Friday we did some grocery shopping in the city before starting our drive through the corner of Arizona and up into Utah. Brian Head is still a small mountain with a homey environment compared to the larger resorts which means there are less amenities in town but everything is so much cheaper. I booked a 2.5 bedroom 2 bath Airbnb condo between the two main lodges that fit our two families perfectly.
We spent the rest of the day cooking dinner and going outside and doing some sledding down the hills.
Saturday we headed to the snow. Alice had a full day ski lesson along side Mackenzie that included a lunch, and Joy took a morning snowboard lesson with CJ. Leela and i hung around the main lodge playing in the snow and eating cookies. She really wanted to get on the ski lift, and kept running towards it when ever she got a chance.
By lunch time i found Joy at the end of her lessons and apparently she was head of the class, and figured out how to start linking her turns.
Joy took Leela back to the condo for lunch and to put her down for a nap so i took her jacket and lift ticket and met up with Ben and Tiffany on the slopes. For being a holiday weekend and what we heard was “busy” the place felt empty to what i’m used to. Overall the mountain was nice and the size of Big Bear if you could also ski the other side of the peak which was perfect for a family trip. Not quite what Ben and I are used to on our ski trips but at our age was more than enough.
I wasn’t sure how Alice would react to her ski lessons since she’s such a lazy girl, but i was pleasantly surprised that she enjoyed it so much that she wanted to do it again the next day.
Back at the condo after dinner we took full advantage of the indoor pool and spa.
