Powder Ghost Towns, Part II

Here’s clip No. 2 from Pete Bronski’s “Powder Ghost Towns” series, featuring three more abandoned Colorado ski resorts: Marble, Seven Utes, and Hidden Valley.

Our mystery resort this week, which several readers quickly guessed, was Hidden Valley in present-day Rocky Mountain National Park. A bit of history from Pete Bronski:

Hidden Valley. Photo by Pete Bronski

“The earliest skiing here took place on the Big Drift, an above-treeline area above Trail Ridge Road; by the 1940s, the Big Drift had at least three rope tows. In 1955, an expanded Ski Hidden Valley officially opened for business. One of the trails, dubbed Suicide, descended 1,200 vertical feet in just under a mile. It was reportedly cut discretely—one tree at a time—by park ranger Jack Moomaw. In 1971, the National Park Service approved the installation of a modern double chairlift. A few years later, however, the park service took over the Ski Hidden Valley property, and the chairlift was removed in 1977. That spelled the coming demise of Hidden Valley, which finally closed for good in 1991. In the photo, the run on the left is Spruce, while the run on the right is Lower T-Bar.”

Rocky Mountain National Park’s frequent high winds, plainly visible in the video clip, probably didn’t help Hidden Valley’s cause.

Check back on Monday for our next mystery resort—the first person to guess the correct name will win a copy of Pete’s Powder Ghost Towns book. Search “Powder Ghost Towns” to see the other posts in this series.

To learn more about Powder Ghost Towns or buy a copy, visit Pete’s website.