Winter Van Life: Silver Mountain Resort
When We Visited: Presidents’ Day Weekend 2022, March 2023
Silver Mountain Resort is located in the Idaho panhandle between Coeur d’Alene and the Montana border in Kellogg, Idaho. It’s the home of North America’s longest gondola at 3.1 miles.
Did you know Silver Mountain Resort was formerly named Jackass Ski Bowl? A local shared this piece of history with us, but sometimes you have to wonder if someone is messing with you. However, Silver’s website confirms it here.
What do we love about Silver Mountain?
The gondola. It’s about a 20 to 25-minute ride from the village to the top. I enjoyed admiring the views on the way up and down.
Tree skiing. It’s my favorite thing to do at a ski resort, so I was happy they had enough glade runs to keep me occupied for a few hours.
It was relatively uncrowded on Presidents’ Day weekend with more than a foot of new snow. There was a long line to get on the gondola, the only entry point to the mountain. And there were waits at lifts across the mountain. However, if you’ve been to an Epic or Ikon resort on a holiday weekend, you will appreciate how uncrowded it is at Silver Mountain. If you don’t mind starting a little late, the gondola line does clear out by the late AM.
When we went back to Silver Mountain in March 2023 for another powder day, there was hardly anybody there. Some cut runs went completely untouched for a couple of hours.
Their customer service. I made an honest mistake reserving both of our days over Presidents’ Day weekend. I was almost in tears because we had already paid for RV space for a few nights, requested Monday off from work, and it looked like our reservations weren’t valid. Two ladies at the ticket office really went out of their way to make our weekend at Silver Mountain possible. They recognized why my error was truly unintentional and granted us tickets. I’m so happy it worked out because Silver Mountain was one of the biggest highlights of my 2021/22 season.
Plan Your RV/Van Life Road Trip to Silver Mountain
silvermt.com
610 Bunker Avenue, Kellogg, ID 83837
(208) 783-1111
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Pass affiliations: Powder Alliance 2023/24, Indy Pass 2023/24
Operating days: 7 days a week with variable hours. See their Operations Calendar.
Mountain Stats
- Terrain: 1,600+ acres
- Vertical drop: 2,200 feet
- Average annual snowfall: 340 inches
- More stats
Driving to Silver Mountain
Silver Mountain is conveniently located about a quarter-mile off I-90. Driving windy and steep mountain roads is not required. However, if you’re driving from Coeur d’Alene on I-90, watch for potholes in the truck lane. They look like they could cause significant damage. Also, in talking to a local that drove from Coeur d’Alene on a powder morning, the truck lane was unplowed.
Parking at Silver Mountain
A large parking lot directly across from the gondola is friendly to rigs of all sizes. Over Presidents’ Day weekend, it took a while for the parking lot to reach capacity each day. No need to wake up early!
You can also park parallel on both sides of Bunker Avenue near the gondola.
Using Your 2022/23 Indy Pass at Silver Mountain
Lift ticket reservations are required to redeem your Indy Pass. You can reserve your spot here. A credit card is required, and you’ll be charged the price of a full-day lift ticket if you don’t show up on your reserved day. Also, if you reserve an Indy Pass ticket and are not in the Indy pass holder system, you’ll be charged $25. If you want to make changes to your reservation date, you must do so more than 24 hours in advance. Please read Silver Mountain’s full terms and conditions when reserving your Indy Pass ticket for the most up-to-date information.
Tip: I was reluctant to reserve our tickets too far in advance. We try to ski and ride during the best conditions, and work sometimes gets in the way. I noticed their reservation system will give you a heads up if tickets are running low. Just start the reservation process and select a day on the calendar. If few tickets remain, the system will note how many are remaining. I can’t attest that their system will always work this way, so if reserving a specific day is important to you, just book it!
On the day of your reservation, head to the ticket window with your photo ID and have your email confirmation handy just in case. You’ll receive an adhesive-backed ticket and a wicket. The ticket office loaded both of my days onto one ticket, so I didn’t have to return to the ticket window each day. Ask if they can do this for you too.
Blackout dates apply for Indy Pass holders. See Indy’s Blackout Dates page. I’d also recommend calling Silver Mountain to ensure you can ski/ride on your desired dates.
Tips on How to Ski/Ride Silver Mountain
See Silver Mountain’s Trail Map to follow along.
Check out The North Face Glades, Terrible Edith, and Prospector if you like tree runs.
We like Moonshine on powder days.
Some things aren’t apparent about Wardner Peak on the trail map. Wardner Peak Traverse starts out as a cat track but then becomes a skier-packed trail that is only a pair of skis wide along the side of the mountain. When you reach this part of the traverse, there will be a wide hiking trail to the top of Wardner Peak to your left.
