Lost ski areaIdahoBannock RangeRocky Mountains
Caribou
Closed after the 1986 season. A small ski area just east of Pocatello that shut down in 1986.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
Caribou was a ski area on the hills just east of Pocatello, off Buckskin Road. It shut down in 1986, and by 1993 the Associated Press counted it among several small Idaho hills, with Taylor Mountain, Bear Gulch and Hitt Mountain, that had closed in the previous 10 to 15 years.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayA coffee roastery on Buckskin Road sits at the base of the old ski area, built partly from its old planks. (2018)1
Timeline
1 event · swipe
Photos
Memories
Skied Caribou, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Caribou
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1979 · 38 mi away · IdahoA family ski hill about 16 miles southeast of Idaho Falls, with tows from the 1940s and a ski area that ran 1959–1972 and 1975–1979.
- Closed 1971 · 68.2 mi away · IdahoA ski area on the Swan Valley side of Pine Creek Pass, known for a radio station's ski school that bused in eastern Idaho children, which shut down in 1971.
- Closed 1985 · 103.2 mi away · IdahoA small Forest Service ski hill east of Ashton, Idaho's second ski area after Sun Valley, that ran from about 1940 until the 1984–85 winter.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Caribou was a ski area on the hills just east of Pocatello, off Buckskin Road. It shut down in 1986, and by 1993 the Associated Press counted it among several small Idaho hills, with Taylor Mountain, Bear Gulch and Hitt Mountain, that had closed in the previous 10 to 15 years. A coffee roastery now stands at the base of the old slopes, its walls lined with planks from the ski area's old buildings and a rusted ski-area sign.1,2,3
TodayA coffee roastery on Buckskin Road sits at the base of the old ski area, built partly from its old planks. (2018)1
Timeline
- 1986The ski area shuts down1
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Idaho State Journal · Coffee beans, old ski lodges and family values (Stephanie Bachman, January 9, 2018)
- 2East Idaho News · Coffee roasters say opening business was a leap of faith (Kendra Evensen, November 27, 2016)
- 3The Lewiston Tribune · Small skiing operations closing (Associated Press, December 12, 1993)
Photos
No photographs of Caribou we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Caribou, in their own words.
Facts
Location
42.8690° N · 112.3410° W · Idaho · Bannock Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1986 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1986 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
No figures from its operating years are collected yet.
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain