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Formerly known as the Tangent area, the sno-park was renamed in memory Virginia Meissner, who taught cross-country skiing in Central Oregon for many years. She also wrote several books on hiking and skiing in the Cascades. This sno-park is one of the most popular winter recreation sites in Central Oregon. Summer usage is light with road access to many popular bike trails. There are restroom facilities at this site.
From Bend,OR: Travel west on Cascade Lakes Highway (46) approximately15 miles.
Basic, clean facilities, good selection of nicely groomed runs.
Great snow park for Nordic skiing and snowshoeing. No motorized access makes it peaceful. We snowshoed to Meisnner hut - the trail is 1 1/4 miles each way if you choose shortest route. The trail had multiple small descends and ascents with slightly steeper final ascent. Perfect for kids to get enough workout but not too much. The views from the top are fantastic. Well worth the trip. The trail system is maintained by a community of volunteers so we donated for trail grooming. Oh, at the trail start there are restrooms and huge warming hut!
So long as there exists enough snow, Meissner is better than Bachelor nordic. Roughly 40k of well groomed trails extend into the woods, with much variety in difficulty. There is a central corridor from which most trails can be accessed, including a half dozen warming huts. Trails go west and east, so if one side is icy or crowded, chances are the other will be empty with corduroy. And of course the people make the ski area-i have yet to meet someone here who is not a happy, courteous person who loves skiing.
Meissner is an amazing free resource for Central Oregon! It is the closest sno-park to town and has a huge network of trails for xc skiing. Folks are generally friendly and considerate and there are warming huts to stop in.
