Camelback Resort is a four season resort located in

Tannersville, Pennsylvania Tannersville is a village in Pocono Township, Pennsylvania. It is the site of the Camelback Mountain Resort, a popular ski and waterpark resort in Pocono Mountains, The Poconos. As of 2000, the population of Tannersville was 2,784. The community ...

in the

Pocono Mountains The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos (), are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the nort ...

Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA or Nepa) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton (the area's largest city), Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Ha ...

. The resort opened in December 1963. It is the largest ski resort in the Poconos.

History and features

In the 1950s, when developers were working to expand the original solitary ski run, they negotiated with the then Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources for permission to use a small portion of the state park for the ski area in exchange for $1 a year and the obligation to maintain the entire park.

Camelback Mountain Camelback Mountain () is a mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The English name is derived from its shape, which resembles the hump and head of a kneeling camel. The mountain, a prominent landmark of the Phoenix metropolitan area, is l ...

reaches an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 2,133 feet (650 m). There are 166 acres (67 hectares) of skiing & snowboarding terrain. The resort has a total of 39 slopes; the longest is the Nile Mile, at .88 miles. It features a vertical drop of 800 ft (244 m), two terrain parks, 16 lifts, including a high speed

detachable chairlift A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of passenger aerial lift, which, like a fixed-grip chairlift, consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire rope (called a ''haul rope'') that is strung between two ...

s the Stevenson Express, and the new Black Bear 6 lift. The mountain

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

receives an average of 50 in (127 cm) of

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

fall each winter. It has snowmaking facilities on ski slopes, primarily relying on portable snow guns to create snow, and is 100% lit for

night skiing Night skiing is the sport of skiing or snowboarding after sundown, offered at many ski areas. There are floodlights – with metal halide, LED or magnetic induction lamps – along the piste which allow for better visibility. The night ski ...

. Camelback has over 40 snow tubing lanes, making it the largest snow tubing park in the nation. In May 2015, Camelback opened their 453 room hotel, which includes both suites and condos, and Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark. Additional attractions were added with Camelback Mountain Adventures, which features a 4500' mountain coaster and multiple ziplines. Camelback Resort is from

Pinemere Camp Pinemere Camp is a Jewish overnight summer camp for children in grades 2–10. Its 300 campers are primarily drawn from the United States. Pinemere is located in a mountain setting, with cabins and a lake. It is on Bartonsville Woods Road, S ...

, and about north of

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

. Camelback has invested in their educational ski and snowboard programs. The resort uses the marketing phrase: "Learn Here, Learn Right".

Waterparks

Camelback Mountain Resort operates two waterparks: Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark and Camelbeach Outdoor Waterpark, both located on the resort property in Tannersville, Pennsylvania.

Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark

Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark opened in 2015 and encompasses 125,000 square feet under a Texlon transparent roof, which allows natural sunlight while maintaining a constant indoor temperature of approximately 84 °F (29 °C) year-round. The facility includes 13 water slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, a multi-level play structure, a toddler splash zone, and a FlowRider surfing simulator. The park also features dining facilities and a swim-up bar. Aquatopia has been recognized multiple times in '' USA Today's'' 10Best Readers' Choice Awards, ranking as the "#1 Indoor Waterpark in America" in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2022. In 2022, a new virtual reality-enhanced slide, ''Mountain Mayhem'', was introduced to the park.

Camelbeach Outdoor Waterpark

Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark is the largest outdoor waterpark in Pennsylvania, occupying approximately 37 acres. The park includes over 35 water slides, a 1,000-foot-long

lazy river "(Up A) Lazy River" is a popular tune and song by Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Arodin, published in 1930. The melody is by Arodin, arranged and with words modified by Carmichael. It is considered a jazz standard and pop standard, and has ...

, a

wave pool A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, large waves, similar to those of the ocean. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks, both indoors and outdoors, as well as some leisure centres. History Th ...

