Horseshoe Resort facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Horseshoe Resort |
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The ski hill at Horseshoe Resort in Ontario
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| Location | Oro-Medonte, Ontario, Canada |
| Nearest city | Barrie, Orillia, |
| Coordinates | 44°33′7″N 79°40′19″W / 44.55194°N 79.67194°W |
| Vertical | 94 metres (308 ft) |
| Top elevation | 406 metres (1,332 ft) |
| Base elevation | 312 metres (1,024 ft) |
| Skiable area | 24.7 hectares (61 acres) |
| Runs | 29 |
| Longest run | 670 metres (2,200 ft) |
| Lift system | 8 (1 detachable six-person, 2 triples, 3 doubles, 1 surface, 1 Magic Carpet) |
| Lift capacity | 11,400/hour |
| Snowfall | 223 cm/year (87.7 in) |
| Snowmaking | 75% |
| Night skiing | Yes |
| Website | www.horseshoeresort.com |
Horseshoe Resort is a super fun place in southern Ontario, Canada. It used to be called the Horseshoe Valley Ski Club. It's a popular spot for skiing in winter and a great vacation place all year round!
The resort is located north of Barrie and is about an hour and 15 minutes drive from Toronto. Thanks to its amazing snowmaking machines, Horseshoe Resort has a really long ski season. The resort covers a huge area of 680 acres.
Horseshoe Resort offers lots of cool activities for every season. You can find two golf courses, a spa, and many rooms and suites to stay in. There are also restaurants, swimming pools, a gym, and over 40 kilometers of trails. These trails are perfect for hiking, biking, and snowshoeing.
The resort is famous for its many activities. These include Treetop Trekking, Yamaha Riding Adventures, Segway Adventures, and even horseback rides. In winter, you can enjoy mountain biking, snow tubing, Nordic skiing, and snowshoeing. The Adventure Park has family-friendly fun like a rock climbing wall, an Ogo run (like rolling down a hill in a giant ball!), a maze, a mining attraction, Euro bungy, and a zip line.
The resort is in a valley shaped like a horseshoe. This is how it got its name!
Contents
History of Horseshoe Resort
How it All Started
In the early 1960s, a builder named Bill Lohuaru from Toronto was looking for a place to build a ski resort. He found the perfect spot in Horseshoe Valley. People at the time called it "Hungry Hollow." It was a great location because it had good hills and was close to Georgian Bay.
In 1962, Horseshoe Valley opened for its first ski season. It had five ski slopes, a T-bar lift, four rope tows, and a small lodge. Skiing became very popular, which helped the resort grow fast. It quickly expanded from 200 acres to 1,600 acres! More lifts were added in the 1960s. In 1967, the resort got its first snowmaking machine. As alpine skiing grew, so did interest in Nordic skiing. In 1964, 10 kilometers of Nordic trails were opened in the nearby Copeland Forest.
Growing into a Year-Round Destination
By 1972, the resort started thinking about becoming a place for fun all year. Two famous Canadian golfers, George Knudson and Al Balding, helped design the first golf course. In 1974, the first nine holes of the Valley Golf Course opened. The full 18-hole course was ready by July 1975.
Around this time, the area around Horseshoe Valley was also growing. New roads were built, and homes were constructed. In the late 1970s, the Horseshoe Condominium project was finished. This aimed to create more permanent homes near the resort.
In 1979, Bill Lohuaru brought in six new partners to help the resort grow even more. They quickly saw a need for places where visitors could stay for short trips. In 1982, a 40-unit vacation ownership project was completed. It also included a swimming pool, tennis courts, indoor fun areas, and a restaurant.
New Features and Expansion
In 1984, night skiing began at Horseshoe Resort. The ski hill continued to expand throughout the 1980s. In 1987, the Inn at Horseshoe opened. It had 102 rooms, an indoor recreation center, and a fancy restaurant called Silks. In 1989, the Mach One high-speed chairlift opened.
Also in 1989, Horseshoe Valley bought Medonte Mountain. This was another ski club nearby. It became a new private area called Heights of Horseshoe. This area is used for family skiing and has many homes built around it. The main hill at Horseshoe Resort has 8 chairlifts, including a fast six-person lift. It also has a rope tow and a magic carpet for beginners. There are 29 marked ski runs in total. The Heights area has another 28 runs served by four lifts.
In 1991, work started on the 18-hole Highlands Golf Course. Its first nine holes and a driving range opened that same year. In 1997, the Thunder Valley tubing park opened with four runs. It's now known as Red Horse Express.
Horseshoe Resort in the 21st Century
In 2006, the Horseshoe Highlands golf course hosted a big golf championship. This showed that it was one of the best courses in Canada.
In 2010, the Horseshoe Adventure Park opened. It offered summer snow tubing, Ogo (giant rolling balls), mini putt, a climbing wall, a zip line, and a skate park. That same year, the resort also opened a downhill mountain biking course with four trails. In 2011, the Red Horse Maze was added to the Adventure Park. The zip line was made even better in 2012 to be faster and carry more people.
In 2013, the resort spent $4 million to update its 101 hotel rooms and meeting spaces. The Adventure Park also grew that year to include the Red Horse Mining attraction. Later in 2013, an 800-foot-long carpet lift called Kimble's Karpet was added to the beginner ski hill.
In late 2016, a new, fast six-person chairlift was added to the main ski hill. It replaced an older chairlift from 1989. The old lift was removed in the spring of 2017. In 2017, a new artificial lake was built for summer use. The resort also made its snowmaking system even better.