Snowboarders are not allowed on the skinny traverse, which is very well signed. Your choices are to ride down through some tight trees, hike to the top of Wardner Peak, or turn around and walk/skate back.
A beacon is required to enter the Wardner Peak Traverse and to hike Wardner Peak. You can check if your beacon is working before heading down the traverse near the top of chair 4.
Gem, Happy Jack, and Get There have been icy underneath both times we’ve been to Silver Mountain, even though we had powder days.
Some chairlifts do not operate every day. Check Silver Mountain’s Operations Calendar.
Working Remotely at Silver Mountain
AT&T and Verizon both worked great at the base in town, the parking lot, on the gondola, and every place I happened to notice on the mountain without using a cell booster. We could send texts and emails, stream entertainment, and participate in online video calls without a problem.
Where to Sleep in Your Van/RV Overnight
Silver Mountain allows overnight RV parking on a first-come, first-served basis in the far left corner of their main lot for a fee. You can book a spot ahead of time here. For more information, go to Silver Mountain’s Getting Here page and scroll down to Overnight Parking Rules.
The last price we paid was $35 per night in March 2023. The cost could be more on an event weekend. The sign above says $25, but we found out that is incorrect.
Whether or not you paid online, you need to pick up your parking permit from a ticket window next to the gondola during regular business hours. You can check in at the Morning Star Lodge front desk if you arrive outside of business hours.
There are no electric, water, or sewer hookups. There is no on-site dump station either.
Restrooms are available inside on the bottom floor of the gondola building adjacent to the loading area and in the Morningstar Lodge lobby. I’m unsure if either of these restrooms are open overnight.
There are a couple of small trash cans in the parking lot, but they are not large enough to handle bags of trash. Plus, they always seem to be overflowing or knocked over. Plan on packing out your trash.
Tamarack RV Park – 38.4 miles / 40 minutes in Coeur d’Alene – Even though this RV park was packed and had a lot of full-timers, individual sites were kept neat, and the place stayed quiet. Sites are very close together, but we had friendly neighbors.
The last price we paid was $42 on a weeknight for a paved, back-in site with full hookups in March 2023. All sites are paved with full hookups and are either back-in or pull-through. Cabins are also available.
Water hookups in some of the sites are in the ground. This was a problem for us because we were winterized and needed to fill water jugs. RV staff pointed us to a vacant site with a spigot above ground.
Also, our sewer hookup froze shut one day as temperatures dropped from the 30s to single digits. Again, the RV staff allowed us to use a vacant site to dump our cassette toilet. But someone did come right away to pry our sewer connection open.
The bathhouse nearest our site had several private rooms you enter from the outside, each with its own toilet, sink, and tiled shower. They were extremely clean, which we most wanted after spending a couple of nights at Silver Mountain without showers.
We spent four nights at Tamarack and didn’t have any trouble with the shower’s hot water except once. It ran out mid-shower on my husband, and we concluded that it was due to all the people that had used the showers right before him. I was one of those people, and I didn’t have a problem.
Quarter-operated top-loading washers and dryers are available. The laundry room gets busy so go early! The RV park asks that you do not wash pet bedding in their machines.
One of the washers I used left my items a little soaked. I had to ring them out before putting them in the dryer and pay for two dry cycles. Talking to someone who lived in the park, this happens from time to time. You can ask the front desk for a refund. Aside from that, the laundry room was very clean.
Propane is available if you need it.
Texting, emailing, streaming entertainment, and online video calls worked great with AT&T and Verizon without using a cell booster.
Coeur d’Alene is a great place to stock up on supplies and take advantage of other services if you intend on journeying to Montana. If you’re traveling I-90 East, Missoula is the next closest major town, about 165 miles away.
Tamarack is within walking distance of Safeway (Neider Ave), Costco (Coeur D’Alene Warehouse), and several restaurants.
Most Costco locations do not sell diesel, but the one in Coeur d’Alene does! Membership required. It was the cheapest diesel we could find in Coeur d’Alene.
Other Tips for Your Visit to Silver Mountain
Silver Mountain also has an indoor waterpark open during the ski season. We saw many families splitting their days between skiing and the waterpark. You can learn more here.
The Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes passes in front of the Silver Mountain parking lot. It’s a 73-mile paved path that starts in Plummer and ends in Mullan, Idaho.
Other Ski Areas Near Silver Mountain
- Lookout Pass (Ski Cooper 2023/24) – 24.9 miles / 30 minutes in Mullan
- Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park – 81.2 miles / 90 minutes in Mead, WA
- Schweitzer (Ikon Pass 2023/24) – 93.8 miles / 2 hours in Sandpoint
- 49 Degrees North Mountain Resort (Indy Pass 2023/24) – 123 miles / 2.25 hours in Chewelah, WA
