John & Melissa Besse Sports Park
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park is a ski area located in the state of Michigan in USA. The resort is in the town of Gladstone, MI.
We recently ranked all of Michigan's ski resorts, so you can see where John & Melissa Besse Sports Park stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with John & Melissa Besse Sports Park. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit John & Melissa Besse Sports Park's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at John & Melissa Besse Sports Park around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park Terrain Overview
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park has a total of 6 ski trails, which are serviced by 5 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. John & Melissa Besse Sports Park is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 30 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 12 hectares, 0.0 square miles, or 0.1 square kilometers.
Total Runs
6
Lifts
5
Skiable Acres
30(0 km2)
Annual Snowfall
N/A
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park Elevation
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park has a summit elevation of 711 feet, or 217 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 581 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 130 feet (40 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.
Summit Elevation
711'(217 m)
Vertical Drop
130'(40 m)
Base Elevation
581'(177 m)
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
11.6out of 100
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
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park has 30 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Since John & Melissa Besse Sports Park is an extremely beginner-friendly ski area, it has 60% of its trails are rated as "beginner-level". 40% trails are rated as intermediate.
Beginner
60%(18 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.
Intermediate
40%(12 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%.
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 John & Melissa Besse Sports Park good for beginners?
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park 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. 60% of its trails are rated as "beginner".
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park Location
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park is located in the state of Michigan, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Gladstone, MI.
Address:
Gladstone, MI 49837 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
gladstonemi.org/services/parks_and_recreation/sports_park.php
GPS Coordinates:
45.86000, -87.02000
Getting to John & Melissa Besse Sports Park
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (John & Melissa Besse Sports Park), its coordinates of 45.86000, -87.02000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Gladstone, MI 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 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 John & Melissa Besse Sports Park.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cherry Capital Airport | TVC | Traverse City, MI | 104 mi |
| Pellston Regional Airport of Emmet County Airport | PLN | Pellston, MI | 109 mi |
| Austin Straubel International Airport | GRB | Green Bay, WI | 109 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to John & Melissa Besse Sports Park, 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 John & Melissa Besse Sports Park.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marquette Mountain | Marquette, MI | 1,357 ft | 43% | 50 mi |
| Pine Mountain | Iron Mountain, MI | 1,650 ft | 36% | 51 mi |
| Camp 10 | Athelstane, WI | 1,739 ft | 42% | 66 mi |
| Paul Bunyan Ski Hill | Lakewood, WI | 1,361 ft | 10% | 81 mi |
| Christie Mountain | Bruce, WI | 1,650 ft | 34% | 85 mi |
| Nordic Mountain | Mountain, WI | 1,137 ft | 40% | 85 mi |
John & Melissa Besse Sports Park Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 711 ft |
| Base Elevation | 581 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 130 ft |
| Trails | 6 (60% Beginner, 40% Intermediate, 0% Expert) |
| Lifts | 5 |
| Skiable Acres | 30 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | N/A inches |