Popular Flagstaff Sledding Area to Close

Residents and visitors of Flagstaff who were looking for a fun place to enjoy the snow this winter will be disappointed to know that Wing Mountain is closing its doors. According to the United States Forest Service, Recreation Resource Management who operates Wing Mountain recently cancelled the special use permit for the land.

As long as there was enough snowfall, visitors to Wing Mountain were able to enjoy sledding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. This family-friendly area provided visitors with a number of marked trails, restroom facilities, and a parking area for up to 500 vehicles.

Despite the provided parking area, there were often problems with traffic along U.S. 180 because of people parking along the road to go to Wing Mountain. It is not clear if this was a factor in the park closing, however, as Art Babbott, the Coconino County Supervisor reported that only 5 to 10 percent of the traffic on U.S. 180 was caused by Wing Mountain.


As of now, the only thing known for sure about the future of the area that was Wing Mountain is that it will not be open for the winter of 2017, so if you were planning on taking your family, you’ll have to look around for other snow play areas. Fortunately, there are a number of parks and recreational areas on the way to the Grand Canyon to choose from for winter fun.

The big question that is still to be determined is whether or not this area will be used for recreational purposes in the future. In an email from Babbott to the Arizona Daily Sun, he feels that “this may turn into a more unorganized winter recreation area.” The forest service will begin reaching out to the public in 2018 to see what people would like to see happen at the site where Wing Mountain once stood.