By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Jan 13, 2024 at 7:56 AM Photography: Milwaukee County Parks Facebook

Look at the weather forecast and you can see that it's time to bring the sled back down from the rafters – or up from the basement – wax up the bottom and make sure the handles are tight.

With the snow finally falling this winter, here is a list of some of the best hills in the county – some designated, some discoveries – which are slowly yet surely getting covered with snow, children and some really big kids who haven't quite grown up yet.

You can hit the hills at any of the sledding spots listed below during the day:

Bayside Village Hall 
9075 N. Regent Rd., Bayside

Brown Deer Park 
7835 N. Green Bay Rd.

Calhoun Park 
5400 S. Calhoun Rd., New Berlin

Gatewood Park 
14201 W. Kostner Ln., New Berlin

Greene Park 
4235 S. Lipton Ave., St. Francis

Hales Corners Park 
5765 S. New Berlin Rd., Hales Corners

Hawthorn Glen 
1130 N. 60th St.
(Hosts cross-country ski rentals; for more information, click here)

Homestead Hollow County Park 
N120 W19809 Freistadt Rd., Germantown

Indigenous Peoples' Park 
7301 W. Courtland Ave.

Kinderburg Park 
N104 W19809 Donges Bay Rd., Germantown

Kletzsch Park 
6561 N. Milwaukee River Parkway, Glendale

Lafayette Hill 
Next to the tennis courts, across from McKinley Marina

LaFollette Park 
9418 W. Washington St., West Allis

Lowell Park
2201 Michigan Ave., Waukesha
(Hosts toboggan rentals on Saturdays; for registrations, click here.)

McCarty Park 
8214 W. Cleveland Ave., West Allis

McGovern Park 
5400 N. 51st Blvd.

Mee-Kwon Park 
6333 W. Bonniwell Rd., Mequon

Mitchell Park 
19900 River Rd., Brookfield

Mitchell Park 
524 S. Layton Blvd.

Park Arthur 
S63 W17833 College Ave., Muskego

Riverside Park
1500 E. Riverside Pl.

St. Mary's Hill 
2323 N. Lake Dr.

Three Bridges Park
610 S. 35th St.

Valley View Park 
5051 S. Sunnyslope Rd., New Berlin

Washington Park
1859 N. 40th Street 

Wilson Recreation Park 
4001 S. 20th St.

Wirth Park
2585 Pilgrim Rd. 

Then take advantage of the area parks' lighted hills if you're not quite ready to come in when the street lights come on. Milwaukee County Parks provides lighting at the following sledding sites daily from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., so don an extra layer and hit these hills before and after dark once they open for the season:

Currie Park
3535 N. Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa 
(Lit until 10 p.m.)

Humboldt Park
3000 S. Howell Ave.

Whitnall Park
5879 S. 92nd St., Franklin

For those who want to learn a little bit more about the science of sledding, check out this video from Dr. Chris Stockdale, associate professor and assistant department chair of physics at Marquette University.

And for those who want to see Clark Griswold fling himself down a hill and halfway across town on a terrifyingly fast sled, well, we'll just leave this clip here.

Tubing

Located in The Rock Complex in Franklin, 7011 S. Ballpark Drive, the Snowpark features multiple tubing lanes ready for blizzard-zipping fun no matter if there's snow in the forecast or not. The park is open weeknights from 4-8 p.m. and open throughout the weekend for two-hour tubing sessions. To purchase a pass – which includes a tube and a lift pass – fill out a waiver, reserve your time block and learn more about the hill, visit The Rock's website.

Sledding safety (from Milwaukee County Parks)

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends the following safety guidelines:

Essential Safety Guidelines

  • Sled only in designated areas free of fixed objects such as trees, posts and fences.
  • Children in these areas must be supervised by parents or adults.
  • All participants must sit in a forward-facing position, steering with their feet or a rope tied to the steering handles of the sled. No one should sled head-first down a slope.
  • Do not sled on slopes that end in a street, drop off, parking lot, river or pond.

Preferred Safety Guidelines

  • Children under 12 years old should sled wearing a helmet
  • Wear layers of clothing for protection from injuries.
  • Do not sit/slide on plastic sheets or other materials that can be pierced by objects on the ground.
  • Use a sled with runners and a steering mechanism, which is safer than toboggans or snow disks.
  • Sled in well-lighted areas when choosing evening activities.
Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.