Park City

Park City Mountain at a Glance:
Summit Elevation: 10,026′
Vertical: 3,200′
Ski Acreage: 7,300-acres on 17 peaks
43 Lifts, 330+ Trails
Annual Snowfall: 365″

Park City Mountain Resort is Utah’s biggest ski area, over 7,000 acres! Its huge – Whistler Blackcomb is 8,171, Vail and Big Sky are just over 5,200 by comparison. Park City is advantageously easy to get to however, just 30-minutes from Salt Lake City Airport on all highway. The ski resort shares its name with the authentic western town of Park City, and ski lifts emanate from the western frontier coal-miners town, now a cool cosmopolitan ski settlement sharing the valley with neighboring Deer Valley Resort. Today, its white gold from the sky that everyone is mining – Park City gets good snow (almost 400′ annually) and plenty of Utah sunshine typically too.

Park City spreads skiers and riders out over a dozen bowls of terrain, 17 peaks, and two 10,000′ summits with 43 modern lifts – six-packs, gondolas, and quads. There’s a vintage Town Lift that lifts skiers from Main Street, along with plenty of quads and six-packs, while a swift new Quicksilver Gondola connects Park City with The Canyons terrain- formerly its own separate ski resort til Vail bought and merged the two.

Park City is owned by Vail Resorts, and is on Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass, making it accessible to many, but it does handle the crowds quite well – even on weekends and holidays, as people head up to the vast upper mountain terrain, big wide groomed cruisers in the Silverlode, Motherlode and King Con areas, or more extreme McConkey’s and Jupiter that take effort to get to and feel worlds away and above!

Park City hosted much of the 2002 Olympics, and you can ski the Men’s and Ladies’ Slalom, and Picabo’s Run that descend to Park City Mountain Village where ski school and skier services are located. There is even a mountain coaster here, hard to miss as you ski under the bridge tracks.

Favorite runs on the Park City side are Parley’s, Silver Skis and Silver King – long, wide, super scenic. But there is so much to explore – Park City sprawls… do set a meet up point just in case you get separated – its the PC thing-to-do.

Best lunch is to ski down to High West Distillery in Park City, and enjoy delicious food infused with their local crafted bourbon and whiskey. Try the French onion soup! Don’t sip at their Tasting Room too long if you long to make more ski runs.

The Canyon’s side of Park City has more amazing ski terrain. Fun, interesting trails drop off Dreamscape and Iron Mountain. The steepest, most challenging is off Peak Nintey Nine 90, named for its elevation 9,990′. Tombstone is popular for its well-spaced tree-line runs, as is Saddleback.

A Canyons’ favorite of ours is the Super Condor area, especially on a powder day, for its long open snowfield trails – like Devil’s Friend and Thrasher. Kids will love the tight twisting Canis Lupis. If you’re hard-core, you can hike Murdock Peak for pow fields once cleared by patrol.

Lunch at Canyon’s, reserve the mountaintop Cabin restaurant, a great spot mid-station of the Orange Bubble Express. Or ski down to Canyons Village to The Farm for delicious local fare interestingly prepared – the Duck Poutine is ridiculously good if your ski pants have room.

First time skiing Park City, you might take the Silver to Slopes two-hour ski tour – learn the mountain and the history of mining here. Remnants of old mine shafts, towers and mining camps stand on the ski trails to this day above abandoned shafts and tunnels.

Après ski at Park City, just walking Main Street is amusement enough. Sundance Film festival every January fills the town with celebs and movie goers – very few of whom ski, just FYI.

Olympic Park is in town, where you can see the 2002 Bobsled course, Nordic ski jumps and more. You can ride in a real bobsled with an Olympic driver, we did – and lived to tell about it…yikes! See our Bobsled ride review!

Yes, you can get a cocktail in Utah – despite the pious Mormon population, just order one shot at a time, and you often need to say “we intend to order food” too as that’s another quirky liquor rule.

Park City has tons of lodging, chain hotels, condos, and places to stay – along with magnificent slope-side homes. Combine your Park City ski vacation with time skiing neighboring Deer Valley (skiers only please), next canyon over – Little Cottonwood – at Snowbird and Alta (also ski-only), Solitude and Brighton in Big Cottonwood, or just a bit further to Snowbasin and Powder Mountain.