202 hills across 35 states, every one of them named by the agency that runs it
Sledding Hills by State
Not a list of good hills. A list of hills a public agency has named for sledding in writing, with the sentence that named each one, what it costs, whether it runs tubing, a tow or lights, and the page it was read from.
202
Hills a public agency has named
across 35 states
47%
Named by a county, metro or city
95 hills, against 75 named by a state
140
That print no charge at all
69% of the 202
15
States where no agency names one
three of them snow states
The finding
Your county names more hills than your state does
Almost everyone looking for a sledding hill opens their state park system’s finder first. It is the obvious place, and across the country it is the smaller of the two lists. Of the 202 hills below, 95 were named by a county, metro or city park department against 75 named by a state park, forest or recreation area. Local government does 47% of the designating and gets a fraction of the searches.
The reason is structural rather than accidental. A state park system runs a handful of large properties per region and publishes activity lists for each; a county runs dozens of neighbourhood parks and a parks department website built around naming facilities, and a sledding hill is a facility. So the state system names the hill inside its biggest park and the county names eleven. Every state page below opens by saying which tier did most of the naming there, because that is the website worth opening next.
95
A county, metro or city park department
47% of the 202
the department whose website almost nobody opens first
75
A state park, forest or recreation area
37% of the 202
the system most readers search before any other
32
A national forest
16% of the 202
usually a plowed winter parking area with a run beside it
A municipal park hill on a Saturday, which is what most of the hills on these pages look like. Counties and cities name more sledding hills in writing than every state park system in the country put together, and a reader who opens their state park finder first is searching the smaller of the two lists. Note the two light standards along the ridge: a hill lit after dark is the rarest thing any agency publishes about one. “Sledding at Carlington Park, Ottawa”, Ross Dunn, CC BY-SA 2.0
All fifty, most designations first
What each state has named
New York names more than any other state, at 14. The third column is the tier that named most of that state’s hills, and it changes the search: in a state where the counties lead, the state park finder will return almost nothing and a city parks page will return a dozen. The last column marks the 19 states that sell a winter parking permit, which is a separate matter from what the hill itself costs.
Every state, ordered by how many hills a public agency has named in writing. The third column is the tier that named most of them, which is the website worth opening first in that state.
A public sledding hill is usually free, and the exceptions cluster tightly. 62 of the hills below print a fee of some kind, and most of those are the two things that cost an agency money to run: a tubing operation that rents you the tube, and a tow that carries you back up. A slope with neither is almost always open at no charge.
The other charge is parking, and it is easy to mistake for an admission. 19 states sell a winter parking permit, and on nearly every hill that needs one the money is for the lot being plowed rather than for the slope, which is how a state can require a permit and still publish that sledding is free.
The states that sell a winter parking permit. On almost every hill the permit is for the plowed lot rather than for the slope, which is why a state can require one and still publish that the sledding is free.
$25 (One-Day, purchased from State Parks or online; $28 from a retail vendor)
$50 (Seasonal, purchased from State Parks or online; $53 from a retail vendor). A Special-Groomed Trail permit is $70 and is required on top of the seasonal permit at Cabin Creek, Lake Easton, Chiwawa, Lake Wenatchee, Crystal Springs, Mount Spokane, Hyak and Nason Ridge.
$13 for vehicles with Wisconsin license plates, $16 out of state
$28 for vehicles with Wisconsin license plates, $50 out of state
What a winter parking permit buys. Nineteen states sell one, and on almost every hill that needs it the money is for the lot being graded here rather than for the slope, which is why a state can require a permit and still print that the sledding itself is free. The sign on the building is the whole transaction, and it is posted at the entrance rather than at the hill. “Plowing the Sno-Park on OR 58”, OregonDOT, CC BY 2.0
Tubing
18 of them are tubing runs
A tubing hill is a different thing from a sledding hill and the agencies treat it that way. It is the kind most likely to publish fixed hours, most likely to publish a conditions line, and nearly always the kind that charges, because the agency is renting equipment or running a lift rather than opening a slope. Several will not admit a sled at all: where a run is groomed for tubes, the tube is the only thing allowed on it.
Every hill on this site where the agency publishes tubing, and whether it rents the tube, runs a tow and lights the run.
Tubes going back up a run under their own power. A tubing hill is the one kind on these pages that usually charges, because the agency is renting the tube or running a lift rather than opening a slope, and it is also the one most likely to publish fixed hours and a conditions line. Eighteen of the hills here run tubing; most of the rest are a slope and a car park. “Snow Tubing”, Iain Laurence, CC BY-SA 3.0
The rarest thing published
14 hills are lit after dark
In December most of the country loses the light before the working day ends, which makes a lit hill the difference between a weekday outing and a weekend one. It is also the attribute agencies publish least: 14 of the 202 hills here say anything about lights at all, against 69 that publish hours and 65 that publish a conditions page. Where an agency prints both, the hours are below.
