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Park City, Utah


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Any thoughts on going there in July for a long weekend?  Anything to do or any recommendations.  My plans for a summer trip to Vancouver at the end of July are basically screwed because Canada is too chicken shit to let people into their country even if vaccinated.  Looking for a Plan B and I may have to go to Salt Lake City end of July for a quick business meeting and thought I could take the family as nobody else has been to Utah before.  I have been to Salt Lake but never over to Park City.  Wasn’t sure if its worth going to or just a waste of money.  The wife only wants to go to mountains in the summer and not beach because she wants cooler weather than Texas summers.  I looked at Aspen/Vail/Telluride in CO but hotels are way too expensive and Jackson Hole was the same (I refuse to pay $800 a night for a Hampton Inn).  Looks like I can get a hotel in Park City but now thinking the reason I can get one is there is nothing to do there.  Thanks for the input.

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We’ve gotten to where we spend damned near every Thanksgiving in Park City. It’s terrific at that time.

In the snowy season, I can tell you that it is fucking fun. The kids ski, the food scene is solid, there’s snow everywhere and the people watching is great.

The folks we know who go in the summertime swear by it, and they do a bunch of hiking. I can’t account for it myself, but there you go. They own their own condo and spend the entire summer there and rave about it.

Also, we VRBO it. Many many owners have bad ass props there but don’t actually live there and you can usually find something great for a competitive price.

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We split a week between there and Moab 2-3 years ago in July. I prefer Moab that time of the year and PC in the winter, but we enjoyed the trip. Went from 100+ in Moab one morning to 50 in PC that afternoon. We did some hiking and walking/eating around downtown on our trip. However, there were UTV tours, fishing, golf, water activities, biking, etc to keep you busy. I second CTJ on the VRBO option. There are plenty of houses to pick from.

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8 hours ago, TheUofTexas said:

I'm trying to stay there for the month of August. It's just been difficult finding pet friendly places within my budget, though.

PC isn’t exactly known as a budget friendly location. You could probably do areas in Colorado much cheaper.

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I like park city better in the summer and fall than the winter. Great food, geat golf (if you're into that)  and Sunday they have their street fair and market called park silly. Will be about 10 degrees cooler up there than in slc. I think it is a very underrated town. 

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We stayed there July 4th around 3 years ago or so. Was a blast. Go to the Olympic Training place and the kids can do all kind of cool ropes courses and the ski jumps in inner tubes etc. Lots of good restaurants.

Good restaurant called Fletcher's off Main St in Park City.

Excellent hiking in area, and hit up High West distillery

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1 minute ago, Moby Ric said:

Haflway into booking a trip in August to go here.  Never been and taking my daughter on a trip before classes start up.  

Anybody have any white water rec's for the SLC area?

Errrrrybody’s white, and if you ask nicely I’m sure they will give you some water.

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Most everything you can do in Colorado, you can do in Park City/Salt Lake City area. Hiking, mountain biking, water sports, food, drinks, etc. Just can't legally smoke weed.

Don't let the Mormons scare you. They aint anything to worry about unless your wife wants to join a harem.

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4 hours ago, Moby Ric said:

Haflway into booking a trip in August to go here.  Never been and taking my daughter on a trip before classes start up.  

Anybody have any white water rec's for the SLC area?

Nothing in the area. And with the drought there might not be any water in the closest spot which would be the snake just below jackson, WY.  It would be a long day but doable. 

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Been there a couple times, summertime only.  Very pretty, good food and close to various places to hike and bike.  And perfect summer weather.  Only con is not too close to the main national parks but close to lots of gorgeous places, expensive, and about as diverse as snow (though that might be a pro if you are WP)

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On 7/12/2021 at 1:28 PM, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

So I booked Park City and heading out there next weekend.  Any more restaurant recs or recs for anything would be much appreciated.  Not looking for really fancy meals or anything like that.  Just good food.

Following cause I just booked my flight.  Looking for local eateries that are good but not formal since I am with my kid.

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On 7/12/2021 at 1:28 PM, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

So I booked Park City and heading out there next weekend.  Any more restaurant recs or recs for anything would be much appreciated.  Not looking for really fancy meals or anything like that.  Just good food.

It's been three years or so since I've been but the only restaurant I really cared for was the one at the High West Distillery and I'm a total snob.  If you just want a burger there's plenty of those. 

I will say that some of the very best guac I've ever had was from the Park City Whole Foods, oddly enough (this is before the Amazon purchase when each Whole Foods could operate in a much more independent fashion).  When I came back to Austin I emailed back and forth with corporate and was told that the Park City Whole Foods was the only one using the recipe and they didn't wouldn't prepare it in Austin (the recipe was nothing unique--just had a smokier than normal flavor, likely from roasted corn). 

 

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13 hours ago, Moby Ric said:

Following cause I just booked my flight.  Looking for local eateries that are good but not formal since I am with my kid.

Park City definitely caters to the higher end, but I don’t know that many are formal per se just higher priced. River horse, Loco Lizard, High West, etc were all good. I would lean more towards the bars like Drafts or some of the other similar places.

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  • 3 months later...

This was the only Utah thread I could find.  Booking a ski trip in Feb/Mar and was looking for some surly input between Park City or Deer Valley (yes I know there are much cheaper spots in Colorado).  Used to go to PC/DV in my youth but it's been 35+ years.

