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Detroit Mountain Recreation Area

Home / Ski Resorts / Detroit Mountain Recreation Area

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is a ski area located in the state of Minnesota in USA. The resort is in the town of Detroit Lakes, MN.

We recently ranked all of Minnesota's ski resorts, so you can see where Detroit Mountain Recreation Area stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is a part of the INDY Ski Pass system. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the group.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Detroit Mountain Recreation Area around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Terrain Overview

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area has a total of 21 ski trails, which are serviced by 4 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 45 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 18 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.2 square kilometers.

Trails
Total Runs
21
Ski Lift
Lifts
4
Skier
Skiable Acres
45(0 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
N/A

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Elevation

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area has a summit elevation of 1,608 feet, or 490 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 1,444 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 164 feet (50 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
1,608'(490 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
164'(50 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
1,444'(440 m)

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
14.7out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area. It is in fact one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. This is due to it having 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner", and a vertical drop of only 164 feet.
 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area has 45 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Since Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area, it has 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner-level". 50% trails are rated as intermediate.
Green Circle
Beginner
50%(23 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
50%(23 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
0%(0 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Detroit Mountain Recreation Area good for beginners?

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is a very beginner-friendly course. In fact, it is one of the easiest ski slopes in all of North America, ranking in the bottom 10% of overall difficulty. 50% of its trails are rated as "beginner".

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Location

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area is located in the state of Minnesota, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Detroit Lakes, MN.

Address:
Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
detroitmountain.com

GPS Coordinates:
46.81600, -95.78400

Getting to Detroit Mountain Recreation Area

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Detroit Mountain Recreation Area), its coordinates of 46.81600, -95.78400 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Detroit Lakes, MN to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Detroit Mountain Recreation Area.

NameCodeCityDistance
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International AirportMSPMinneapolis, MN182 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Detroit Mountain Recreation Area.

NameCodeCityDistance
Hector International AirportFARFargo, ND49 mi
Brainerd Lakes Regional AirportBRDBrainerd, MN83 mi
Grand Forks International AirportGFKGrand Forks, ND102 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Detroit Mountain Recreation Area, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Detroit Mountain Recreation Area.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Andes TowerBackus, MN1,620 ft32%52 mi
Chester Bowl ParkDuluth, MN875 ft18%52 mi
Lutsen MountainsLutsen, MN1,913 ft45%52 mi
Buena VistaBemidji, MN1,510 ft34%72 mi

Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation1,608 ft
Base Elevation1,444 ft
Vertical Drop164 ft
Trails21
(50% Beginner,  50% Intermediate,  0% Expert)
Lifts4
Skiable Acres45
Avg. Annual SnowfallN/A inches
Detroit Mountain Recreation Area Mountain Stats
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