Bountiful City Park is the neighbourhood sledding hill for Bountiful, Utah, an easy, free, in-town spot in Davis County where families head the moment the Wasatch dumps enough snow to slide on. It's not a mountain, and that's exactly the point: it's the kind of place you can reach in five minutes with kids and a stack of plastic sleds, get in a solid hour of runs, and be home before anyone's fingers get too cold.

The park's real advantage is that it offers a choice of pitches. There are a few shorter slopes scattered around the park that are perfect for small children and first-timers, gentle enough to build confidence without much consequence. Then there's the big hill in the southwest corner, which is where the older kids and the brave go: it's long and steep enough to build genuine speed and is the main event on a good snow day. Having both in one park means families with mixed ages can all sled the same afternoon without anyone being bored or terrified.

You'll find the park at 400 North 200 West in Bountiful, with park hours running from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. It's free and unsupervised, with no rentals or attendants, so bring your own sled or tube. Because it sits right in a residential neighbourhood, parking considerately and keeping noise reasonable keeps the neighbours on side.

Bountiful sits at the foot of the Wasatch just north of Salt Lake City, and it's rich in sledding options if this one is crowded or the snow has gone thin. Lewis Park, North Canyon Park, Twin Hollow Park and the slope at Mueller Park Junior High are all local favourites, and the separate West Bountiful City Park on Pages Lane, just west of I-15, has its own well-known hill with easier parking and more room to spread out. Worth knowing those are different places despite the similar names.

Sledding hills are more fun than they are careful, and a city park brings its own hazards. Speeds pick up quickly on packed or icy snow, and the southwest hill's runout ends in a park with trees, playground equipment and neighbourhood streets nearby, so a clear look at where you'll stop and an adult keeping watch over younger sledders is worth the trouble. Helmets are a sensible addition.

Go right after a fresh snowfall for the best surface and the happiest crowd, dress in waterproof layers and real boots, and haul out everything you bring in, broken sleds included. It's a simple, free, distinctly Utah winter afternoon, right in the middle of town.

The St. Anthony Sand Dunes are one of Idaho's great natural playgrounds, a vast sea of white quartz sand stretching some 20 miles long and 5 miles wide across the high desert northwest of St. Anthony in eastern Idaho. This 10,600-acre BLM Special Recreation Management Area holds dunes ranging from 50 to a towering 400 feet high, and it draws off-road riders, sandboarders, hikers and equestrians from across the region to a landscape that feels genuinely otherworldly against the backdrop of the Teton skyline.

Off-highway riding is the headline activity, and the dunes are built for it. The signature feature is Deadhorse Bowl, a famous OHV sand bowl a mile in circumference and 400 feet deep in the western part of the complex, where riders carve the steep faces from spring through fall. The BLM requires that off-road vehicles be registered in the owner's home state and fly a safety flag, a red or orange flag at least 6 by 12 inches, mounted 8 feet above the ground so machines are visible over the dune crests. Beyond the motors, the dunes are superb for sandboarding and sand sledding down the big faces, and for hiking and horseback riding in the quieter stretches.

Camping centers on Egin Lakes, about 8 miles west of St. Anthony, with 48 improved sites including some with electrical hookups, potable water, and an RV dump station; 26 sites are reservable on Recreation.gov and the rest are first come, first served. The area has a beach popular for swimming, though the lake does hold leeches, so staying near the shore's edge helps; in town, the St. Anthony Sandbar is a beloved local river swimming hole for a family picnic.

The dunes are exposed and can be punishing: summer sun bakes the open sand with no shade, wind kicks up quickly, and the soft, steep faces are genuinely strenuous to climb on foot. Riders should treat Deadhorse Bowl and the big faces with respect, and everyone needs far more water than the desert setting suggests. The sand also gets scorching underfoot at midday.

Spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons for riding and hiking, while summer draws the biggest weekend crowds and the swimming at Egin Lakes. Bring plenty of water, sun protection, eye protection against blowing sand, a properly flagged and registered machine if you're riding, and everything you need to be self-sufficient in open desert. For OHV thrills on 400-foot faces, a sandboard run, or just a walk across a genuine dune sea with the Tetons on the horizon, the St. Anthony Sand Dunes are a one-of-a-kind Idaho destination.

There are a few shorter slopes around the park which are great for sledding and one big hill in the Southwest corner that will get you some real speed.