Massanutten Resort

A year ago at Massanutten Resort, a small ski and golf center near Harrisonburg, Va., they opened a water park to keep the guests coming during those warm, snowless months. Who knew that would quickly come to include December and January?

Now, during the endless summer that is the current winter, business is booming at the indoor water park as only a handful of downhillers make do on the sad ribbons of man-made skiing on the mountain above.

"This is a textbook example of what to do when Mother Nature throws us a curveball with the weather," said Joe Grandstaff, Massanutten's director of marketing. "We've had families this week who have gone to the water park, played golf and skied all in one day."

The water park -- a 42,000-square-foot, $30 million collection of fanciful slides, artificial rivers and mighty waves -- has also pushed Massanutten into the upper tiers of mid-Atlantic resorts, at least in terms of size.

From a small ski and golf resort in the early 1970s, Massanutten has become a sprawling 7,000-acre town of condominiums and fairways in a neat tuck of the Blue Ridge Mountains about two hours from the Capital Beltway.

The place boasts twin 18-hole golf courses, 14 ski runs, two recreation centers (each with indoor pool), a six-building hotel, a half-dozen eating places and a whopping 1,700 timeshare condominiums (it's the largest timeshare site in Virginia). ...Read more here...