Every hill whose agency publishes lights, with the hours it publishes beside them. On a December weekday these are the only hills on the site still open when most people finish work.
A rope tow, a magic carpet or a lift turns an afternoon of walking uphill into something a small child will do more than four times. The agencies call them different things and the column below uses each one’s own word for it, because a rope tow and a conveyor are not operated the same way and the difference matters at the bottom of the hill.
Every hill whose agency publishes a tow, a lift or a conveyor, and what it charges where it charges anything.
rope tow to a beginner area, per third-party and historical city reporting; not independently confirmed as serving the sledding hill specifically on the agency's own page this session
A handful of agencies maintain a single page naming every sledding hill they run, which is the thing most readers are hoping to find and which almost no state has. Where one exists it is linked below, and it is worth opening before anything else in that state.
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Division of Parks and Recreation
While this area is the only state facility offering groomed and tracked ski trails, Colt, Goddard, and Lincoln Woods State Parks offer open areas where patrons can enjoy snow-related recreational activities such as hiking, sledding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.
Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation
Vermont State Parks are open all year, even in winter. You can visit for activities like skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, sledding, fat biking, and snowmobiling.
Experience the magic of winter at West Virginia state parks and forests. Whether you prefer snowshoeing through a peaceful forest or rocketing down a mountain ski slope, there’s a winter sport in Almost Heaven you’re sure to love. Check out some of the activities available at these parks:
Each sentence below is reproduced word for word and attributed to the agency that wrote it, linked to the page it was read from. There is no summary row here and no shared paraphrase, because a summary of one of these sentences is a different statement than the one the agency made, and the agency is the one with standing to make it about its own hill.
Sled, snowboard, and ski at your own risk.
Municipality of Anchorage, Parks and Recreation, at Centennial Park sledding hill. Alaska. Read it at the source
Alcohol is prohibited. No jump building on slope. No overnight camping.
Children under the age of 12 should wear a bicycle or multi-sport helmet and be supervised by an adult. Properly use appropriate sledding devices in good repair with no sharp edges. Use of skis, non-winter tubes, carpets, toboggans and metal rail sleds is strictly prohibited. Unauthorized building of ramps, bumps, moguls, hills or jumps out of any material is strictly prohibited. Pets and alcoholic beverages are strictly prohibited on sledding hills.
Only District-provided tubes are allowed on the tubing runs. Rental tubes must stay on the designated tubing runs. Sledding is always prohibited at Mount Hoy at Blackwell, the Greene Valley scenic overlook, the Mallard Lake landfill hill, any hill at Spring Creek Reservoir, and on or near Herrick Lake at Herrick Lake.
Gloves must be worn to ride the toboggan. Maximum four people per 4-person toboggan. Maximum of three people per 3-person toboggan (no exceptions). Children must be able to understand and follow rules. No cameras/video equipment on the ride. Must use the park's toboggans.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, at Toboggan Run. Indiana. Read it at the source
Sledding can cause severe injuries. Sled at your own risk.
Montgomery Parks, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, at South Germantown Recreational Park sledding hills. Maryland. Read it at the source
Check posted signs or online updates before visiting for the most current status.
Saucers and inflatables are not permitted on the advanced and intermediate hills. Toboggans are not allowed on any sledding hills. Please walk up all sledding and snowboarding hills using the designated pathways, being cautious of others using the runs and hills.
Tubes, railed sleds, and snowboards are not allowed. Check the hill's status before you visit. Sledding hills are unsupervised. Children should be accompanied by an adult.
Eleven of the 15 are southern states and one is Hawaii, which needs no explaining. The other three are Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where agencies build their winter pages around skiing, snowshoeing, fat biking and snowmobiling and name no sledding hill among them. Each entry below says what that state’s agencies publish for winter instead.
Alabama's state park system runs to 672 pages and not one of them uses the word sledding, and the larger city and county park departments publish nothing about snow play either. No agency in the state names a hill.
All 1,375 pages of Arkansas State Parks, the Ozark and Ouachita mountain parks among them, use the word sled exactly once, in the phrase paper sled kites at a children's craft programme. No Arkansas agency names a hill for sledding.
Georgia's state park search index returns no page containing the words sledding, sled or toboggan, the only tubing the system publishes runs on rivers and lakes in summer, and the metro Atlanta county park departments publish nothing about snow play. No Georgia agency names a hill.
