Ski Idlewild

Dwight and Jean Miller ran the Idlewild Lodge and Guest Ranch in Hideaway Park, the town now called Winter Park, and offered beginners gentler slopes than the Denver-run Winter Park ski area nearby. A rope tow came first. By 1960 Dwight Miller had cleared a half-mile slope on his land and poured foundations for a Pomagalski double chair, which began carrying skiers in 1961. Jean Miller later called it the first chairlift west of Berthoud Pass. A Poma platter lift followed in 1967.^1,2,3

The Millers sold in 1965. The hill stayed small, with 400 feet of vertical and four, five or six trails depending on the source. In March 1986 the sheave assembly on the chairlift's first tower failed. Wikipedia dates the closing to March 20 and says the area could not pay the $550 inspection fee. The guest ranch carried on as a cross-country ski area with no lifts running.^1,2,3,4

The lodge was torn down in 2008. The old ski terrain became part of Koelbel and Company's Rendezvous development, and in 2009 the developer gave the Millers a chair from the original lift.^1,3

TodayThe old slopes near the Rendezvous development are private land, crossed by public hiking and biking trails that keep run names such as Yankee Doodle. (2018)⁴