Best sledding hills???

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:30 am

I grew up with Suicide Hill in Brookside (taking the kids there today), it's still my favorite, I also went to Westridge Elementary where there is a great hill behind that school which is located west of Raytown about 79th St.

Art Hill in StL (similar to Suicide Hill in KC) is also awesome.

Anyway, what are some others?

macnw · Post by **macnw** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:45 am

When I used to live in KC, we would go to the park at 47th and State Line. I cannot remember the name of it, but there is a good hill right off State Line. What about the hill at 50th and State Line. I attended school at Pembroke Country Day, the soccer field used to have a great hill.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 12:49 pm

12th street bridge

I was actually thinking about this today? Can I sled on the front of the liberty memorial? Somewhere in Penn Valley park seems like it would have a good hill.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:03 pm

KC wrote:12th street bridge

I was actually thinking about this today? Can I sled on the front of the liberty memorial? Somewhere in Penn Valley park seems like it would have a good hill.

Oh shit yea, that would rock, I mountain bike down some of the hills in Penn Valley. I think that would be too insane, though because it's hard to stop a bike from flying into Broadway let alone a sled and it wouldn't be easy to get back up.

Post by **dangerboy** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:54 pm

macnw wrote:When I used to live in KC, we would go to the park at 47th and State Line. I cannot remember the name of it, but there is a good hill right off State Line.

That's Westwood Park, good place. Sometimes there's drunken sledding there at night

Downtown has a good hill on the northeast face of Case Park, in Quality Hill.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:33 pm

Waterworks Park up north, Keystone Park in Blue Springs. Landahl Park in NE Blue Springs has one HELL of a sledding hill.

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 8:23 pm

The city should construct a massive luge slide on Quality Hill that criss-crosses all the way down the west bluffs into the West Bottoms. Now that would be an attraction.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:55 am

Did Keystone in BS, not bad, where are the Landaul sledding areas at, I haven't been able to find them.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 2:45 am

GRID wrote:Did Keystone in BS, not bad, where are the Landaul sledding areas at, I haven't been able to find them.

It's just about impossible to see from the road. There's a parking area on the south side of Truman Road, about halfway between a service road and a picnic shelter. Park there, then follow the gravel path south... the sledding hill will be on the right. I was there last spring and the area was littered with broken sled parts.

The sled run is indicated by the arrow in the aerial below:

The aerial doesn't do the slope justice, here's a link to a topo map of the run: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=15&n= ... ayer=DRG25

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 5:23 pm

dangerboy wrote: That's Westwood Park, good place. Sometimes there's drunken sledding there at night

Is drunken sledding now a competitive event at the Olympics? The City's convention and tourism bureau should start promoting drunken sledding to tourists.

KCDevin · Post by **KCDevin** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 5:27 pm

anyone ever go snowboarding?

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 5:56 pm

I grew up in a small town in NW Missouri that sat in a hollow among the bluffs of the Missouri River bottoms. Each year, a group (3-4 of us) of neighborhood boys would construct these crude sleds out of roofing tin and old lumber. The sled resembled a small raft (about the size of a full-sized bed) with the tin bent up in the front of the sled just enough to be able to plow through deep snow. In retrospect, it was a rickety, dangerous deathtrap of sorts.

There was a really steep hill behind my house. About halfway down this slope, an old dirt road--that had been abandoned for years--had been cut into the side of the hill. On the other side of the road, there was a huge dropoff (that interrupted the natural slope of the hillside) from when the road had been carved out and the excess dirt pushed to the downside of the road.

After every big snow, we'd build a bonfire and spend the entire day sledding until it got dark.

The experience consisted of about 6-8 children (ages 5-15) piling on this sled, locking arms, or hanging onto knotted ropes tied to the bed of the sled. The bigger boys would run behind pushing the sled until it had good momentum and then jump on at the last second. We'd go careening down the hill at what seemed like breath-taking speed. By the time we crossed the old road, enough speed had been achieved that when we hit the dropoff the sled would fly through the air and make a bone-shuddering landing on the hillside and then continue careening out of control to the bottom (which was my backyard). When the sled became airborne, and during the hard landing, several kids would invariably go flying off the sled and scream like banshees while they rolled down the hillside. At the bottom, I recall looking back up the hill afterwards and seeing two or three kids face down in the snow--scattered about like ragdolls. It was scary enough to be great fun.

My mother used to stand in the back door of our house watching this madness--occasionally screaming out that one of us was going to be killed or maimed. Of course that didn't deter us, nor was she so insistent that we stopped.

After each run, it would take at least 4 boys to drag the sled back up the steep hill, and it seemed like it took forever to do so. It was worth it though.

I haven't thought about that in a long time--until I started reading this thread. I'd give $100 for a videotape of us doing that. It certainly would be hysterical to watch now.

QueSi2Opie · Post by **QueSi2Opie** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:51 pm

My aunt use to take us sleddin' in Blue Valley Park off of 23rd & Topping in KCMO. That was an awesome sledding destination!

rxlexi · Post by **rxlexi** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:24 am

Last saturday I went sledding with a couple friends in North Terrace Park, actually the hill just to the west of the Kansas City Museum that drops down into Cliff Drive. Not a bad spot at all, just the right amount of people (not so many that it becomes irritating, not too few that you're missing the whole winter experience) and after fabricating a snow ramp things really took off

Also, I recall reading somewhere in the history of Corinthian Hall (KC Museum) that the Long family would go on sliegh rides thru the park around Christmas time; felt like I was adding to a good tradition, as well as soaking up some of the history of the area while careening down a snowy slope in a bowl

And of course the castle like house overlooking the slope couldn't be much cooler.
Alexi

DanCa · Post by **DanCa** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:18 pm

I used to sled at Tomahawk Golf Course in Shawnee, just west of 435. Bones were broken on that hill!

StL_Dan · Post by **StL_Dan** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 9:32 am

DanCa wrote:I used to sled at Tomahawk Golf Course in Shawnee, just west of 435. Bones were broken on that hill!

which hole? the one where you tee off about 100 feet above the fairway below?

kcteen · Post by **kcteen** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 4:15 pm

"suicide hill" in brookside.

kcteen

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 3:59 am

West 21st Street between West Pennway and West Terrace Park on the Westside is very steep, and it looks like it would be an excellent sledding hill--especially after an icestorm that ended with a 2-3 inch snowfall. Of course one would have to go sledding before the snowplows cleared the street.

rosedalian · Post by **rosedalian** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:35 pm

sledding tonight at museum hill if anyone is interested...

Midtownkid · Post by **Midtownkid** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:30 pm

Roanoke park is cool...off of Karnes...unless it has over grown too much by now. The red area...hard to tell by this that it is really hilly, but it is.

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