Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Bear Lake's Monster Winterfest promotes winter tourism with various sports activities.
- Epic Recreation offers free trials of activities like snowmobiling to attract visitors.
- The festival includes a polar plunge and boosts local business during winter.
GARDEN CITY, Rich County — Business owners around Bear Lake are trying to expand the tourism season into the winter months through the Bear Lake Monster Winterfest this weekend.
The area is known for summers on the shore of Bear Lake, but people and businesses around the area want to spread the word that there is stuff to do year-round.
The event started Friday and continues through Saturday.
On Friday, the big focus was on winter sports. The first day of the Bear Lake Monster Winterfest is always a chance to try all kinds of outdoor stuff, like snowmobiling, tubing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
The hope for organizers, of course, is that some people may discover their new favorite winter sport and come back.
This part of the festival is steadily growing. It started with maybe 15 or so people trying it out in the first years, and on Friday, an estimated more than a hundred people went through to try various activities.
The attractions of the Bear Lake Monster Winterfest
A local business, Epic Recreation, donates its time and resources to make all of that available for free about 30 minutes at a time.
"Maybe you've never done snowmobiling before, and you're not sure you want to rent a snowmobile for a few hundred dollars? You can try it for free for, you know, a half hour, and make sure you like it, see if the family likes it," said owner of Epic Recreation, Nate Smoot.
The Dickson family is one of those families that came this year to take advantage of that opportunity.
"We haven't done snowmobiles before, so it's a good chance to try it out," said Seth Dickson.
The Bear Lake Valley Chamber of Commerce said with each year, the bookings for lodging and area businesses pick up a bit more.
"It seems like every year … Bear Lake area is really getting a lot busier," Smoot said. "There's a lot of affordable Airbnbs during the wintertime, and it's just easy to come up and go skiing at Beaver Mountain. You can go snowmobiling. There's a few rental options in town."
"I think it's super fun that they have all these activities out in there. Most of them are pretty much free, so I think that's super cool for everybody to experience something new," added newcomer Elyssa Parsons.
Other attractions include a sampling of Bear Lake area restaurants, vendors, a chance to fish for cisco in the lake, and next month; visitors can participate in skijoring — a sport where skiers get pulled by a horse.
