Winter Van Life: Nordic Valley

When We Visited: March 2022 & January 2023

Nordic Valley is located in Ogden Valley, Utah. Its better-known neighbors include Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. While Nordic Valley is only a fraction of the size of other local ski areas, it should not go overlooked. They still get 300 inches of snowfall on average each year! And their lift ticket prices are budget-friendly.

During the 2019/20 ski season, our Loveland season passes included free days of skiing at Nordic Valley. However, I was under the impression that it was a cross-country ski area, so we skipped it, even though we passed right by it when visiting Powder Mountain. It’s unfortunate because Pow Mow had perfect snow conditions and Nordic Valley likely did too.

That’s okay because during the 2020/21 season, they added 300 acres, 12 trails, and installed their first 6-person, high-speed chairlift. We were excited to check out their new expansion!

What We Love About Nordic Valley

Its affordability. We only paid $23 each by purchasing our tickets online the day before in March 2022. Depending on the day of the week, tickets were as low as $9.

The terrain expansion. I’m unsure I would’ve enjoyed the mountain as much if Nordic Valley didn’t add 300 acres to their preexisting 150 skiable acres. It’s enough to keep me entertained for three hours.

Plan Your RV/Van Life Road Trip to Nordic Valley

nordicvalley.ski
3567 Nordic Valley Way, Eden, UT 84310
(801) 745-3511
info@nordicvalley.com

Pass affiliations: Power Pass 2023/24, Loveland 2023/24

Hours of operation: Open daily at 10:00 am. Monday-Thursday closed at 7:00 pm, Friday-Saturday closed at 8:00 pm, Sunday closed at 4:00 pm. Check their Hours of Operation for the most up-to-date information.

Mountain Stats

• Skiable terrain: 450 acres
• Total vertical rise: 1,700 feet
• Average annual snowfall: 300 inches
• More stats

Where to Sleep in Your Van/RV

Nordic Valley allows overnight RV parking in the lot across the street from their main parking area for $10 per night. I’m bummed because they used to allow overnight RV parking in the main parking area in the lower lot where it was much more level. The new designated RV camping parking lot is very sloped to the point that our levelers weren’t much help. We spent a lot of time driving around the lot trying to find the most level spot. My body was feeling the pain after sleeping there a couple of nights.

To pay for overnight camping at Nordic Valley, you must go to their ticket window at The Barn during regular business hours. Since they have night skiing on most days throughout most of the year, they’re open pretty late.

Restrooms are available during regular business hours. The restrooms in the trailer outside of the main building are locked overnight, and during our last visit, they still were not open a little after 8:00 am. The lifts don’t start spinning until 10:00 am. Dumpsters are unavailable so pack it out!

The closest grocery store to Nordic Valley is Valley Market in Eden about 3 miles away. They do not have a water refill station. While it’s a small market, they have most major items that a large grocery store chain would carry. You might find it to be more expensive than stocking up in Ogden or North Ogden about 30 minutes away.

Century Mobile Home & RV Park – 17.2 miles / 35 minutes in West Haven – We stayed at this RV park on a visit to Powder Mountain during Christmas and New Year’s week one season. I was anxious about site availability given the holidays. It was the closest RV park to Pow Mow I could find open in winter. Fortunately, plenty of sites were available, and it was easy to extend our stay each day.

The showers were clean, but the water temperature and pressure were up and down. I wasn’t sure if the washers running in the laundry facility were causing the problem. Also, many of the washers and dryers were out of service. There was only one washer available, and it wasn’t the cleanest. We skipped doing laundry there.

AT&T cell service worked great for texting, emailing, and streaming entertainment.

Willard Peak Campground – 18.7 miles / 35 minutes in Willard – I happened to see this RV park driving from the Brigham City / Perry South KOA Journey to Powder Mountain in 2022. It hadn’t shown up in any of my searches for year-round RV parks and campgrounds, so I made a mental note of it. When we returned to the Ogden area in January 2023, I looked them up and they are now one of my new favorite places for their clean facilities and over-the-top friendly hosts.

We last paid $45.69 for a pull-through full hookup gravel site. We don’t normally book reservations to stay any place very far in advance, so I was glad it was very easy to show up at Willard Peak Campground, check out the sites available, and quickly complete a reservation online.

We arrived after hours and Mark was so kind to answer all of my questions about their facilities. I got to chat with his wife, Evielynne, the next morning about their full-time RV adventures. And check out their cute little gift shop.

The showers were so beautiful and clean and yet, Evielynne mentioned they would be doing a deep clean on them the very next day.

They also have 4 coin-op front loading washers and 4 dryers which were also sparkling clean.

We had excellent AT&T service at Willard Peak Campground for texting, emailing, and streaming entertainment. The RV park also offers free WiFi but we didn’t use it.

Brigham City / Perry South KOA Journey – 20.3 miles / 35 minutes in Brigham City – We last paid $32.89 per night in March 2022 for a grass back-in electric-only site that is perfect for tents, small trailers, and vans. Like most KOAs, they have a variety of sites including pull-throughs, back-ins, full hookups, partial hookups, sites with patios, and cabins too. All sites are either grass or gravel. Nothing is paved.

