For our last day, we went back to Powder Mtn, to see how it would feel on a cloudy, but non stormy day. Again, it was fantastic, and they had groomed more of the trails so were able to try more of the mountain than before. We also took the surface drag lifts over to their Sunrise area, which are low angle wide open powder fields. Fantastic, although there were a few more people at the mountain, getting an early head start on the weekend. We blasted through all the Hidden Lake runs, and then went back to the lodge, to eat our smuggled in sack lunch.
In the afternoon we rode the Timberline lift and tried the runs off that. The light started getting flat (sky and snow same color) so it began getting hard to judge distance/depth, which was a good signal to end the day and change back into our regular shoes. We felt guilty about brown bagging lunch the last few days there, so we bought a few knick knacks at the tiny gift shop, and grabbed our shuttle -- more like a personal limo since we were the only ones on it -- back to the condo complex.
It was a great trip, and I recommend both mountains since the drive is tolerable from Northern California. It's about ~700 miles, which is 12 hours (assuming cooperative weather) with plenty of stops for feeding/changing rug rats. I don't think staying in Ogden makes sense for visiting these mountains, since the connecting Rt 39 through the Wasatch mountains is a narrow undivided road, and adds significantly to the daily travel time to the mountain. The Lakeside condo complex in Hunstville is 10min to Snowbasin and 20-30 min to PowMow, AND runs a fairly frequent shuttle service. The complex has a concierge service which took good care of us, arranging for things like grocery delivery, discounted lift tickets, in condo masseuses, etc. I endorse them as well, if one is staying up valley. The one down side of staying up high, is the choices of restaurants, is limited, and quality (at least from our experience) is mediocre.
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