There are a lot of snow play areas for kids and families near Los Angeles. One of the benefits of living in Los Angeles or anywhere in the Southern California area is that finding snow in the winter is only an hour or two away.
One of our favorite places to go is Mt Baldy, about an hour’s drive northeast of Los Angeles. There’s a large stretch of open field that’s covered in snow during the winter and great for snow play and sledding.
Watch our family trip video to Mt Baldy to get an idea of the area:
Why We Love Mt Baldy
It’s a short and easy drive. From downtown Los Angeles, it’s about an hour. You go up the mountain to the end of the road. It’s a really easy find.
There’s a ton of space, so you don’t feel like everyone is crowded into a small area off the side of the road. There is flat ground and hills, for any type of snow play you want.
How to get to Mt Baldy
Wherever you’re coming from, there’s only one way up to Mt Baldy. Head to the 210 Freeway towards the location. If you’re heading east, you’ll exit on Monte Vista. If you’re heading west, you’ll exit on Mountain Ave. Go north and you’ll connect to Mt Baldy Rd. Take that all the up the mountain to the end.
This marker will take you to the snow play area:
This address is the closest marker to the snow play area:
Mt Baldy Zen Center
7901 Mt Baldy Rd
Mt Baldy, CA 91759
As you head up Mt Baldy Rd, you’ll wind back and forth for some great views, and pass through the main town of Mt Baldy. As you get closer to the destination, you’ll see a lot of small snow play patches with cars parked on the side of the road – don’t get distracted by them! Drive a little further, it’s worth it.
Once you get to the destination, you’ll see the road split and parking available on the side and in the middle. The snow play area is huge on your right hand side. If you the end of the road at Mt Baldy Ski resort, you’ve gone too far.
Travel lessons from our Mt Baldy trip
You learn something new with every trip. Here are a few tips:
- Go to the bathroom before you head up the mountain. This is a good idea for any mountain trip. The drive up is usually only 30 minutes, but on some occasions, there’s some incident which backs up the 2-lane road, so it could easily take over an hour just to get up the mountain.
- Make sure you plot the directions before you go up since there’s no reception as you’re driving up there. Some phones let you pre-download the map.
Travel gear that was helpful on our Mt Baldy trip
Here are some recommended items we took on the trip that helped make it easier, or was used for taking our photos and videos. These are affiliate links, which means if you purchase anything through them, it’s no additional cost for you, but we get a small commission. If you do buy something (even if it’s not the exact product), we would really appreciate you using these links as it helps us continue creating resource content.
Slippery Racer Sled – You can’t go to the snow without a sled. You can easily buy one at any store selling snow gear, but here’s our recommendation for buying something online. This plastic sled is great for playing in the snow. It fits 2 people so a parent can ride with a child, or have 2 kids ride together.
GoPro Hero5 Session – We used this for most of the video, especially the sledding parts. This is an incredible little action camera that’s waterproof and has mild stabilization. It’s a cube shape and doesn’t have a viewing screen like its newer models, but is perfectly convenient quick action recording in Full HD. Find it on Amazon or eBay.