Even though we chose a site without a dump, we still had access to the RV park’s on-site dump at no charge. However, it was under construction during our stay. RV staff arranged for us to use an unreserved site with a dump, so we could empty our cassette toilet.

The women’s bathhouse has three toilets, three sinks, and three showers. Each shower space is behind a latched door with room for changing, including hooks and a bench. The bathhouse is unavailable between 11 am and 1 pm for cleaning. I assume the men’s side is similar.

A laundry room is available 24/7 with four washers (one was out of service) and six dryers. Washers are $2.50 for 30 minutes and dryers are $1.50 for 45 minutes.

Dumpsters are available.

AT&T and Verizon were sufficient for texting, emailing, streaming entertainment, and participating in online video calls. However, I would note that Verizon would drop on me at times. With AT&T, browsing the internet was either slow or unresponsive. These issues were infrequent but happened enough that it’s worth mentioning.

AT&T internet speed: 1.4 Mbps down/9.5 Mpbs up, 2 bars 5GE
AT&T hotspot internet speed: 4.1 Mbps down/8.1 Mbps up

Verizon internet speed: 8.3 Mbps down/36 Mbps up, 3 bars LTE
Verizon hotspot internet speed: 34 Mpbs down/5.2 Mbps up

If you stay here, Brigham City has a wonderful Smith’s grocery store less than 5 miles away. They have a water refill station located near the pharmacy.

Antelope Island State Park’s Bridger Bay Campground – 50.8 miles / 1.5 hours near Syracuse – This campground is a little bit out of the way, but I’m sharing it as an option because I think it’s a worthy side trip. You’ll see the Great Salt Lake up close, a unique view of Salt Lake City, and hundreds of roaming bison. The park offers a scenic drive, as well as hiking and biking trails for taking it all in.

Please note: It’s not uncommon to hear about human and bison encounters that ended in injury and even death at Antelope Island. Keep your distance and follow these tips from the state park.

Upon our visit in March 2022, we didn’t have a reservation but there were plenty of campsites available. (Reservations are strongly recommended on weekends and must be made 2 days or more in advance.) When we showed up at the Antelope Island Causeway Toolbooth, a ranger assigned us a site. We weren’t able to see the campground first because it’s still a 15-minute drive from the toolbooth to the campground. She did her best to select a site for us with a great view and space from other campers. We were not disappointed.

We paid $40 for a paved electric and water site. No hookup sites are also available. A separate dump station with potable water is available in the campground’s upper loop.

Since it was still winter, the showers were not yet open in the campground. However, it was a short drive to quarter-operated showers open at Bridger Bay Beach. If you have bikes or don’t mind walking, it’s about a mile one way. It was $1.75 for a 6-minute shower.

Very clean vault toilets were open within the campground.

We were hoping to stay a couple of nights but we could only stay for one as AT&T cell service wasn’t good enough for a video call, even with a booster. We chose to go because campground reviewers indicated they had no problem with video calls, so I’m unsure why our experience was so different. We have Starlink now, so it won’t matter in the future.

Regardless of only staying one night, we still found time to drive Antelope Island Road to its end and see a lot of what the park had to offer. We look forward to a future visit.

Driving to Nordic Valley

From Ogden Valley (Eden, Huntsville, Liberty), it’s an effortless drive to Nordic Valley on relatively flat roads.

If you’re coming from North Ogden, you’ll go over North Ogden Canyon Road and reach an elevation of 6,190 feet. It’s a scary and dangerous road that drivers only make worse by passing other vehicles illegally. I only like driving it when the road is dry. You can read more about it from the Standard-Examiner. It does have beautiful views of North Ogden and Ogden Valley.

If you’re coming from Ogden, you’ll take State Road 39 through Ogden Canyon. It’s far less steep, but this area can experience rock slides, so pay attention to road conditions.

Note: I’ve had Apple Maps and Google Maps give us strange directions through the neighborhood surrounding Nordic Valley going to and from the ski area. If you’re in a larger rig or towing anything, you probably won’t like driving the narrow twisty roads, especially if they’re snow covered. When you map Nordic Valley, verify where your map app is taking you. Roads should be relatively straight.

Also, if you’re coming from Eden near the intersection of Highways 162 and 158, you’ll want to turn left onto E 3300 N from Highway 162 going north. If you’re coming from North Ogden Canyon Road on Highway 162 going south, stay right to take N 3500 E. It’s a very sharp turn, almost a U-turn, from Highway 162 onto either of those roads if you enter going in the opposite direction stated.

Parking Your Van/RV at Nordic Valley

Parking is fairly obvious when you arrive at Nordic Valley. There are two small lots on the ski area side of the road closest to the lodge – one upper and one lower. There is another small lot closest to the Apollo lift and one across the street. See Nordic Valley’s trail map for more information.

If you are oversized, Nordic Valley staff will probably want to guide you on where to go. We’d recommend showing up at least a half hour before they open. The lots on the lodge side of the road really aren’t friendly to larger vehicles. We are about 20 feet and I’d say that’s about the max those lots can handle, especially when those lots get full. Otherwise, you’re at risk of getting stuck as there is little run for maneuvering. Parking across the street is probably safest.

