7 days ago
Snowflex Hill brings winter activities into summer at Sleepy Hollow
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Sleepy Hollow Snowflex Hill brings winter fun into the summer, and people are already racing for the slopes.
The project was started in 2022 and is part of Polk County Conservation's efforts to bring year-round activities to the park. The hill has many perks, including the ability to entertain large parties, a moving walkway, and it isn't cold.
'One of the things that we really wanted was we wanted to be able to do the wintertime things in the summer, you know, make everything as accessible as we possibly can with this surface,' said Samual Lorton, Sleepy Hollow Operations Team Lead. 'This is called snow flex. It's an irrigated system. So they can come out and they can go tubing in the middle of summertime, just like it's winter.'
The Snowflex Hill at Sleepy Hollow is the world's largest at over 600 feet long. Tubing is the main activity, but visitors are still able to enjoy snowboarding and skiing on certain nights of the week.
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Snowflex has been open for a few weeks and has been a hit.
'I came out here because it was my birthday and it just seemed super fun to go sledding in summer,' said Jocelyn, whose favorite part was 'Going down and like spinning around and going like three rounds because when you go down, like at the end, it sometimes takes you up on the green for airtime.'
Sleepy Hollow says the hill is fully accessible, so anyone can enjoy it.
'We'll see kids, you know, kids four or five years old coming out here and enjoying it all the way up to. We have a lot of grandmas and grandpas that bring out their grandkids, and grandma and grandpa can go tubing,' said Lorton. 'We always like to say the joke that as long as gravity works, you're fine.'
The park is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., with extended hours till 10 p.m. on Saturday. Specialty hours for snowboarders and skiers are Wednesday from 8 to 10 p.m.
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