Midwest Ski Resorts' Summer

Midwest ski resorts, once like ghost towns in summer, now offer activities ranging from hiking, mountain biking and bungee jumping to waterparks and weddings.

The Midwest and skiing? Do they go together? For that matter, do Midwest and ski resort go together?

Well, we all know that Midwest and winter go together. After all, we've all seen television news coverage of blizzards in Chicago or Minneapolis. Or NFL games broadcast from Green Bay.

But, Midwestern skiing?

Okay, that might seem an anomaly to we who live on either coast or in the Rocky Mountains. But, skiing is a way of life in the Midwest, as a check of the Midwest Ski Areas Association will attest.

And, sure, they don't have radical vertical drops there.

But, that's just what may make Midwestern resorts such diverse and terrific places to visit in summer.

Consider: the Great Lakes on which to sail, fish, sea kayak, scuba or just bask at the beach; endless miles of hiking and mountain biking trails through state parks and national forest lands; golf, golf and more golf; canoeing in places like the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area; or horseback riding, alpine sliding - oh the list goes on.

One of our most memorable summertime family excursion was to Traverse City, Michigan, where we and the kids could play in many ways at Crystal Mountain Resort, where we mountain biked without fighting steep and long hills, and where we "sand surfed" on the in the amazing Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore.

Sure, skiing, winter and Midwest all go together. But, summer at those resorts is something else again.