California Ski Resort Map

California has 28 lift-served ski areas operating for the 2026-27 season, from 4,800-acre Heavenly down to two-lift hills like Granlibakken. Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows are counted separately here, at 3,600 and 2,400 acres, though they share one ticket for a combined 6,000 acres. Thirteen of them are in the Lake Tahoe basin, and three Southern California resorts — Mt. Baldy, Mountain High and Snow Valley — are within two hours of Los Angeles, with Big Bear’s two mountains a little over two. The rest are spread across the Eastern Sierra, Central Sierra and far north.

Mammoth Mountain, at 3,100 feet, has the biggest vertical drop entirely within California. Heavenly offers a longer 3,500-foot descent, but it starts from a summit on the Nevada side of the state line. Palisades Tahoe is next at 2,850 feet, and Mt. Baldy has the most vertical in Southern California at 2,200 feet.

Mammoth Mountain, with a summit of 11,053 feet. Its elevation is why it holds snow longest — Mammoth regularly runs lifts into June, weeks after every other California resort has closed. Kirkwood has the highest base area in Tahoe at 7,800 feet.

Ikon covers Palisades Tahoe, Alpine Meadows, Mammoth, June Mountain, Big Bear (Snow Summit and Bear Mountain), Snow Valley, and Sierra-at-Tahoe. Epic covers Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood. The independent Cali Pass covers Bear Valley, Dodge Ridge, China Peak and Mountain High.

For the Bay Area, the Donner Summit resorts off I-80 — Boreal, Sugar Bowl, Donner Ski Ranch and Soda Springs — are the shortest drive at roughly 3 to 3.5 hours without traffic. Dodge Ridge, via Highway 108, is a comparable drive and usually far less crowded.

Mt. Waterman is nearest by distance at roughly 45 miles, but its only access road, Highway 2, is disrupted by an open-ended Caltrans closure with no published reopening date, so check Caltrans QuickMap before counting on it. Among the resorts with unaffected access, Mt. Baldy is about an hour from Los Angeles, Mountain High about 90 minutes, Snow Valley about an hour and a half, and Big Bear roughly two to two and a half hours. Road and access status change, so check conditions before planning around a short drive.

Mt. Waterman has an open-ended Caltrans closure on Highway 2, its only access road, with no published reopening date, so check Caltrans QuickMap and the resort before planning a visit. Homewood, Badger Pass, Granlibakken, Coppervale and Alta Sierra have not confirmed 2026-27 operations — check directly before planning a trip around any of them.

Often, yes. Caltrans issues chain controls on every major mountain route, and R2 — the most common level — requires chains on all vehicles except four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles with snow-tread tires on all four wheels. Carry chains that fit your car whenever you drive to the Sierra between November and April.