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Making a Winter Wonderland in the Poconos

Whenever the leaves fall and the temperatures start to get just a little chilly, one question seems to be on EVERYONE’s minds as we head to winter: how much will it SNOW?

A valid question, and from time to time it seems even Mother Nature isn’t certain of how much snowfall will make its way to Northeastern Pennsylvania. It all becomes kind of… a game.

But here at Woodloch- TripAdvisor’s #1 Hotel for Families in America– we love games. So we’ll play.

What do we do when we don’t get the snow we need from the sky? Answer: WE MAKE IT SNOW! That’s right, since 1991, Woodloch has been manufacturing piles and piles of artificial snow to keep our guests happy all season long. Once temperatures consistently reach 20 degrees and below, we fire up our snow guns and magically transform a blank canvas of grass into a towering mountain of white. Woodloch sculpts their own snow tube runs!

We get a lot of questions on our snow-making operation so we thought we’d give you the behind-the-scenes scoop on the magic!

Woodloch has three “snow guns” similar to those found at ski resorts. At peak operation, they transform 60 to 70 gallons of water into snow per minute!
With ideal conditions, i.e. very low temperatures and humidity, the guns can make more than enough snow to fill four triaxle dumptrucks in eight hours!
Our “Snow Cat,” which resembles a bulldozer and a tank, is used by our staff to craft our tube runs. It is also used throughout the season for one to two hours a day grooming our runs.
On average, we need about 10 solid nights of snowmaking to have enough powder to manufacture our tube runs. In total, it takes us about two weeks to manufacture and sculpt our tube runs!
Water for the runs is supplied to us by both Lake Teedyuskung and our private water tower.
The snow will typically stay with us through the winter season as long as temperatures aren’t unseasonably warm. The last of it is pushed in the lake around the start of April. If it wasn’t, the massive quantities would linger on the beachfront until about May!

Our snowmaking operation is a neverending effort to keep both of our snow tube runs open for as long as conditions permit! The “Cats” also groom and sculpt our
Olympic areas so we can keep the fun going all winter long!

If you haven’t yet had the chance to see these mechanical marvels in action, you have the perfect opportunity right now! Round up your friends and family, and grab a snow tube … I’ll race you to the bottom! We can’t wait to see you this winter!!