Kellogg, Idaho, is hidden ski gem of Northwest

KELLOGG, Idaho — Last winter, my family and I were looking for a ski vacation with a lot of asterisks.

The mountain had to be driving distance from Seattle. It had to have enough terrain to satisfy my kids and my husband’s wildly different ability levels. We wanted on-site lodging and (ideally) child care. And we wanted to avoid breaking the bank.

At Silver Mountain in sleepy Kellogg, Idaho, we found all that and an indoor waterpark.

About 70 miles east of Spokane, Kellogg is a town of around 2,400 residents in Idaho’s Silver Valley. The Coeur d’Alene River winds through town, a portion of the 73-mile paved Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes running alongside it.

Named for 19th century gold prospector Noah Kellogg, the town was once a hotbed for lead ore mining. According to local legend, the first veins were discovered when Kellogg’s burro, Bill, wandered off. When Silver Mountain Resort first opened in 1967, it was named Jackass Ski Bowl, in honor of Bill.

The ski hill changed hands a few times over the decades, getting renamed in the late 1970s and struggling in the early ’80s as the local mining industry collapsed; at a time when daily lift tickets were going for $14, the resort was deemed too expensive to operate.

The resort reopened for good as Silver Mountain Resort in 1990, complete with a multimillion-dollar gondola that traverses 3.1 miles from the valley floor to the lodge at midmountain.

This small-town Idaho ski resort is like a time capsule to the 1990s, when a trip to the mountain was more financially feasible.

At times, the Silver Mountain vibe is a bit dated. The Mountain House lodge is scruffy and no-frills. You’ll see people ripping double black diamonds in jeans. But that makes it almost refreshing. Overall, I can see myself returning to Silver Mountain over and over again. Here’s a recap.

The mountain

At Silver Mountain, to get to the fun snow stuff — skiing or riding, tubing or snowshoeing — you have to take a 30-minute gondola ride. Think of it as an opportunity for anticipation to bubble, or a break to have a relaxing beer or hot chocolate. Use the bathroom before you embark on either end, especially if you’ve got little ones. The last ride up is at 3:30 p.m. daily, and the gondola shuts down at 5 p.m.

Just to ride the gondola, tickets are $22.95 for adults (free for kids 3 and younger). Snow tubing (including the gondola ride) is $29 for adults, $26 for kids ages 4-17 and $15 for kids 2-3. Lift tickets start at $68 for adults midweek and peak at $77 for adults on holidays; kids 6 and younger ski free (also including gondola ride). There are half-day tickets and discounts for students, seniors and military veterans, too.

The gondola unloads at the Mountain House, where there’s a rental shop, an on-mountain child care center (for kids ages 2 to 7), the cafeteria-style Mountain House Grill restaurant, and Mogul’s Lounge, which is a full-service restaurant and bar. It’s a comfortable, well-used lodge with all the greatest hits of ski-hill food: nachos, burgers, fries and dogs. Upstairs at Mogul’s Lounge, there are sandwiches ($12-$16) and a dozen beers on tap, plus strong cocktails and plenty of Red Bull.

As for playing on the mountain itself, there are five chairlifts, a covered surface lift and 1,600 skiable acres traversing Kellogg and Wardner peaks.

Truly, there’s something for every skier in your family: Silver Mountain has a good mix of beginner, intermediate and expert trails, plus plenty of glades to whoosh through. There’s a small terrain park for daredevils, but there also are four tubing lanes for anyone who doesn’t ski or ride.

We were there over midwinter break last year, and despite the less-than-ideal conditions from last winter’s low snowpack, the Mountain House was lively and friendly. It should be even better this year as the Northwest gets ample snow.

For full details about the mountain — from rentals and lessons to trail maps, lift tickets and more — visit silvermt.com/ski-ride.

The sleepy village

Where the Mountain House felt full of life, the Gondola Village at Silver’s base camp was a bit of a ghost town.

There’s a shop for coffee and frozen yogurt called Mo’s Froyo & Joe, though it doesn’t open until 4 p.m. during the week, and other businesses similarly have limited hours (especially if you’re visiting midweek). A representative from Silver Mountain said most visitors come from nearby, namely Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, which could account for quiet nights as day trippers depart.

But my family marveled in the quiet, especially as ski hills in Western Washington can feel overrun on busy days. We ran into another Seattle family and practically high-fived each other for having discovered what feels like a hidden gem in the crazy-expensive world of ski vacations.

There were some screaming deals on outerwear and gear at the Silver Mountain Sports Shop, with plenty of sizes left, and we had a wonderful dinner in the Gondola Village at Noah’s Canteen, a family-friendly restaurant that’s got everything from flatbreads and burgers to steaks, tacos and pastas at fair prices. Blackened fish tacos with chips and salsa sets you back $18, while a 14-ounce ribeye plus sides is $40.

There’s also a great grocery store in town — Yoke’s Fresh Market — that was well stocked, perfect for the one-bedroom condo we booked at the resort’s Morning Star Lodge, which had a full kitchen. Basic accommodations at the Lodge start at the mid-$100s on weekdays and rise into and above the $300s on peak weekends. A full one-bedroom like the unit we rented starts at $260 per night.

Another perk was the Silver Rapids Indoor Waterpark — admission to which is free if you stay at the lodge, or $45 per person if you’re staying elsewhere in town.

We took a rest day from skiing to hit the waterpark one day, and it was great. Typically, a hot, humid indoor park might send me screaming — what with the giant buckets of water being dumped, the cacophony of screams and an eye-burning amount of bleach in the air.

But Silver Rapids was clean without being overly chemical. Calm yet fun. And sure, there were two water features continuously filling and dumping, but it wasn’t a sensory overload. And the joy that my girls had while repeatedly zipping down the waterslides was contagious.

I’m not fully converted to the indoor waterpark lifestyle, but I get the appeal more now than I did before. If you’re not into the waterpark scene, there are a few outdoor hot tubs scattered around the Gondola Village for soaking.