The Off-Season
Ellicottville Blooms All Year Round
Winter may be all about skiing, but the summer months offer even more outdoor adventures
Above photo: Summer Music Festival / credit Ashley Baron
Winter in Ellicottville gets all of the love. Between the two resorts, the hopping nightlife and general buzz of activity, it’s tough not to see why. But Ellicottville’s summertime remains the best kept secret (until now), utilizing a myriad of warm weather activities coupled with the same amount of small town charm. If you’ve never experienced an Ellicottville summer, pencil it in for next year ... because you will not be disappointed.
GOLF: A number of great golf courses call Ellicottville and the surrounding areas home, which makes it the perfect spot for a golf getaway. Holiday Valley’s scenic Double Black Diamond Golf Course challenges golfers of all calibers with its tricky back 9, requiring shots over ravines and down hills and tough, undulating greens. But good golfer or bad, nothing beats finishing a round with a couple cocktails at the Cabana Bar, which lies adjacent to the pool complex. Nearby Elkdale (Salamanca), Cardinal Hills (Randolph) and Concord Crest (East Concord) are all excellent, affordable courses as well.
For a twist on the game of golf, try your swing at Big Foot Park Golf, located on the grounds of Ellicottville Distillery, Route 242 (just 4 miles east of the village). It’s a smaller version of traditional golf which originated in Japan in the 1980s. Scoring is the same, however, you use only one club, the ball is bigger, the hole is bigger, and the fairways are shorter. This type of golf makes it enjoyable for the whole family, and clubs/balls are provided. Just show up and have fun!
If disc golf is more your style, hit up the newly developed 18-hole course at the top of HoliMont. Access the course via the Sunset lift (which runs weekends during bike park season), or enjoy a scenic hike from the bottom. And if you don’t have your own discs, you can buy or rent discs at the base of the lift. Another fun round of disc golf awaits about a half hour’s drive from Ellicottville. The Twin Tiers Disc Golf Club is the driving force behind the 18-hole course in Gargoyle Park and 9-hole junior course in Franchot Park, both located in Olean, NY.
SKY HIGH: Half Ewok Village, half Indiana Jones, Holiday Valley’s Sky High Adventure Park is the 3rd largest aerial adventure park in the entire country. With 13 courses of varying difficulty, the 3D Climbing Forest, Sky Flyer Mountain Coaster and Mister Happy Gem Mining, there are activities for every member of the family, regardless of age or comfort level.
After you purchase your ticket (you can do this at the Harness Shop or in advance online), you’ll fill out a waiver before getting suited up. You’re embraced by the trees as you walk into the park to the starting platform, where all courses begin. Yellow (easiest), green (easy-moderate), blue (moderate), black diamond (hard) and double black diamond (hardest) give you options. Courses incorporate a combination of obstacles, bridges, and ziplines, with some platforms going up as high as 80 feet. The entire Sky High campus is an absolute blast, and we highly recommend it!
MOUNTAIN BIKING: Between the trails at Holiday Valley, HoliMont and state land, mountain biking is a prominent activity here in Ellicottville and surrounding hills. Trail networks range from easy to moderate to difficult, kept up by a band of local volunteers and WNYMBA (Western New York Mountain Biking Association.) For those with a passion for speed, jumps and berms, HoliMont’s Downhill Bike Park is the first of its kind in our region. Established just a few years ago, the Bike Park now features 18 trails comprising over 12 miles of track. And with lift access offered every weekend through the summer months, making hot laps with friends has become a regular thing for many diehards.
With any bike park comes a need for bike rentals and repairs. Luckily, Loud Underground offers these services right at the base of the HoliMont Bike Park. Bike rentals and lift access are also available at Holiday Valley.
MUDSLIDE: One of the most fun activities of the summer, Holiday Valley’s Mudslide takes you through the heart of the resort on your choice of a 3.5 or 5.4-mile loop. Runners, divided by age, compete to complete the course with the fastest time. There are over a dozen obstacles runners must go through (think Spartan Race without the barbed wire), followed by a wild post-race party with 1,000 of your closest friends. You’ll have to make it down the giant mudslide and cross the finish line first. And no worries about heading to the afterparty a muddy mess… Holiday Valley’s snowmakers turn on the guns to give race survivors a good rinse. Keep an eye out for this staple event, which takes place each June.
FESTIVALS: The Ellicottville Chamber of Commerce does a fantastic job of putting on a litany of great events all summer. Summer Music Festival, which takes place over the 4th of July weekend, has an art show, a pet parade and other activities downtown before culminating in nighttime performances by the Buffalo Philharmonic and a headliner on the slopes of Holiday Valley - and fireworks. A Taste of Ellicottville bands the restaurants together, serving up the best they have to offer to visitors cruising the streets. Jazz & Blues, Rock N’ Roll Weekend, Lacrosse, and more ... there’s a festival - sometimes two - every month of Ellicottville’s “off-season”... which has become as much of an “on-season” as winter.
Ellicottville in the summertime is worth the trip. For more information on things to do at our local resorts, visit holidayvalley.com and holimont.com. And for a full list of Chamber events, go to www.ellicottvilleny.com.
