Lost ski areaColoradoFront RangeRocky Mountains
Fun Valley
Ran 1938–1977. A small foothills ski area off Deer Creek Canyon Road in Jefferson County that began as Watson's Ski Hill and ran as Fun Valley from the mid-1960s.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
Fun Valley sat off Deer Creek Canyon Road in the Jefferson County foothills, near Homewood Park. Denver7 says skiing there started in 1938 as Watson's Ski Hill and was revived in the mid-1960s as Fun Valley.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe land is private, and one surface lift still stands on the old slopes.1,3
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Fun Valley, 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 Fun Valley
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Years not yet collected · 0.7 mi away · ColoradoA ski jumping and tow hill on Denver Mountain Parks land in Deer Creek Canyon, run by the Eriksen family from Norway from the 1920s.
- 1940–1942 · 4.3 mi away · ColoradoA one-rope-tow ski hill on Mount Legault, now part of Meyer Ranch Park near Conifer, that ran from about 1940 until wartime gas rationing in 1942.
- 1972–1984 · 10.8 mi away · ColoradoA small night-skiing area beside Interstate 70 near Genesee, owned by Arapahoe Basin founder Larry Jump, that ran from 1972 to 1984.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Fun Valley sat off Deer Creek Canyon Road in the Jefferson County foothills, near Homewood Park. Denver7 says skiing there started in 1938 as Watson's Ski Hill and was revived in the mid-1960s as Fun Valley. It was mostly intermediate terrain with about 600 feet of vertical, served by a single chair brought from Arapahoe Basin, a rope tow and a Poma platter, and it offered night skiing, snowmaking and a heated warming hut.1,2,3
Its end is dated two ways. Colorado Ski History and a 2015 blog give Fun Valley's seasons as 1965 to 1970. Denver7 says it was briefly considered as a ski jumping site for Denver's failed bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics and closed in 1977, citing unreliable snow and unfriendly neighbors. The single chair was removed and sold in the 1990s, while a surface lift still stands on what is now private land.1,2,3
TodayThe land is private, and one surface lift still stands on the old slopes.1,3
Sources for this history (3)
- 1Colorado Ski History · Fun Valley Ski Area
- 2Denver7 · 7 lost Colorado ski areas that are worth remembering (Robert Garrison)
- 3kdumas (WordPress blog) · Fun Valley Ski Area (kdumas, April 5, 2015)
Photos
No photographs of Fun Valley 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 Fun Valley, in their own words.
Facts
Location
39.5462° N · 105.1906° W · Colorado · Front Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1938–1977
Closed after the 1977 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain