When I first met Pete, it wasn’t love at first sight. In the early 1900s, after he saw an opportunity to catch the overflow of guests from Orkney Springs Resort, he opened Bryce’s Hillside Cottages and Mineral Baths. Pete’s grandfather, William Brice, originally owned the resort. But his legacy lives on, as do Julie’s stories from when they-and Bryce Resort-were still very young. But with faith in what Bryce could become, combined with Pete’s vision and salesmanship and Julie’s gracious hospitality and strong work ethic, they overcame these obstacles to create the member-owned community where the couple would raise their four children. This all added to the cost, and slowed progress. Plus, he wanted power lines out of sight to keep the land pristine and make it more appealing to buyers. Endless switchback roads and hairpin turns were needed to reach the 2,776 lots (all of which Pete would later sell himself). But the land required surveying and heavy clearing. Pete realized opening ski slopes would mean skiers would need a place to stay, and wisely speculated that, due to its proximity to the Washington area, Bryce Mountain would offer the perfect weekend retreat. They married in 1947 and began running the resort.īy the early 1960s, people from all over the area started encouraging Pete and Julie to open a four-season resort. The pair discovered they both loved the mountains, and a few seasons later, each other. In the early ’40s she met Pete Bryce, who had come from Chicago to vacation at the resort owned by his family. Julie would return with friends from Washington, D.C., for several more seasons to work and wait tables at the rustic lodge, but after the others moved on, Julie kept coming. During that time, the resort has grown to comprise six ski slopes and lifts, a lake and beach, airstrip, golf course and a mountain bike trail, offering adventure sports like tubing, ziplining, bungee jumping, grass skiing and rock climbing.īut 87-year-old Julie Bryce, who with her husband, Pete, established the resort we know today, can tell you the way that it once was, her memories as fresh as the day she first arrived with the Girl Scouts in the summer of 1939. In 2015, the Basye retreat celebrated its 50th anniversary of welcoming visitors year-round. "Ski Bryce-Total Fun!” was the slogan first used in 1965 to entice families to ski at what was then the newly transformed Bryce Mountain Resort: 400 pristine acres, first opened in 1909 in the lush Allegheny Mountains.
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