Winter Van Life: Powder Mountain
When We Visited: December 2019/January 2020, March 2022, January 2023
After saying goodbye to our home in Lake Tahoe after 20 years, we were on a mission to find solitude in new places. Powder Mountain embodies everything I hoped to find.
I can stand at the top of a bowl to appreciate the expansive view. And while I’m taking that moment to breathe, no other skiers or riders are brushing past me in a rush to consume powder before it’s gone. When I’m ready to drop in, the line I choose doesn’t have to account for bodies moving back and forth across the terrain. All of nature is standing still as I maneuver around each feature. At the bottom, I ski straight to the “wait here” line, where the chairlift picks me up so I can do it all over again. Powder Mountain truly fulfills my expectations as a skier.
Powder Mountain limits the number of skiers and riders on the mountain to 1,500 each day, even with the most skiable terrain in North America. I can ski untouched powder in bowls and trees while only seeing people in the distance. We were there during the New Year’s holiday (December 31, 2019 to January 3, 2020), and I don’t think Pow Mow reached their cap on any of those days.
After skiing every state west of the Continental Divide, I agree, Utah has The Greatest Snow on Earth®. At Powder Mountain, temperatures can hover in the single digits, keeping the snow dry and fluffy.
Spring skiing is equally fun. During our March 2022 visit, temperatures warmed up between the 30s and 50s for our five days. Conditions were perfect for going off-piste anywhere on the mountain. Soft powder stashes could still be found on shadowed slopes from a storm that dumped a few inches only two days before our arrival.
The views are beautiful in every direction. It’s hard for me to focus on skiing and not want to take photos coming around every corner and on every chairlift ride.
The only time I’ve waited in a lift line was at the end of the day when traffic gets funneled to Hidden Lake Express.
I enjoy the terrain accessible from the Paradise lift most, but next time we visit, I’m interested in Pow Mow’s other Adventures.
Plan Your RV/Van Life Road Trip to Powder Mountain
powdermountain.com
6965 East Highway 158, Eden, UT 84310
(801) 745-3772
Send a message
Pass affiliation: Indy Pass 2023/24
Hours of Operation: 9:00 am to 9:00 pm daily. See Lift and Terrain Status.
Mountain Stats
- Average annual snowfall: 500+ inches
- Skiable terrain: 8,464+ acres
- Vertical drop (lift-serviced): 2,205 feet
- Vertical drop (lift-accessible): 2,519 feet
- Vertical drop (total): 3,346 feet
- More stats
Driving to Powder Mountain
UT-158 to Powder Mountain is the steepest road to a ski resort in my book.
I actually felt our Sprinter van struggle for the first time going uphill. It’s challenging to slow our momentum on the way down, and a couple of times, we’ve ended up with burning brakes. Keeping it in first and second and below 25 mph seemed to work best.
We decided it wasn’t in our best interest to take our beloved home up the mountain on a snowy day. We took advantage of the shuttle bus leaving Eden Powder Mtn Park & Ride instead. For more information about UTA shuttle options, see Powder Mountain’s UTA Shuttle page.
Note: There is no winter maintenance on UT-158 between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.
Parking at Powder Mountain
There are three main parking areas: Sundown Lodge, Timberline Lodge, and Hidden Lake Lodge.
On your way up UT-158, Sundown Lodge will be the first parking area on your left. You can only access a small portion of terrain from this lodge, so you’ll probably want to keep driving. If you want direct access to Powder Country without taking Inter-Mountain Transit, park here.
Next, you’ll see signs pointing right to Hidden Lake Lodge and Summit Village via Summit Pass Road. If you need to pick up tickets, you must go to Timberline Lodge. If you take Summit Pass Road, the road will fork, Hidden Lake Lodge will be to your left, and Summit Village to your right.
Summit Village has no services, and we do not recommend driving down as it is primarily used by homeowners, and it dead ends.
The Timberline Lodge parking lot seems to be the most popular. However, we prefer Hidden Lake Lodge because it’s relatively flat, less crowded, with gorgeous views of Ogden Valley and the surrounding mountains. If you get there early enough, you can park next to the cat track that runs from the top of the Hidden Lake chairlift to Summit Village. Ski-in/ski-out access with sweeping views!
Whether you park at Timberline Lodge or Hidden Lake Lodge, you’ll start your day skiing down to your first lift ride instead of walking to the lift and riding up.
Tips on How to Ski/Ride Powder Mountain
See Powder Mountain’s Winter Trail Map to follow along.
Since Powder Mountain has the most skiable acres of any ski resort in North America at 8,464 and only 9 lifts, the mountain can be difficult to navigate. For comparison, Whistler Blackcomb has 8,171 skiable acres and 35 lifts. You’ll do a lot more exploring on the ground and earning your turns at Pow Mow, but I like it this way because it means more powder stashes.
Some runs are not repeatable without taking a series of lifts to get back to the same spot. I don’t find the trail map useful in figuring out how to transition from area to area. On my first time at Pow Mow, I found it helpful to do a counter-clockwise loop around the mountain with a ride on every lift to see what was possible. We parked at Hidden Lake Lodge and skied down to the Village Lift, then Mary’s, then Paradise, then Hidden Valley Express, ending with Timberline Lodge, and then back to Hidden Valley Express to where our van was parked.
Beginners will appreciate that you can see almost every part of Powder Mountain if you have the strength and endurance. Every lift offers green runs. My personal favorite for beginners is the Village lift at Lefty’s Canyon. It’s a super quiet corner of the mountain, perfect for practicing turns in peace.
