Before this trip, the only tubing I knew of was on water. It's even better on snow! It was a blast. This is how it worked: we rented a tube for $15 an hour and went to the top of the hill. Here, we sat in our tubes and pushed off the edge (sometimes with a little help), and then flew down the huge hill at what felt like 90 miles an hour. It was so much fun and you have absolutely no control! You just spin around and you can't steer yourself at all. Then, when we all held on together and went down, we went even faster! The best part about this is you are pulled back up the mountain, on what I call a "tube lift", to the very top just to do it all over again! It was so much fun and everyone should try this when they go to the mountains.

I would suggest taking a camera with you. And when I say with you I mean on the tube ride. My digital camera has video on it and I recorded us going down the hill, it is the funniest video I have ever recorded. It shows how much fun it really was and I wish that I could put it on this journal, but the pictures kind of show you how it all worked. You will never know how much fun it really is until you experience it yourself.

I recommend, if you have not already tried it, going down a snow-covered hill on a tube. I know it sounds crazy, but it is actually a lot of fun. Let the kid in you come out. I visited the snow-tubing hill for the first time when I was 12 and still enjoyed it the last visit when I was 27. The tubing hill is located in Fraser, Colorado which is just north of Winter Park. It is just off the main road. You actually go in and pay for how long you want to tube, watch a short safety and training video, and then just get on the tube and go down the hill. When you get to the bottom, you walk back to a lift that pulls you and your tube back to the top. The more weight, the faster you go, but also the farther you walk back to the lift. We usually get several people to all hold on together to go faster. Also, it is fun if someone at the top spins you when you start to go down. The cost is only $ 12 per hour after 6 PM and $ 11 per hour before 6 PM. Their hours are from 10 AM until 10 PM from November until April. I have always tubes at night and it can be quite cold but if dressed properly it is not too bad. Also it gives you a good activity after a day of skiing. This is fun for all ages but you must be 7 or older to ride on the tube alone.

Fantastic fun for kids and adults! The Fraser town tubing hill rents you a sturdy tube, and you use it to catapult down a steep hill at great speed. Once you reach the bottom, you don't have to walk up--there are two lifts that pull you back to the top.

On a weekend afternoon, there may be a long wait before you can tube. We first tried at mid-afternoon on a Sunday, and were told there was a 30 minute waiting to get on the waiting list! We declined, and came back at around 5:30 the same day. A beautiful twilight evolved into a clear, bright, starry night. What an experience!