Green Pond Trail to Green Pond Picnic Area

Little Mountaineers Rating: Easy Moderate (1.5 mile round trip, short steep climb up to picnic area and pond, some elevation gain spread throughout hike)

Over the river and through the woods to Green Pond Trail we go.  The children will say, let me ride in the sleigh and cry when their fingers are cold.

Schools out over here and the snow had melted in our yard, so I knew we needed to find a fun, winter land adventure for my 6 year old.  He LOVES snow and basically everything about winter.  This makes winter hiking/adventuring fairly easy with him, except when we have to leave of course.  My 3 year old is a different story.  She has yet to really warm up to winter.  She’ll usually enjoy it for a short period of time, but that quickly escalates to utter misery.  We’re working on it, hopefully we’ll find a way to make it more enjoyable for her.  Luckily she did enjoy parts of the trail today, so hopefully it wasn’t a total bust for her.  With young kids it is all about warmth and comfort.  Make sure they have everything they need to stay warm.  While she had multiple layers and full snow gear, she still seemed cold, which was partly due to her not moving her body as much as us because she was riding in the sled.  I’m glad I put a couple blankets in the sled to add some more comfort and warmth for her.  Next time I’m bringing hand warmers and hot cocoa.

Green Pond Trail is a great kid friendly trail year round, so I was eager to try it in the winter.  It is located near Mountain Green and Huntsville, UT and just before Snow Basin Ski Resort, so I figured it had to have snow!  Well I was right!  Conditions were absolutely beautiful and I would definitely recommend going on a little winter adventure to Green Pond Trail this winter.  You can get directions right to the trailhead parking lot through the alltrails.com app on your phone.  If you don’t already have this app, I highly recommend you download it.  We have used it to find many trails in the area.

As you turn on down the road that leads to Snow Basin Ski resort you will see a parking area and Green Pond Trailhead sign on the right hand side of the road.  There are other trails in the area so don’t get confused.  The Green Pond trail actually starts on the opposite side of the road away from the parking lot.  There is a trail sign where it starts.  Once you make your way across the road to the trail you will continue on the main trail for about .75 miles until you see a sign on the left side of the trail that says “picnic area”.  Turn up the trail at the sign and continue a short way to reach Green Pond.  You can hang out here and then head back the way you came, or you can continue further on the trail to your hearts desire.

We decided to bring our sled along, and boy was that a great idea.  I toted my 3 year old along on the sled the majority of the trail.  The trail was packed snow, no ice, and we were surrounded by fluffy powder.  You will see several side trails, where people have wandered off, but the mail trail was easy to distinguish when we were there.

When we arrived at Green Pond it was completely frozen with a layer of snow on top.  There is a gentle hill the leads down to the pond and the kiddos had fun riding the sled down to the bottom.  We hiked to Green Pond and back making it about 1.5 miles, we spent about 2 hours enjoying the trail and doing some sledding.  I always use some sort of mile tracking app so that I can keep track of how long we have been hiking and how far.  It isn’t always easy to guess mileage, especially with kids who hike at various paces.

Winter hike success!

While winter hiking can seem daunting, as long as you prepare you can really make it an experience to enjoy with your kids.  Make sure you dress in warm layers with full snow gear.  The trail conditions were good enough we didn’t need snow spikes or snow shoes, but we had spikes just in case.  It would also be really smart to carry a thermos of hot water and make hot chocolate or cup of noodles.  There is a little picnic table at the pond where you could sit and sip up some warm goodness.  This trail is especially nice because it is very mild and little elevation gain.  Plus on the way back it is all downhill making for a quick trip back to your car.  Happy winter adventuring!