, and several family-oriented attractions. Camelbeach operates seasonally, generally from mid-June to early September. In 2023, Camelbeach celebrated its 25th anniversary with the addition of ''Rival Racer'', a multi-lane mat racing slide.

Camelback Mountain Adventures

Camelback Mountain Adventures offers of

zipline A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide''Who Really Benefits from Tourism'', Publ. Equations, Karnataka, India, 2010. Working Papers Series. "Canopy Tourism"page 37/ref>Jacques Marais, Lisa De Speville, ''Adventure Racing'', ...

, ZipFlyer, Mountain Segways, UTVs, and a 4500'

Mountain Coaster A summer toboggan is an amusement or recreational ride which uses a Bobsleigh, bobsled-like sled or cart to run down a track usually built on the side of a hill. There are two main types: an alpine coaster or mountain coaster is a type of ro ...

. Camelback Mountain Adventures are open between spring and fall with the mountain coaster operating in the winter depending on snowfall.

The ski trails

* The Birches, an Advanced Novice ski run * King Tut, an Intermediate run * The Hump, Expert * The Asp * The Rocket * Marje's Delight * The Dromedary * Big Pocono Run * Upper Cleopatra * Marc Anthony * Julius Caesar * Little Caesar * Laurel Glade * Coolmoor * The Meadows * John Bailey * Sulivan's Trail * The Sphinx * Honeymoon Lane * Home Again * Lower Cleopatra * Sunbowl * Oak Grove * Turkey Trot * Upper Moore's Ramble * Lower Moore's Ramble * Pocono Raceway * The Pharaoh * The Bactrian * Cliffhanger * Near East * The Nile Mile * Basilisk

Climate

According to the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC), or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC), is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köp ...

system, Camelback Mountain Resort has a Temperate

Continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm to hot summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in central and eastern parts of the three northern-tier continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), typi ...

(''Dc'') with warm summers (''b''), cold winters (''o'') and year-around precipitation (''Dcbo''). ''Dcbo'' climates are characterized by at least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ , four to seven months with an average mean temperature ≥ , all months with an average mean temperature < and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are comfortably humid at Camelback Mountain Resort, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with

heat index The heat index (HI) is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity, in shade (shadow), shaded areas, to posit a human-perceived equivalent temperature, as how hot it would feel if the humidity were some other value in the Shade (s ...

values > . Since 1981, the highest air temperature was on 07/22/2011, and the highest daily average mean

dew point The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to produce a relative humidity of 100%. This temperature depends on the pressure and water content of the air. When the air at a temperature above the ...

was on 08/01/2006. July is the peak month for

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

activity which correlates with the average warmest month of the year. The wettest month of the year is September which correlates with tropical storm remnants during the peak of the

Atlantic hurricane season The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year, from June 1 through November 30, when Tropical cyclone, tropical or subtropical cyclones are most likely to form in the North Atlantic Ocean. These dates, adopted by convention ...

. Since 1981, the wettest calendar day was on 09/30/2010. During the winter months, the

plant hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

is 6a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . Since 1981, the coldest air temperature was on 01/21/1994. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with

wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...

values < . The average snowiest month is January which correlates with the average coldest month of the year.

Ice storm An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm, is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The National Weather Service, U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulatio ...

s and large snowstorms depositing ≥ of snow occur nearly every year, particularly during nor’easters from December through March.

Ecology

According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Camelback Mountain Resort would have transient dominant vegetation types of Northern

Hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

(''106'') and Appalachian

Oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

(''104'') with transient dominant vegetation forms of

Northern hardwood forest The northern hardwood forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south-central Canada, Ontario, and Quebec, extending south into the United States in northern New England, New York, and Penns ...

(''26'') and Eastern

Forest (''25''). The peak spring bloom typically occurs in late-April and early-May and peak fall color usually occurs from early-to-mid October. The

is 6a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of .

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 1963 establishments in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains Ski areas and resorts in Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Monroe County, Pennsylvania