Note: To get back to the Hidden Lake Lodge or Timberline Lodge from Lefty’s Canyon, you must take the Village lift to Mary’s lift to Hidden Lake Express. If you don’t want to travel so far, park at Hidden Lake Lodge and stick to Hidden Lake Express. Alternately, you can call Powder Mountain’s Inter-Mountain Transit.
My favorite picks for some blue cruisers are Mary’s Bowl and Hidden Lake Express. I like Mary’s Bowl most as it is furthest from Hidden Lake Lodge and sees less people. If you want some powder turns without a lot of natural obstacles, wide open spaces, and intermediate steepness, Mary’s Bowl is where you want to be.
If you’re an advanced skier or rider, head to the Paradise Lift first on a powder day. While I find this area gets tracked out before other areas on the mountain, the snow will still remain good all day. You can see many options as you ride up the chair. When you get off the lift, just go in any direction that looks good to you – left, right, straight, or make a U-turn. It’s hard to pick a bad line.
Once you’ve exhausted the Paradise Lift, there will still be plenty of fresh lines around the mountain, especially if you don’t mind a little skating and maybe some hiking.
Driving up to Powder Mountain, you probably noticed some tracks through terrain on both sides of the highway and a shuttle stop just before you get to the first lodge at the ski area – Sundown Lodge. This is Powder Country and Woody’s World. If Powder Mountain’s shuttle is running, there’s another 1,200 acres of off-piste powder for your enjoyment. You can check for current terrain status here.
Note: Private shuttles are not allowed to stop and pick up skiers/riders from the highway.
If you really want to expand your terrain options, consider cat rides to Lightning Ridge and Raintree. It’s only $25 per ride with your lift ticket or Powder Mountain season pass. When I finally get my chance to do this, I’m going for Lightning Ridge. You’ll understand why if you look right as you ride up the Paradise lift or take on a run on Rendezvous.
Working Remotely at Powder Mountain
We’ve spent a few work days from our van in the Hidden Lake Lodge parking lot at Powder Mountain. Texting, emailing, streaming entertainment, and participating in online video calls all work great for us here using AT&T and Verizon.
AT&T hotspot: 4.5 Mbps down/39 Mbps up
Verizon hotspot: 79 Mbps down/26 Mbps up
We get cell service at Timberline Lodge as well. However, we’ve only been there long enough to pick up our RFID cards, so we’ve never really tested it out.
I noticed there was a password-protected WiFi option called Powder Guest while in the Hidden Lake Lodge parking lot, but I did not try to use it.
Other Tips for Your Visit to Powder Mountain
I expect to be cold when skiing, but Powder Mountain has few places around the mountain to warm up if your body parts begin freezing. They can have temperatures in the single digits, so dress appropriately and use feet and hand warmers. When I realized my feet were freezing, it took me over an hour to get back to the van after traversing the mountain on slow lifts.
Where to Sleep in Your Van/RV
Powder Mountain does not allow overnight RV parking.
Century Mobile Home & RV Park – 22.1 miles / 40 minutes in Ogden – I was anxious about site availability since we would be arriving during Christmas and New Year’s week. It was the closest open RV park to Pow Mow I could find. Fortunately, plenty of sites were available at the last minute, 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 – 27.6 miles / 50 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. If you plan to ski/ride Powder Mountain, Nordic Valley, or Snowbasin, this is one of our top picks.
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. The next morning, I got to chat with his wife, Evielynne, 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 – 29.2 miles / 50 minutes in Brigham City – Just like Willard Peak Campground, if you plan to ski/ride Powder Mountain, Nordic Valley, or Snowbasin, this is one of our favorite options.
We last paid $32.89 per night in April 2023 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 always book a site without a sewer hookup, we still have access to the RV park’s on-site dump at no charge. Since our new van uses a 2.5 gallon container for gray water, the RV park was fine with us dumping it down the sink in their laundry room. If you do this, just make sure you’re not dumping any particles that can clog their drain.
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 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.
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.
Conveniences near Powder Mountain
Eden is the closest town to Powder Mountain. It’s about 20 minutes down the hill in the valley and is very tiny. Commercial businesses primarily reside at UT-158 and UT-162 and include a Maverik fuel station, post office, a handful of restaurants, and a few more. There is also a grocery store – Valley Market.
Valley Market is a much smaller market than well-known grocery store brands. Regardless, they have an acceptable selection of produce, meats, dry goods, and other items. The parking lot is small and very busy since it’s the only market nearby without driving to Ogden. If you’re in a rig longer than about 20 feet, you’ll probably want to find another place to park in the same intersection.
Otherwise, for more convenience options, head to Ogden and North Ogden. Both are about 35-40 minutes from the ski area.
If you need service or parts for your RV, check out Charlie’s Service Center in Sunset (50 minutes) and Camping World of Kaysville in Kaysville (1 hour). Read 5 Months without Running Water Living in a Van for how we ended up at both of these places.
If you need to dump a cassette toilet or handheld gray water tank, check out the North Ogden Divide Trailhead / Ben Lomond Trailhead, 13.6 miles from Powder Mountain 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.
Where to Eat
- Ogden Valley Pizza – 7.8 miles in Eden
- Eats of Eden – 7.8 miles 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.
If you like Hawaiian food and are in Sunset, check out Dakine Grindz (50 minutes).
Other Ski Areas Nearby
- Nordic Valley Ski Resort (Power Pass 2024/25) – 10.6 miles / 25 minutes in Eden
- Snowbasin (Ikon Pass 2024/25) – 23.8 miles / 45 minutes in Huntsville
