The Boone’s Farm Forest at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming, was a gathering place in the late 1990s for skiers and snowboarders who enjoyed toasting their good times in an aspen grove, then displaying the empty bottles on the tree branches.
It was a meet-up spot for those with an appetite for snow sports and fortified wine. Another gathering place at Grand Targhee was tucked amid a cluster of white pine trees and known to locals as the Cathedral.
Looking back, these landmarks were precursors for the snowballing shack movement, which continues to inspire the widespread construction of hand-made shelters at ski areas.
Today, Grand Targhee and ski resorts across the country are dotted with “smoke shacks,” which provide a place out of the wind where skiers and riders toast the good times with adult beverages and trade tokes of marijuana.
The smoke shack spectrum of design and ingenuity spans from what looks like a child’s fort in the woods to sophisticated engineering with some shacks offering upstairs and downstairs accommodations.
In keeping with smoke shack protocol, the sources in this story are identified only by their first name or smoke-shack nickname. They offer a window into the underworld of slopeside accommodations, and like hobbits in the shire, they all like to pass a pipe among friends.
Month of Sundays
Dan still lives near Grand Targhee in Driggs, Idaho, and joined fans of Boone’s Farm in the aspens at the resort into the early 2000s.
As the empty bottles started to collect on the aspen branches, the sight of glass shimmering in the sunshine as the aspens swayed seemed to bring an enchanted vibe to this gathering place and rest stop during a ski day.
Then Dan noticed the scene progressed from bottles in trees at Grand Targhee Resort to a full-blown tree fort up on Teton Pass with windows and walls.
Back at the resort over one summer and fall, two of Dan’s ski buddies spent several Sundays in a row constructing a smoke shack that came to be known as Month of Sundays.
In a text to Cowboy State Daily, Dan said, “I stumbled upon a new one at the ‘Ghee last week.” Dan didn’t know if the shack had a name yet, or if that was something still filtering through the slang and chatter of smoke shack denizens.
Down In The Gully
As a long line formed at the lift ticket window for Lost Trail Powder Mountain — an off-the-grid ski area on the Idaho-Montana border south of Missoula — Cowboy State Daily quizzed skiers waiting in line about the exact location of the local smoke shack.
“Down in the gully off that chair over there,” was as precise as the directions got. Cowboy State Daily eventually ventured down a forested slope into a shadowy ravine. About halfway down, there it was: A massive lean-to built from pine logs, at least one tarp and rope.
Not long after arriving, a snowboarder named John rode toward the shack and onto its snow-covered roof while a posse of his friends told him not to jump. John laughed and snowboarded around to the entrance of the shack and examined where one part of the roof caved in.
“It caved in two winters ago,” said John, who moved to Montana after spending more than a decade frequenting the smoke shacks of Mountain Baker Ski Area in Washington.
At Mount Baker, there was the Turn and Burn smoke shack, said John.
“This particular structure had a rope on a tree right before you got to it,” said John, describing what sounded like a swashbuckling twist on the smoke shack experience. “And so you would come down, grab the rope and swing and it kind of would swing you back to where you took off your stuff and then chilled out.”
“For me it’s a place to gather with friends and have lunch and do whatever else you’re going to do,” said John. “What a cool spot to discover. If you had never been here and you come across this unexpectedly, that would be a really cool adventure.”
Big Sky Love Bug
In 2023, the online influencer who goes by Buzz Danklin and is known for his product reviews of marijuana vaporizers, posted a photo tour of the smoke shacks he claimed to have encountered at Big Sky Resort in Montana.
There was an old gondola car turned smoke shack and a large shack called the Rainbow Room with walls partially constructed with old skis.
“It was like a ski graveyard, pretty cool,” wrote Buzz Danklin, who also claimed to find a smoke shack at Big Sky called the “Hobbie Hole,” where an old Volkswagen Beetle offered shelter from the wind.
Ingenious repurposing of materials unrelated to skiing is a hallmark of a good smoke shack, which serve skiers in the winter and mountain bikers in the summer.
“I think of them as small shrines,” said a smoke shack aficionado who spent many years in Park City, Utah. Known to friends as Uncle Daddy, this smoke shack lover offered this description of his all-time favorite shack.
“It was tucked above Spiro Trail in Park City by a stream,” said Uncle Daddy, who now skis, snowboards and sells real estate in Idaho. “It was built with aspen branches and seated maybe four. Just outside the shack under a root ball was a wonderful, hand-crafted bong, ingeniously sculpted from the front fork tube of a mountain bike.”
Leo's smoke shack, which once stood off the trails of Breckenridge ski resort in Colorado. In 2014, the U.S. Forest Service used explosives to demolish it. (Courtesy Photo) 
Leo's smoke shack, which once stood off the trails of Breckenridge ski resort in Colorado. In 2014, the U.S. Forest Service used explosives to demolish it. (Courtesy photo: Kyle Myers)
Trouble With The Law
A couple of weeks ago, a writer for Colorado’s Westword newspaper asked, “What happened to Colorado’s famous mountain smoke shacks?”
“Most of those smoke shacks you've heard about were destroyed in the late 2010s by forest rangers and ski resorts, and riders have moved on to vape pens and edibles,” reported Herbert Fuego, who writes the column, “Ask A Stoner.”
“New smoke shacks in Colorado usually don't last very long, and the locations of those that do are kept secret for good reason,” concluded Fuego, recalling the demise of a multi-story structure at Breckenridge called Leo's Shack.
The U.S. Forest Service used explosives to bring down the structure, and in local news coverage, critics of the move called it an “intimidation tactic” by Vail Resorts, which owns Breckenridge.
Intimidation is not the vibe skiers and snowboarders are seeking when they visit a smoke shack.
In the shack atop what’s known to locals in Big Sky, Montana, as Monkey Mountain, the curved base of a gnarled tree offers a comfortable place to sit in what’s called the “Gandalf Chair.”
It’s named for the wizard made famous by the book and film “The Lord of the Rings,” and it’s fitting because there seems to be a hobbit theme to the smoke shack experience.
Also at Big Sky, according to a 2013 post on Reddit, it was possible to take a tour of seven or eight smoke shacks scattered all over the mountain.
“Hobbit Hole was one of the coolest,” posted someone with the handle OhAbaDis. “So cool how it was pitch black inside. Luckily, I had a flashlight packed.”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