No Hawaii public agency designates a sledding hill. Snow does fall on Mauna Kea, and the University of Hawai'i's own administrative rules for Mauna Kea lands (Hawaii Administrative Rules §20-26-39) formally acknowledge and regulate 'skiing, snowboarding, sledding and other similar winter or snow sports,' but that rule restricts and can zone off snow play across the whole summit area rather than naming any specific hill or slope, so it does not meet the bar for a hills entry here. The Hawai'i Division of State Parks' own Mauna Kea State Recreation Area page, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife's Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and Game Management Area page, and every county parks department (Hawai'i, Honolulu, Maui, Kaua'i) were checked directly and none names a sledding location anywhere in the state.
Kentucky's state park system publishes 372 park and attraction pages and none of them uses the word sledding, its only tubing runs behind a boat marina in summer, and Lexington's parks pages are silent on snow play. No Kentucky agency names a hill.
Louisiana's state park activity list runs from biking to wildlife viewing with no snow activity on it, and the parent department publishes nothing about snow play. No Louisiana agency names a hill for sledding.
Maine's Bureau of Parks and Lands runs its winter around cross country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling, and its park finder carries no sledding filter. What the state publishes instead is a park system that stays open through the winter with most parking left unplowed and a handful of staffed Winter Fun Days, and no hill named for sledding.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation's activity vocabulary has no sledding entry in it at all. What Massachusetts publishes instead is a park system open dawn to dusk all winter, cross country skiing listed on the parks that have it, and parking charged at only a handful of parks outside the summer schedule, with no hill named for sledding.
The Mississippi agency that runs the state parks publishes 1,648 pages and not one of them uses the word sledding. No agency in the state names a hill.
New Hampshire's state park division organises its winter recreation page around downhill skiing, nordic skiing, snowshoeing, fat biking, ice fishing, snowmobiling and mushing, and never mentions sledding. Its properties stay open for recreation all winter without a designated hill among them.
No public agency in Oklahoma designates a sledding or tubing hill on its own pages, so a snow day here means a neighbourhood slope rather than a park the state, a county or a city has put its name to.
South Carolina's state park system publishes 1,638 pages, the upstate mountain parks among them, and none of them uses the word sledding, while the county recreation districts publish nothing either. No South Carolina agency names a hill.
Tennessee State Parks runs a Winter Happenings section and several winter inspiration articles, and all of them are about hiking, waterfalls, camping and cabins rather than snow play. No Tennessee agency names a hill for sledding.
Virginia's state park winter page is about hiking, camping and winter views and never mentions sledding, and the one county that links to sledding spots sends readers to a tourism blog rather than naming a hill of its own. No Virginia agency names a hill.
The third tier
32 hills sit on national forest land
A forest district publishes its hill as part of a winter recreation area rather than as a park facility, and that changes three things. The season runs on snowpack rather than on a posted date. The charge, where there is one, is almost always for the plowed lot at the bottom rather than for the slope. And the page it is named on is a winter sports page listing several activities at once, which is why these hills rarely surface in a search for a sledding hill by name.
A snowplay hill inside a national forest, the third tier of ownership on these pages and the one that behaves least like the other two. A forest district publishes its hill as part of a winter recreation area rather than as a park facility, the season runs on snowpack rather than on a posted date, and the charge, where there is one, is almost always for the plowed lot at the bottom. “Snow bunny left P1412”, EncMstr, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sledding hill questions
One that a public agency named for sledding on its own page, either in a sentence or with its own activity flag. That is the whole test, and it is a narrow one: 202 hills across 35 states pass it. Almost every hillside in the country gets sledded on, and a far smaller number have an agency's name attached to them in writing.
A county, metro or city park department, far more often than a state. 95 of the 202 hills are run by local government and 75 by a state park system, with 32 on national forest land. Most people search a state park system first, and it is the smaller of the two.
Usually not. 140 of the 202 hills print no charge at all. Where money appears it is normally a parking or day use fee for the park rather than a price for the hill, and 19 states sell a winter parking permit that covers it.
15: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia. Eleven of those are southern states where snow play is not something a park system publishes, and one is Hawaii. The other three are Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, whose agencies build their winter pages around skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling and never name a sledding hill among them.
18 of the hills here are published as tubing runs. A tubing run behaves differently from a sledding hill: it usually has published hours, often rents tubes on site, 21 runs have a tow or lift back up, and it closes for conditions in a way an open hill does not.
At 14 of the 202 hills, which publish lights. It is the rarest thing an agency says about a hill, rarer than a tow rope or a tube rental, and the hours the lights actually run are on each agency's own page rather than on a single schedule.
7 of them do: Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia. For the other 43 states the designations are scattered one park page at a time, so the only way to see them together is to open every park page in the state.
65 hills publish a conditions page of their own, linked on every state page here. For the rest, opening follows snow rather than a date, and the agency's own park page is where a closure is posted first.
Fifty states read September 23, 2026 from each agency’s own page, linked beside every hill. Hours, fees and winter parking permit prices are set season by season and a hill opens on snow rather than on a date, so the agency page linked beside each one is the thing that governs on the day.
