Enjoy the snow at Green Acres Tubing

Leni Nowakowski, Staff Writer|March 5, 2020

Leni Nowakowski

Green Acres is an amazing tubing experience.

Green Acres, a snow-dusted tubing site located in Lake Elmo, offers the perfect balance of speed and safety for any snow tuber. It’s possible to get a lot of hill time in a 2-hour session because of the short lines to get on the rope lift, and the short waits at the top of the hill to go down. The green acres hill is perfect because of the speed, which is a mix of fast and safe. Tubing on the hill at Green Acres is also fun because the hill is not separated between the lanes where people tube, which allows people to go down the hill with other tubers. Tubing at Green acres is much less crowded and has a shorter wait than locations in the Twin Cities. The wait to get on the rope that takes you up the hill and the wait to go down the hill is non-existent, which allows the tuber to get the most out of their money and tube the most times. 

If the tubers are tired, hungry, or cold, there is a heated building to rest. The building offers food for purchase at a small countertop area, ranging from burgers, pizza, chips, candy, or popcorn. The food is nothing special and is typical of concession foods. The price of the food is standard for concessions as well, which fits in the range of $2-7. Tubers are also allowed to bring their own food from home. In the building, there are tables to eat and rest for about 60 people. There are also a variety of video games scattered in the building for people who don’t want to tube of for tubers who need a rest.

There are employees stationed at the bottom and top of the hill as well as next to the tow rope. The employees are very nice and do their best to help, which makes the rope and top of the hill safe as well as tubing down the hill however often times the tubers don’t look to the bottom of the hill to see it is cleared out and end up hitting another tuber. These hits are never too hard, and people rarely get hurt; however, oftentimes, younger people do get hit by the tubes because they don’t know how to get out of the way in time. The occasional accidents are the reason that the tubers have to sign release forms before tubing down the hill. In short, don’t rely on the staff as the only source for safe tubing; be alert.

Overall, Green Acres is an entertaining activity to do on the weekend this winter. It is open on weekends from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm and Fridays from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm for several two-hour sessions. The schedule is flexible and sometimes also encompasses weekdays. Each session to tube costs $15 per person or $5 if a tuber is under 42 inches. 

Rating: ★★★★☆