For short vans and truck campers, there are a couple of dozen slope side parking spots if you show up early enough.

Even though Nordic Valley isn’t well known, it’s a pretty happening place. We arrived late in the afternoon on a Wednesday thinking that it would be easy to find our overnight parking spot, but there was no parking in the lots on the lodge side of the road and very little parking available across the street. We forgot they offer night skiing and it seems to be extremely popular. We decided to leave and grab a bite to eat until the crowd thinned out.

Redeeming Your Online Ticket Purchase at Nordic Valley

We purchased our tickets online the day before in March 2022. When we went to the ticket window to get our passes, there were two windows – one for online passes and the other for everything else. However, neither person behind the windows was responding to us standing there. So, we entered the building to the right of the ticket windows and found the following:

The instructions were simple, and we activated our passes without any professional help needed.

Using Your Reciprocal Partner Season Pass at Nordic Valley

During the 2022/23 season, we had Loveland season passes which granted us three free days at Nordic Valley. To redeem our benefits, we had to visit Nordic Valley’s ticket window and show our Loveland Season Pass. They gave us a printed scannable lift ticket and a lift ticket zip tie. We had to return to the ticket window each day we wanted to ski/ride.

Tips on How to Ski/Ride Nordic Valley

As I told my husband, go with an adventurous mindset!

It was probably 60-something degrees out, and it was the second to last day of Nordic Valley’s season when we visited in March 2022. I went first while Kyle stayed behind to work. You could see a lot of exposed earth on the runs from the base area, but I assumed that the coverage might be better the higher up I went.

As I took my first lift ride on the Apollo chair, it became more apparent that skiing around the mountain, I’d be dodging bare patches, and my line selection might end up in a dead-end.

Sure enough, on two occasions, I had to dismount my skis. I hiked through rocky mud and bushes and slid on my butt to skiable terrain.

I like to explore, and it’s hard for me to leave a mountain without traveling every patch of snow, so your experience might be different from mine. If you stick to well-marked runs, you’ll probably be okay. But if you’re the curious type, be prepared for some walking if you’re at Nordic Valley late in their season.

Runs with the best coverage were Valkyrie and Stray Dog. However, if you baby the base of your skis or board, spring skiing at Nordic Valley might not be for you.

Don’t worry! Nordic Valley doesn’t always look like the pictures above. For comparison, check out closing day in March 2022 versus the first week of January in 2023.

Working Remotely at Nordic Valley

Using AT&T and Verizon, texting, emailing, streaming entertainment, and participating in online video calls worked great at Nordic Valley from the lower parking lot.

Nordic Valley’s free public WiFi wasn’t great, but I was also trying to use it in the lower parking lot instead of closest to their main building.

AT&T hotspot: 4.5 Mpbs down/9.9 Mbps up
Verizon hotspot: 42 Mbps down/6.7 Mbps up
Nordic Valley’s public WiFi: 520 Kbps down/3.1 Mbps up

Where to Eat Near Nordic Valley

• Ogden Valley Pizza – 2.8 miles / 5 minutes in Eden
• Eats of Eden 2.8 miles / 5 minutes in Eden

It’s a tough choice deciding between Ogden Valley Pizza or Eats of Eden. They are across the street from each other, and reviews are about equivalent. So we’ve tried both! I lean toward Eats of Eden because I love their dessert menu and they have other goodies to choose from in their waiting area. But you really can’t go wrong with either place if you’re there for pizza.

Where to Dump Your Cassette Toilet

North Ogden Divide Trailhead / Ben Lomond Trailhead – 4.6 miles / 10 minutes on North Ogden Canyon Road – The vault toilet at the top of North Ogden Canyon Road was open in late March 2022. The sign at the parking lot says North Ogden Divide Trailhead, but Google Maps shows it as Ben Lomond Trailhead.

Ski Areas Close to Nordic Valley

• Powder Mountain (Indy Pass 2023/24) – 10.3 miles / 20 minutes in Eden
• Snowbasin (Ikon Pass 2023/24, Mountain Collective 2023/24) – 18.5 miles / 30 minutes in Huntsville
• Cherry Peak (Indy Pass Allied Resort 2023/24) – 65.9 miles / 1.5 hours in Richmond
• Beaver Mountain (Indy Pass 2023/24) – 77.8 miles / 1.75 hours near Garden City

Need Service or Supplies for Your Van/RV?

• Charlie’s Service Center – 25.1 miles / 40 minutes in Sunset
• Camping World of Kaysville – 34.4 miles / 45 minutes in Kaysville

Read 5 Months without Running Water Living in a Van for how we ended up at both of these places.

If you like Hawaiian food and are in Sunset, check out Dakine Grindz.

Sightseeing Near Nordic Valley

Walk around downtown Ogden – 36 miles / 50 minutes – My favorite stop was Brookey Bakes. I’m a sucker for hand pies and you have to try The Andy + Ryan cookie. Peanut butter and espresso chips!

We were easily able to park our 20-foot van on 25th Street. However, if you’re in a larger rig, your best bet might be at or near Union Station.