Holiday weeks at Winter Park are the days when everything that is easy on a Tuesday in January gets hard: the drive, the parking, the lift lines and the trip home. Here is when they fall in 2026–27, what changes on those dates, and how to plan around them.
Dates and prices below are from Winter Park Resort's winter parking page, checked in November 2026. Parking prices are the 2025–26 rates, the latest the resort had published. The resort says holiday periods are subject to change, so check before you go.
- Christmas and New Year
- December 21, 2026 to January 8, 2027
- MLK weekend
- January 15 and 18, 2027
- Presidents Day weekend
- February 12 and 15, 2027
- Spring break
- March 15 to 29, 2027
- Parking reservations
- Not required
- Paid lots on holidays
- Weekend rates
When the holiday weeks fall in 2026–27
Winter Park Resort lists four holiday periods for 2026–27. They are the dates when holiday parking rates and holiday shuttle schedules apply, and they line up with the days the mountain is busiest.
- Christmas and New Year: December 21 to January 8. The longest and busiest stretch. The days between December 26 and January 1 are the peak.
- MLK weekend: January 15 and 18. The Friday and Monday count as holidays. The Saturday and Sunday are already weekend days.
- Presidents Day weekend: February 12 and 15. The same pattern, and one of the busiest weekends of the year on I-70.
- Spring break: March 15 to 29. Two weeks of school breaks from Colorado and out of state, at the same time as the deepest snow of the season.
If you only have a few days to choose from, Christmas morning and New Year's Day morning are often among the quieter holiday days on the slopes. Midweek days in early December and mid-January are quieter still.
Parking on a holiday
Parking is where a holiday day is won or lost. Winter Park Resort does not take parking reservations, so every public space is first come, first served, and on holiday dates the close lots go first.
On holidays, the paid lots charge their weekend rates. In 2025–26 the Vintage Lot was $15 a day midweek and $40 on weekends and holidays, and the Village Parking Garage was $55 on weekends. The free lots further out stay free, but they rely on a walk or a shuttle, and the shuttle queue is longer on a holiday too. Every lot, with prices, is in parking at Winter Park.
Three things that help:
- Be parked before the lifts open. On a holiday weekend, arriving at 9:30am usually means the furthest lot.
- Use the Old Town shuttle on holidays. In 2025–26 it ran on weekends and holidays, and daily over Christmas and New Year, from 7:40am to 5:30pm. For 2026–27 the resort lists winter shuttle service from November 14, 2026 to April 18, 2027.
- Or skip the public lots. A U9200 Alpine Club day pass is priced per car and includes a guaranteed parking space on the Corridor trail between the Winter Park and Mary Jane bases, which matters most on exactly these days.
Lift tickets on holiday dates
Holiday dates are the most expensive days to buy a lift ticket, and some discounted tickets don't work on them at all. In 2025–26, Winter Park's Flex lift ticket packs were blacked out on December 26 to 31, January 17 and 18 and February 14 and 15 (Flex lift tickets). Check the 2026–27 blackout dates before you buy a pack for a holiday trip.
An Ikon or Winter Park season pass avoids the question. What a full day costs, line by line, is in what a day skiing Winter Park actually costs.
Driving up and driving home
The drive is the other half of a holiday day. Traffic on I-70 builds westbound on the Friday and eastbound on the last afternoons of the weekend.
CDOT has called Presidents Day weekend one of the busiest times of the year on the I-70 mountain corridor. For that weekend in 2025, it expected eastbound I-70 from the Eisenhower Tunnel to be congested on the Saturday afternoon and from late Sunday morning into the evening (CDOT). A Monday holiday adds a second Sunday: a normal return on the Sunday and another on the Monday.
The route from Winter Park joins I-70 at Empire, east of the tunnel, which helps. It doesn't help on Berthoud Pass, which is slow in a storm whatever the date. The route, the Traction Law and closures are in driving to Winter Park in winter.
For a holiday weekend, the simplest plan is to leave Denver before 7am, and to either drive home after 7pm or stay the night and drive back in the morning.
The train over Christmas
The Winter Park Express is the one way up that skips both the drive and the parking. In 2025–26 it ran on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from December 19 to January 4, then Thursday to Sunday through March 29, leaving Denver at 7:00am (Amtrak). Amtrak has said the train returns for 2026–27 but hadn't published the dates in November 2026. Holiday trains sell out first. More in taking the Winter Park Express.
Christmas Eve on the mountain
Winter Park Resort holds a Torchlight Parade on Christmas Eve. In 2025 it ran from 5:30pm to 7pm, with skiers carrying torches down the mountain to the base and fireworks after, and it was free to watch (Winter Park Resort). Arrive early for a place at the base. Parking that evening is easier than in the morning, since the day crowd has mostly left.
The downside of skiing the holidays
The holidays are when most people can get away, which is the whole reason they are busy. Expect longer lift lines at the bases in the late morning, full restaurants at lunch and slow traffic home. If your dates are flexible, the week after New Year's and the first half of March give you the same snow with far fewer people.