The gravel rides I like best would be fire roads with long gradual climbs that have many turns on the way up and an awesome view at the top, and then a nice long rewarding fast descent after. The gravel rides I do the most are flat, mostly straight line country/farm roads and gravel trails along rivers or through forest preserves that have very little elevation change. I live in a flat urban area, so my options within a reasonable drive time are pretty limited.
As for ski areas, they usually have great DH mountain biking in the summer. I've done some lift-accessed trail riding in Colorado that was a blast, but yeah... that's for full suspension MTB, not a gravel bike. That said, I'm sure there are some gravel fire/access roads around some ski areas that would be fun to tackle on a gravel bike.