Park City & Deer Valley, Utah

Park City & Deer Valley, Utah (12/30-1/5/2013) – We have skied over 30 ski resorts in North America and Park City is our favorite ski vacation resort.

Great Skiing - Park City Resort, Utah

Why do we love Park City for skiing? The skiing is wonderful with possibly the best light powder snow in the world. Offering family-friendly and advanced skiing and snowboarding opportunities, you can choose to ski at three world-class ski resorts voted in thetop 10 Ski Resorts by SKI Magazine's 2012 Reader Survey (Deer Valley #2, Park City #4, and Canyons #10 – more on these below). Deer Valley was voted #1 for the past 5 years. All these resorts have excellent programs for kids, ski lessons, restaurants, and lodging accommodations.

Historic Main Town - Park City, Utah

And there’s a lot more to love... let’s add a wonderfully restored historic mining town. Park City’s historic main townis one of the best ski resort towns in the U.S. Pat loves wandering in and out of the quaint shops and art galleries. We love to have dinner at some of the excellent restaurants – see travel tips below for some of our favorites. Now add to all this some of the friendliest people around and an excellent free heated shuttle bus system so you don’t need a car, even from the easy-to-access Salt Lake City Airport that is just 40 minutes away.

Pat Found Her Cowboys - Park City, Utah

Park City with many other entertainment attractions is a winter wonderland for both skiers and non-skiers. Other fun winter activities include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, snowmobiling, sleigh rides, tubing, shows, shopping, and dining. Because this is a fairly large year-round community, there are lots of other family things to do like bowling, movies, etc.

Pat & Wayne at the Utah Olympic Park

Olympic Jump - Utah Olympic Park

Park City has the location of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Skiing events were held at the Park City and Deer Valley resorts. The Utah Olympic Parkwas a competition venue for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games for Nordic jumping and the sliding sports of bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. It hosted more than 300,000 visitors and 14 Olympic medal events. 

The Utah Olympic Park now serves as an U.S. Olympic Training site and museum. For no charge, you can watch athletes train and visit interesting museums. The adventurous (with a fee) can race down the track in a bobsled going up to 80 miles per hour and experience 5 G’s of force.

Park City is a year-round resort town located in the Wasatch Mountains, part of the Rocky Mountain Range in Utah. The altitude in Park City town center is about 7,000 feet above sea level rising to over 10,000 feet in the surrounding mountain peaks. Summer activities include hiking, mountain & road biking, horseback riding, golfing, shopping, and dining.

Beautiful Sundance Resort - Utah

Park City is also well known for hosting the annual Sundance Film Festival. It was started in 1978 and is now the largest independent film festival in the U.S. The Sundance Film Festival is widely recognized as the premier showcase for American and international independent films and has grown to 45,000 yearly attendees.

About an hour drive from Park City is Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort. It built in a beautiful canyon respecting nature and artistic experimentation. You can ski and stay at the resort or just enjoy a wonderful drive and have lunch or dinner in the very good restaurant.

Travel tips...

Great Restaurants Like Grappa  
on Main Street - Park City, Utah

Romantic Horse-Drawn Sleigh Ride 
to Snowed Inn - Park City, Utah

Restaurants in Park City... There are many good restaurants to enjoy. Here of are a few of the more than 100 restaurants we like in Park City. In the main Park City town, for fine dining (and the price to go with it), we like Riverhorse on Main, Chimayo, Grappa, and Bistro 412. For less pricy and more ‘local’ atmosphere, try Bandit’s and the No Name Saloon & Grill. The Eating Establishment is pretty good and Main Street Pizza is always good. 

Taking a horse-drawn sleigh ride for dinner at the Snowed Inn makes for a fun evening. The Redstone Mall, with its nice movie theater and bowling, as well as other malls in the area offer good dining alternatives with better prices than downtown.

Santa Claus Loves Skiing at Park City, Utah

Skiing tips for Park City Mountain Resort... For a fun day, try this... Beginners can enjoy skiing runs from the lifts at the bottom accessed from the Resort Base. Intermediate and advanced skiers should start (or end) your day skiing the runs off Payday lift. If you are in in a hurry to get to the higher slopes with fewer crowds, walk up to Crescent lift and ski over to King Con lift. Ski the many runs from King Con until noon when most people go in for lunch.

Christmas Lights Parade - Park City, Utah

At noon at Park City Resort, move over to the Silverlode lift when it become less crowded. Advanced skiers will enjoy the Thaynes lift and the Juniper Bowl, accessed by the Juniper lift, will challenge experts. For the best mountain views, don’t miss the top of McConkey’s lift. We like the Mid-Mountain Lodge for a lunch break. Skiing Homerun will take you from the top of the mountain to the bottom.

Pat Loves Stein Eriksen Lodge 
- Deer Valley, Utah

Typical Luxury Deer Valley Home

Also, skiing at the Deer Valley Resort is a pleasure that you should not miss. Deer Valley caters to a more upscale audience offering amenities such as free ski valets, free parking shuttles, fine dining, and boutique shopping. Many people love the fact that Deer Valley is one of the last 3 ski resorts in North America that does not allow snowboarders. 

Pat absolutely loves visiting the Stein Eriksen Lodge on the Deer Valley mountain, especially around Christmas time. You can ski to Stein Eriksen Lodge or access it by car or shuttle. Deer Valley is famous for its grooming and limits ticket sales to avoid overcrowding. 

The Canyons Resort offers a very nice ski experience with the least expensive lift tickets. Many skiers like the Canyons and you should give it a try when you are here.

Pat & Wayne at a Cozy Fire 
After Skiing - Park City, Utah

Staying in Park City... You have many options with so many nice hotels and condos to choose from. Although we enjoy “ski on / ski off” accommodations, in order to get good values we recommend to stay in places near the shuttle bus stops. 

For many years, we have enjoyed staying at the Park City Peaks Hotel. It is right on a major shuttle bus stop that services all the shuttle routes. From here it is easy to get to town, all 3 of the ski resorts, Olympic Park, and even out to major malls for additional entertainment (movies) and dining opportunities. At the Park City Peaks Hotel, we enjoy the comfortable clean rooms, large heated indoor and outdoor Jacuzzis and pool, the nice breakfast in the morning, very friendly staff, free Wi-Fi Internet, fire in the lobby hearth, and to top things off, the free cookies and hot chocolate at 5pm.

Alden, Pat, & Wayne 
at Christmas Tree 
- Stein Eriksen Lodge, 
Deer Valley

Pat calls herself a “lobbyist” because while Wayne is skiing, she enjoys reading and meeting interesting people in the beautiful lobbies of 5-star hotels. In addition to Stein Eriksen Lodge, she likes the Montage and St. Regis at Deer Valley and the Waldorf Astoria in Park City.

Some history... Long before Park City became a famous mountain resort, it had a lively and colorful past as a successful silver mining town founded in 1869. By 1900, Park City had 10,000 residents and 100 saloons with the second largest silver strike in U.S. and 1,200 miles of mining tunnels under the city. Silver was mined in Park City until the early 1970's.

Host of 2002 Winter Oympics 
- Park City & Deer Valley, Utah

Between 1880 and 1920, Park City mines produced more than 20 million tons of ore including lead, zinc, copper, silver, and a small amount of gold. The mining company, Park City Consolidated Mines, started the ski business in 1963, building the first lifts on what was then called Treasure Mountain. In 2002, Park City and Deer Valley were major host sites for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

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Write by: AN - Friday, January 11, 2013