It’s that time of year again! Thanksgiving is over and it’s a mad dash to the end of 2016! With Christmas shopping and decorating in full swing, the last month of the year always flies by! In a flurry to find the perfect gifts and host the perfect parties, it’s no wonder we’re exhausted by the time New Year’s Eve arrives. That’s why spending the night at home with my family and a few friends always sounds so good! But this year we’ve vowed to plan a memorable New Year’s Eve by taking to the open roads with our RV and hitting up one of the many celebrations going on around the country. As northerners, we love snow, so we set about to find the greatest NYE celebrations to choose from where we’d be surrounded by crisp, fresh air and beautifully falling snow. If you’re looking for a fresh new idea for New Year’s Eve and don’t want to head south where all the snowbirds go, check out these northern New Year’s events for RVers that will make every mile of your trip worthwhile! Happy 2017!
A Sweet Northern Michigan New Year’s Eve
Ring in the New Year by joining in the fun in the Cherry Capital of the World. Located in northern Michigan, Traverse City celebrates the New Year with an annual Cherry Ball Drop. With live music for dancing, the festivities start around 10:30pm and end at midnight with the lovely Cherry Ball that descends during the countdown. This is a family-friendly event and donations are accepted to help benefit local food pantries. Scores of popular restaurants and bars line the streets of Traverse City and will be happy to welcome you before the celebration gets under way to enjoy delicious farm-to-table dishes and local beers and wines.
If you’re looking for adult NYE parties, check out the ones being planned at the Grand Traverse Resort or Shanty Creek Resort, where you can enjoy an elegant dinner, champagne toast, and plush overnight accommodations. No matter what type of celebration you partake in, you’re guaranteed a memorable NYE when you spend it in northern Michigan.
Accommodations:
Timber Ridge RV Park & Resort, located in beautiful Traverse City, is a 4-season RV park that can accommodate every size of RV from pop-ups to big rigs! During the winter months here you can take advantage of their clean bath houses, spacious sites, wireless Internet, and a camp store. Over 60km of Timber Ridge-groomed trails, along with the Vasa trail system, are at your disposal for peaceful winter hiking.
Ring in the New Year in the Centennial State
Colorado is a winter-lover’s paradise! Whether you love skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snowshoeing, X-country skiing, ice skating, or just window-shopping in the glitzy ski resort towns that Colorado is known for, there’s something for everyone in this Golden State! And on New Year’s Eve, head to Copper Mountain for a variety of fun activities that the whole family can participate in. Head to the slopes to watch the little skiers light up the mountain as they cruise down it carrying glowsticks in the Kid’s Glowstick Pageant. This is followed by the mesmerizing Torchlight Parade, Rail Jam under the lights, and a mountain-side fireworks celebration. For adults-only entertainment, drop the kids off at Kid’s Night Out and head to one of the resort restaurants or bar for live music, drinks, and celebration into the wee hours of the morning.
Or, for couples looking for a more romantic way to spend the last evening of 2016, sign up for Copper Mountain’s Moonlight Dine + Ski night for an unforgettable night. Ride the chairlift up to Solitude Station, mid-mountain, and enjoy fine dining and live music. Then ski back down to the village to ring in the New Year.
Accommodations:
Located 30 miles south of Copper Mountain, Leadville Corral RV Park offers year-round camping in historic Leadville. This breathtaking location that averages over 300 days of sunshine a year has 33 full-service, pull-thru sites that have 20/30/50 amp with cable TV. The daily rate of $38 includes clean, modern restrooms. The town of Leadville offers a rich history of the area and is home to the National Museum of Mining. You’ll enjoy their eclectic restaurants, shops, and recreation, including hiking, fishing, and more.
Celebrate in Jackson Hole
Make plans to head out west to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for your New Year’s celebration this year and be a part of an amazing celebration that will light up your night! To start the festivities, ride up the Sweetwater Gondola with your little skiers where they can participate in the Glowworm Parade! Holding tightly onto a glowstick (no poles allowed!), kids up to 14 years old form a line and proceed down Eagle’s Rest, lighting up the mountain as they shush back and forth. Then at 6pm, the annual Torchlight Parade descends down Apres-Vous. Have your cameras ready for both of these events because these are sights you’ll want to capture and share with your friends and family back home for sure! Following the Torchlight Parade is the celebratory fireworks show that will set the mountain ablaze in beautiful hues! I can’t think of a better place to spend New Year’s than in this charming western town nestled in the glorious mountains of Wyoming!
Accommodations:
Jackson Hole Campground at Fireside Resort is the only campground in the area that offers year-round accommodations. Located in the heart of the towering Tetons and offering stunning mountain views, no RV is too big to call this RV park home as the winter sites can handle RVs up to 65’ long! This beautiful spot just minutes from trendy Jackson Hole offers heated bath and shower houses, laundry facilities, 30 & 50-amp hookups, and a store. At just $59/night, you can save your money for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort lift tickets and fun in the resort town of Jackson Hole!
New England New Year’s Eve
Take a trip to the beautiful state of Maine and enjoy a week’s worth of holiday fun on the slopes! Sunday River Ski Resort has something for everyone at their resort that spans 8 mountains and always has fresh, powdery snow that skiers and snowboarders dream about. The week between Christmas and New Year’s is jam-packed with fun family activities that include night skiing and snow tubing, terrain park lessons & prizes, live entertainment every afternoon at the Foggy Goggle, a fire dancer, a mid-mountain family dinner and story time with Eddy the Yeti, G-force laser tag, and a New Year’s celebration to cap it all off on December 31st! This kid-oriented PG-13 New Year’s Eve Party starts at 6pm and ends at 9pm, allowing your little skiers to partake in NYE festivities without staying up way past their bedtime and spoiling the next day’s fun. You and the kids will have fun with the photo booth, inflatable sumo wrestling, and GaGa Ball pit. The countdown to 2017 is at 8pm followed by an amazing performance by fire dancers and a spectacular firework show with the mountains in the background. What a way to ring in the New Year!
Accommodations:
Stay at the foothills of the White Mountains at Stony Brook Recreation & Camping in Hanover, just minutes from Sunday River Ski Resort. Located in southwestern Maine, this campground offers 50 RV sites that range in amenities from full hookups to none. All of their sites are premium, pull-thru sites and are built to accommodate any-sized RV. For winter sports enthusiasts, this campground is the perfect landing place. It features snowmobile trails that stretch throughout the Northeast, beautifully groomed cross-country trails, and hiking trails galore. This affordable campground has rates between $33-39/night and offers flush toilets, hot showers, handicap restrooms, dump station, laundry facilities, grills, fire pits, grocery store, arcade room, and more.
