Looking for snow on Vacation in TN or NC- Help? (Asheville: ski resorts, to rent)

[lookingforsnow]

Looking for snow on Vacation in TN or NC- Help?
We are planning a short family vaction from FL in late February and would LOVE to see snow and go snow tubing (for the 1st time ever for my family). Can you tell me the best place to give us the best chance to see a real good snow to tube and play in for a few days?

We are leaning towards Gatlinburg but I cannot find a place to go tubing in the Smokies.

[SunnyKayak]

Jonas Ridge or Hawksnest for snow-tubing?
Snow tubing in North Carolina

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by lookingforsnow

Looking for snow on Vacation in TN or NC- Help?
We are planning a short family vaction from FL in late February and would LOVE to see snow and go snow tubing (for the 1st time ever for my family). Can you tell me the best place to give us the best chance to see a real good snow to tube and play in for a few days?

We are leaning towards Gatlinburg but I cannot find a place to go tubing in the Smokies.

You would have much better odds of having snow then if you went to West Virginia instead, lol! Late February is sometimes early spring in TN and NC - and I'm only half kidding Not that snow can't fall then, but it's not a given that there will be any at all in most parts of NC. Your best bet in NC is at our highest elevations near Banner Elk and Beech Mountain. There are ski resorts up that way that have tubing. And even if there's been no snow they make some and the higher elevations mean colder temps than any place else in the state

http://www.skibeech.com/

[gigimac]

www.skisugar.com
Sugar Mountain is a really all-around best bet. They have a lodge with a restaurant, skiing, tubing, ice skating, and fifty million villas to rent up there. But the best part is acess to it is very easy, whereas some other skiing places are somewhat hard to get to, roads get kinda high. Usually they'll make snow even if the temps get warm, but their website will tell you the current conditions. It's a few miles outside Boone NC, really nice up that way.

As for Gatlinburg, you could stop off there, but just keep in mind you cannot use I-40 between Asheville and TN because of a rock slide. You'd have to use the TN freeway between Johnson City and Knoxville to get to Gatlinburg. So, from Boone, you can go over towards Johnson City and then down towards Knoxville to the exit for Gatlinburg from the TN side.

[roadpony]

I agree with gigimac... there's no sure bet for snow anywhere in the South on any winter day, but in NC or TN, Ski Sugar is as sure a bet as possible.

I would not gamble on snow in Gatlinburg if planning a trip from FL. Besides the ski area there isn't much to write home about.

Snowshoe in West Virginia generally has more snow at any given point in time, but it's a MUCH longer, difficult trip from Florida than Ski Sugar.

Somebody mentioned Winterplace (in WV) on another current thread. It's easy to access (just off I-77 near Beckley), but it's further south and at a lower elevation than Snowshoe. Its snow conditions aren't usually much different or better than Ski Sugar.