Winter recreationists’ perspectives on seasonal differences in the outdoor recreation setting

The relationship between the outdoor recreation setting and the recreation experience is of perennial interest to recreation researchers. However, few studies have investigated how seasonal setting attributes impact the outdoor recreation experience. During the winter season, outdoor recreation environments are materially transformed, most notably through cold air temperature and the addition of snow to the landscape. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore recreationists’ perceptions of residence proximate winter recreation settings in relation to their behaviors and experiences. The study involved coding and thematically analyzing 28 semi-structured interviews from a larger investigation of winter recreationists living and recreating in the Salt Lake City, Utah region. The findings indicate that recreationists perceive many changes to the biophysical and social outdoor recreation settings during winter, and link these seasonal attributes to specific experiential outcomes and associated dimensions. These differences result in a distinct winter persona character whose dimensions are aesthetic, sensory, and material. The findings are displayed using six summary themes for winter settings. The key discovery is that seasonal changes to the recreation environment lead to a qualitatively different outdoor recreation experience. This study contributes to a gap in empirical knowledge about winter recreation that can inform management, and opens the door to future research on the impacts of seasonality on recreation experience.