Saint Helens, OR Outdoor Activities

With more than 960 skiable acres on the face of Mount Hood, many visitors to Mt. Hood Skibowl rarely glide past the same tree twice. Named for the bowl-like shape of the mountain's upper portion, the resort uses the natural landscape to its advantage on two terrain parks and 65 trails that descend the mountain's 1,500-foot vertical drop—34 of which are fully lit, and no more than 10 of which attract slaloming polar bears at any one time. Professional skier and mountain biker Petr Kakes and his team of instructors hold beginner and advanced ski and snowboard lessons to prep students for these slopes.

Though there's much to explore on the trails—the longest of which runs 3 miles—visitors can also cavort outdoors in the Snow Tube and Adventure Park. Here, the staff maintains carved, winding snow-tube paths in two tubing parks served by a conveyor lift. An indoor playground filled with climbing structures and slides entertains children as young as 3. Seven on-mountain lodges and restaurants provide places for visitors to refuel or change into ghost-prospector costumes to scare off meddling kids. During warmer months, the slopes transform into the Mt. Hood Adventure Park at Skibowl, which boasts more than 20 outdoor attractions such as ziplines, a bungee-jumping tower, a concrete luge track, and a mountain-biking park.