Update for Winter 2022-2023: Before heading out, check the mountain pass reports on the Washington State Transportation website for pass closures and delays. Call 511 for the most up-to-date highway, pass, and road conditions. Check park openings and closures on the Washington State Park website.
Be prepared for your trip to the snow! Carry extra water, food, clothing, and blankets in anticipation of slow-downs, crowded parks, and closures.
Also: Read this review from a parent who visited Hyak for the first time last winter.
Snow is a wonderful thing. It is gorgeous and useful for building. It can also be wonderfully slippery, allowing people to hurtle down hills in all kinds of conveyances.
Sledding and tubing are ways that kids can explore the potential of snow, using simple, affordable tools that do not require lessons to master. And while you’re there, take some time to build a snow creature, pelt each other with snowballs, catch a snowflake on the tongue, make snow angels and stop and listen to the way sounds travel when the world is covered in white.
Safety reminder: Wear helmets.
To sled or to tube
There are two kinds of options listed here: sled hills and tube parks.
With sledding, you use a toboggan or sled or a tube that you buy. Some toboggans and sleds are theoretically possible to steer. Some are not. You don’t need a special track, but you’ll go farther if you are on a hill that has already been sledded on. (A few choice spots are groomed from time to time.) And once you sled down the hill, you have to carry your sled back up the hill.
At a tube park, you go downhill riding a round inflated tube that is provided as part of the ticket price. It is impossible to steer, so places with tubing tend to have specially designed chutes that will send your tube rocketing down without bumping into other people. Once you sled down the hill, you ride some kind of lift, or at least a rope tow, back to the top. For this reason, access to tubing always involves tickets and waivers. It may also require reservations.
Before you go, check the conditions. A number of places take a little while to get enough snow, so they are likely to open later than ski areas tend to. And if they are open, you don’t want to drive two hours to the sledding spot, only to find it is raining or so cold your face hurts. Washington State Parks has a special winter recreation handle on Twitter.
Here are some local hotspots for families sliding downhill on snow. Driving time estimates are based on leaving Seattle at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning. (More mountain fun: Downhill ski areas you can drive to from Seattle | 8 places Seattle families can go cross-country skiing || And also: Teacher’s tips for dressing kids for the great outdoors)
Annette Lake Sno-Park
New for the 2022-23 season, Washington State Parks and the U.S. Forest Service have opened Annette Lake Sno-Park at exit 47 on I-90 (west of Snoqualmie summit).
Annette Lake Sno-Park has access to ungroomed, marked trails for snow-shoeing and backcountry skiing, plus access for family fun in the snow. There is plowed parking for 40 vehicles, a toilet and an information kiosk. A Sno-Park permit is required.
More detailed directions: Take exit 47 off I-90. Turn right on NF 55 road. Turn left on Asahel Curtis. Continue 0.4 miles to parking area.
Hyak Sno-Park
The sled hill is now open. Grooming takes place Wednesday-Monday and twice on the weekends.
Easy to reach sled hill in Lake Easton State Park. It is groomed from time to time, and has heated bathrooms. There’s a lovely cross-country ski trail nearby. (Make sure you are in the area clearly designated as Hyak Sno-Park — and not at Summit East (Hyak ski hill), which is not safe for sledding.)
Driving time from Seattle: 1 hour
Elevation: About 2,500 feet
Conditions: Recorded message line 509-656-2230
Activity: Tubing hill and designated snow play area.
Open 8 a.m. until dusk daily.
Fees: Each vehicle needs a Sno-Park Permit with a Special Groomed Trails Permit.
Summit at Snoqualmie Tubing Park
This park is now open for tubing.
Reservations are recommended at this popular park in the bustling ski area closest to Seattle.
Driving time from Seattle: 1 hour
Elevation: About 3,000 feet
Conditions: summitatsnoqualmie.com/conditions
Activity: Tubing only.
Open Fridays, Saturday, Sundays and holidays, for six two-hour slots per day. Online reservations only, no tickets sold onsite.
Ticket prices depend on the day and the time slot.
Age restrictions: The park does not recommend tubing for kids under 3.
Lake Wenatchee Sno-Park
This park is now open.
In the summer, Lake Wenatchee is a popular camping getaway. In the snow, there’s still fun to be had. Along with the tubing hill and snow play area, there are also trails for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.
Driving time from Seattle: 2.5 hours
Elevation: About 1,875 feet
Conditions: Lake Wenatchee State Park’s phone number is 509-763-3101
Activities: Tubing hill and snow play area.
Fees: Each vehicle needs a Sno-Park Permit with a Special Groomed Trails Permit.
Leavenworth Ski Hill
The sledding hill at the golf course is currently open.
This historic facility, in operation since the 1920s, has a tubing park. There’s also a sled hill at a nearby golf course. Leavenworth Ski Hill also boasts two runs for skiing and snowboarding, along with Nordic trails, snowshoeing and the chance to take a spin on a fat bike, a mountain bike with tires for snow.
Driving time from Seattle: 2.5 hours
Elevation: About 1,200 feet
Conditions: skileavenworth.com/conditions
Activities: Tubing and sledding.
Ticket prices: $23 for six tubing runs, use of the sledding hill is $9 per person or $22 for a family of 4.
Restrictions: Tubers under 8 years old must be supervised by an adult. On the sled hill, no sleds with steel runners.
Continue to check website to see openings of Leavenworth Ski Hill.
ELSEWHERE:
Lots of families have their own “secret,” less, crowded sledding spots. Lucky them! Washington Trails Association mentions a few somewhat “off the beaten path” locations in this blog post (scroll down).
Paradise Snow Play Area
(Closed for the 2022-2023 winter season due to staffing shortages)
Mount Rainier National Park has a sledding hill at its Paradise area. It is closed right now.
Driving time from Seattle: 2.5 hours
Elevation: 5,400 feet
Conditions: here
Activities: Sledding
Fee: Entry fee for Mount Rainier National Park is $30 per vehicle.
Restrictions: No wooden toboggans or sleds with metal runners.
White Pass
White Pass tubing hill is open daily from December 17-January 1 and then Friday-Sunday and holidays.
Driving time from Seattle: 3.5 hours
Elevation: 4,501 feet
Conditions: here
Activities: Tubing
Fee: $10 for ages 8 and under, $13 for ages 9 and up.
Restrictions: No sleds.
