While Park City and Salt Lake City demand much of the attention from travelers looking to ski or snowboard in Utah, there’s a hidden gem for outdoor recreators in this state: Ogden Valley.
Ogden Valley is less than 60 minutes away from the Salt Lake City International Airport, making it an easy Uber/Lyft or shuttle ride to your lodging of choice. And from there, your possibilities are endless. Ski at Powder Mountain, a charming resort with great lift access and snow-cat skiing, ride at Snowbasin Resort, whose stunning vistas make it feel like you’re skiing in Europe, or check out Nordic Valley, an affordable family-friendly resort with Utah’s largest night skiing.
Interested in activities outside of downhill skiing and snowboarding? Ogden Valley has plenty of cross-country skiing, fly fishing, horseback riding, snowmobiling and more. Plus, the city of Ogden is full of excellent food, breweries and historic sites, while the towns of Huntsville and Eden offer gorgeous views of the mountains and small-town charm.
As you consider your options for your next trip, you’ll need a place to stay and unwind after a long day on the slopes. Below are four independent lodging options for your upcoming vacation to this beautiful valley.
The quaint Snowberry Inn B&B is a great place to hunker down and enjoy the snow this winter.
Snowberry Inn Bed and Breakfast
EdenIdeally located in Eden—just 20 minutes to both Powder Mountain and Snowbasin and only 10 minutes from Nordic Valley—Snowberry Inn makes for the perfect home base for your next ski vacation. The B&B is a large eight-room log cabin that provides cozy rooms, hot tubs, foosball, a pool table and, of course, a delicious breakfast (the innkeeper is a baker!). While there’s wifi and cell service, there are no phones or televisions in the rooms, so put away your screens for a bit and relax. The innkeeper is always onsite and happy to give you recommendations of places to visit and activities to discover while in town.
Right now, the small inn is running at half-capacity due to COVID, but starting Thanksgiving weekend 2020, Snowberry will exclusively be offering the whole inn to rent, making it the ideal place for your family vacation this winter. If you book in 2020, the rate is only $650/night for seven rooms and while they won’t be serving breakfast, you’ll have access to their full kitchen to prepare meals.
Fun fact: Snowberry Inn was featured in the 2019 Hallmark Christmas movie Check Inn to Christmas!
Instead of staying at a hotel, rent a home for your ski vacation using Mountain Luxury Lodging.
Mountain Luxury Lodging
Eden, Huntsville and Powder Mountain
Want a whole house or condo for your group, instead of staying in a hotel? Mountain Luxury Lodging could be your perfect option. The group has a collection of townhouses, condos and luxury homes throughout Eden and Huntsville, putting you right by the Ogden Valley mountain resorts. Whether you choose a budget-friendly option in town or the most lavish of an on-mountain mansion, each rental comes with luxury linens, Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner, laundry, satellite TV, whole-bean coffee and more. The company also provides an a la carte concierge service and can set you up with massages, a private chef, grocery and liquor delivery—and even a Christmas tree!
While Mountain Luxury Lodging has always emphasized cleanliness, they’ve stepped it up during COVID to protect renters and staff, providing their (always masked) staff with extra time for disinfecting and sanitizing anything that gets touched before you enter your rented home.
The new Compass Rose Lodge boasts an industrial farmhouse style and a view of the stars.
Compass Rose Lodge
Huntsville
Set right on the enchanting town square in Huntsville, Compass Rose Lodge is a 15-room boutique hotel that blends Ogden Valley’s heritage with modern style to create an elegance that’s best described as “farmhouse meets industrial chic.” The family-run lodge just opened in January 2019 and all of the rooms feature high-end amenities and stunning design elements.
Start off your day with a fabulous cup of coffee in the lobby at the First Lift Coffee Shop and a complimentary breakfast delivered right to your door before hitting the slopes at nearby Snowbasin. Then, when you return, do some stargazing on the high-tech telescope the lodge is built around—the Huntsville Astronomic and Lunar Observatory—before walking to a nearby restaurant for dinner. (Note: The Observatory is only open to hotel guests at the time of publishing. Compass Rose is monitoring COVID trends and will open to the public when appropriate.)
While Compass Rose is, of course, taking all necessary COVID precautions, they’ve also come up with a fun and safe way to allow people to gather and socialize outside during the pandemic this winter. The hotel will be erecting several tipis—complete with comfortable seating and fire pits—for families and friends to gather and enjoy après ski. They see the tipis as paying homage to the four tribes that frequented the area to trade goods with the local trappers and Mormon settlers in the town square, and even ordered the tipis from the same manufacturer that supplied the movie "Dances With Wolves"! Groups can call Compass Rose Lodge to reserve a tipi this winter.
Powder Mountain’s offerings include its Horizon cabins—gorgeous modern homes right on the ski runs at the resort.
