Trip Recap: Snow Tubing at Snow Riders in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

While planning our Valentine's Day this year, I decided it was time to finally give Snow Riders snow tubing in Harpers Ferry, WV a try. This winter has been particularly cold and snowy so I thought a night of snow tubing and sitting by a fire pit (of course they have fire pit rentals!) would be a romantic way to spend Valentines Day! We weren't disappointed.

Expectations

I booked this in December to ensure that we would get the time that we wanted because we had other plans for the evening. Our booking was from 5:00 - 6:30PM and included a fire pit rental from 4:30 - 6:00. We completed the pre-check in waivers prior to arrival, so check in was a breeze. There was a short (three-minute) explanation from the staff about what we could and couldn't do (more on that later) and then we were off to the hill which itself is about a five-minute walk across the parking lot and down the hill from registration.

I really expected this to be a busy evening at Snow Riders. Friday night. Valentine's Day. Not super cold (around 40ºF). Yeah, I expected long lines but was pleasantly surprised.

I assumed that the lack of crowds was due to the early booking (5:00 is a little early for most people) but they never got BUSY, busy.  By 6:30 there were more people but we never really had to wait in line unless we wanted a specific run. I spoke to a couple employees and they said they are usually much busier - with long lines to get on the moving carpet (the magic carpet) that takes you to the top of the hill.

The Fire Pit

The fire pit was great. They have a number of Solostove Smokeless Fire Pits with Adirondack chairs and a picnic table. The fire pit rental includes one bundle of firewood. The fire was already lit and hot when we arrived at our pit. It's nice to arrive to a fire that is already roaring hot. The single bundle of fire wood lasted for probably 30 minutes. If we had stayed at the fire pit for longer we would have needed a second bundle of wood which could be purchased at the main building which is a bit of a walk and probably pretty inconvenient on a busy night. We opted for the single bundle and only hung around the fire pit prior to tubing.

The Tubing

What is there negative to say about flying down a hill at 27MPH with very little danger of getting hurt? Ok, here are the negatives.

• They're trying to keep you from injuring yourself. That's it. That's the list.

You can't go down on your stomach (probably a good idea) and you can't create chains of tubes (booooo!).

Otherwise, lots of fun - especially as it got dark and colder. There's something about sliding down a hill at night with colorful lights reflecting off the snow and The Backstreet Boys playing in the background! If that's not romantic, I don't know what is.

The tubes are all kept at the bottom of the hill with a gravel road leading down from registration to tube pick-up. Once you get your tube, you ride the magic carpet up to the top of the hill, exit from the carpet and walk over to one of the many tubing lanes, get in your tube, wait for the staff to give you the "all clear" and then fly down the hill screaming like a kid. Repeat for your allotted time. We probably got in 10 runs in an hour and a half. We were pretty relaxed about getting back up the hill so we probably could have make a couple more runs if we had pushed it.

The staff was very friendly and if you requested it, they would launch and spin you by pulling the cord to get you started. That was fun. Once.

At the top of the hill they have a coffee and cocoa cart for a warm drink on a cold day.

Recommend?

Of course! If you're looking for something fun to do outside for a date night or as a family, I'd highly recommend it. There's very little work involved - the magic carpet gets you up the hill and gravity gets you down - so it's accessible to most. It feels like an adventure without much actual risk so it's a good option for kids and adults of all ages. And, what else are you going to do outside in the winter?

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