There wouldn’t be so many ways to enjoy snow if winter weren’t nature’s most awe-inspiring season.

Snow is worth the search for many South Floridians — but you don’t need to fly across the country to find it. Nor do you need to flail your way down a steep slope to immerse yourself in the grandeur of mountains. There are slower, safer, saner ways to go.

More people than ever are attracted to alternative sports like snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Both are wonderful, easy-to-learn ways to immerse yourself in winter, but Thom Perkins, a nationally-known New England Nordic ski instructor, says cross country does snowshoeing one better.

“Snowshoeing’s fun and most cross country ski spots have snowshoe trails too,” says Perkins, who is also the executive director of the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation. “But one step on snowshoes takes you ... well, one step. With a single stride on cross country skis, you can glide 20 feet! For me, that’s the perfect way to dance through nature.”

In the village of Jackson, N.H., one of the nation’s top Nordic ski sites, that dance through nature happens on more than 100 miles of cross country trails around a quintessential New England setting that doesn’t need faux Bavarian chalets for atmosphere.

Cross country’s enticing blend of exercise and a family-friendly learning curve — with no lift lines to wait in or crowds to cope with — is available all over the eastern United States, from Vermont and New Hampshire down to West Virginia and even North Carolina.

The best of these Nordic resorts go way beyond boring cross country trails carved into golf courses near downhill ski areas. Distinctive places like Jackson, N.H., the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont, and Canaan Valley in West Virginia have trails that lead even beginning skiers into close contact with scenic settings that downhill skiers and snowboarders can only imagine.

There’s nothing wrong with downhill — in fact, each of these memorable cross country ski destinations is close to great ski resorts. And don’t discount snowshoeing if “slower and safer” for you means sticking to feet that don’t slide.

Anyone who has post-holed through deep snow can imagine how easy a winter hike would be if you could float on top of the snow. The most casual hiker does just that wearing snowshoes and a light hiking boot — which suggests why the growth rate of snowshoeing has exceeded that of snowboarding the last two winters.

“Disregard the old misconception of waddling around like a duck on big wooden tennis rackets,” says Mark Elmore, sports director for the United States Snowshoe Association. “There’s no learning curve with today’s light, high-tech snowshoes. You can immediately walk in a normal stride.”

Most Nordic ski areas offer snowshoeing too, so if your friends set out on skis, rent some snowshoes and have your own “saner” adventure in the winter in woods.

JACKSON SKI TOURING

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Thom Perkins is the ultimate convert to cross country. For 35 years he’s run the foundation that has wrapped this Currier & Ives village in cross country paths and taught the country’s top cross country ski instructors how to teach.