With small kids, we like to try for ski in/ski out if possible but more importantly would like to be somewhat near the ski school (6 and 8 yr old).  I'll be skiing with my older kids but just wanted something that wasn't too much of a hassle at end of day, dragging the little ones out of ski school and hiking a mile or a lot of driving.  Would also be nice to be near restaurants/pubs on Main but I think both resorts are somewhat close to that. Looks like there are some great homes/townhomes near some green runs in DV but not super close to the ski school.  I'm not certain where the ski school is in PC but looks like mostly hotels/condos in that area.  Appreciate any advice...

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On 11/4/2021 at 6:08 AM, LonghornJones said:

Grand Summit Hotel. Great amenities, Ski School, and ski-in ski-out. 3 hot tubs and a big pool. Umbrella bar on the snow right next door for dad to take a break, too.

That place looks great. I really prefer the Canyons side of PC. That's a nice base village with a great locker room and a nice bar for a sunny day. We usually stay in the middle of the two base areas, and use the free shuttle to move around - the fact that there's an open air gondola (of sorts) from the bus dropoff that then takes you to 20 steps from the Red Pine gondola is amazing - no hiking up stairs with your gear (why can't more places do that?). It's easy to take that free bus into Park City town proper (or Deer Valley, for that matter). 

When we had a developing intermediate, the long blue run under the Sun Peak Express was great - seemed out of the way and had a short line. The blues coming off os Saddleback (left when you exit) are fun too as you're sometimes on, or going under bridges through the aspens. Interesting terrain that's like a toboggan run. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/3/2021 at 8:59 PM, ballrific said:

This was the only Utah thread I could find.  Booking a ski trip in Feb/Mar and was looking for some surly input between Park City or Deer Valley (yes I know there are much cheaper spots in Colorado).  Used to go to PC/DV in my youth but it's been 35+ years.

With small kids, we like to try for ski in/ski out if possible but more importantly would like to be somewhat near the ski school (6 and 8 yr old).  I'll be skiing with my older kids but just wanted something that wasn't too much of a hassle at end of day, dragging the little ones out of ski school and hiking a mile or a lot of driving.  Would also be nice to be near restaurants/pubs on Main but I think both resorts are somewhat close to that. Looks like there are some great homes/townhomes near some green runs in DV but not super close to the ski school.  I'm not certain where the ski school is in PC but looks like mostly hotels/condos in that area.  Appreciate any advice...

I will have some Intel for you this evening ,have 3 kids and have done PC 3years in a row; going wheels up now

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On 7/13/2021 at 6:03 PM, LCHorn said:

It's been three years or so since I've been but the only restaurant I really cared for was the one at the High West Distillery and I'm a total snob.  If you just want a burger there's plenty of those. 

I will say that some of the very best guac I've ever had was from the Park City Whole Foods, oddly enough (this is before the Amazon purchase when each Whole Foods could operate in a much more independent fashion).  When I came back to Austin I emailed back and forth with corporate and was told that the Park City Whole Foods was the only one using the recipe and they didn't wouldn't prepare it in Austin (the recipe was nothing unique--just had a smokier than normal flavor, likely from roasted corn). 

 

I think the Park City Whole Foods in general has always had good food.  My dad and I would always get food from there pre-acquisition.  I haven't been back to PC since the Amazon acquisition.  We are staying across the street from it later this year.  Any idea if it is still good? 

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On 11/3/2021 at 8:59 PM, ballrific said:

This was the only Utah thread I could find.  Booking a ski trip in Feb/Mar and was looking for some surly input between Park City or Deer Valley (yes I know there are much cheaper spots in Colorado).  Used to go to PC/DV in my youth but it's been 35+ years.

With small kids, we like to try for ski in/ski out if possible but more importantly would like to be somewhat near the ski school (6 and 8 yr old).  I'll be skiing with my older kids but just wanted something that wasn't too much of a hassle at end of day, dragging the little ones out of ski school and hiking a mile or a lot of driving.  Would also be nice to be near restaurants/pubs on Main but I think both resorts are somewhat close to that. Looks like there are some great homes/townhomes near some green runs in DV but not super close to the ski school.  I'm not certain where the ski school is in PC but looks like mostly hotels/condos in that area.  Appreciate any advice...

We have been to Park City the last 3 years as a family, wife doesn’t ski, so the location of our condo was pretty much #1 priority, as she wanted stuff to do during the day.  When we started going there, our kids were 10-14 and we put them in ski school the first 2 trips.  It was great for me as I got to single ski a couple days in a row, which is wonderful if you can do it…though I must say watching your kids ‘get it’ is pretty gratifying as well.   One of the reasons people go to PC imo is the family friendly environment, ski school and customer service.  PC is top notch in my book and I have skied Mammoth, Purgatory, Steamboat, Vail, Alta and a couple other CO resorts on Younglife trips in HS.

 

When you book Ski School through Park City, your package will include lunch and rentals through Legacy Sports.  They do a great job of fitting, adjustments if needed etc.. plan on picking your gear up the day before SS starts, usually after 2 pm.  IMO, trying to cram it in the morning of will be a huge stresser.  You can store Skis and Poles in a locker if you want, back up stairs (Legacy Sports is down the stairs directly across from ticket booth at base), as  you exit the main entrance from Legacy sports.  Skis are awkward for kids, but it does teach them about hardwork.   I would suggest lockers and leave the lessons for later. Park City base has  plenty of options for food, but I think it shuts down in the early evening, so plan accordingly if you stay right at the base.  The parking is pretty good if you plan on driving, they have a good system for drop offs and two decent size parking lots if you plan on driving to ski each day.  Park City does have an extensive free bus system, but we didn’t take it much.

 

As far as places to stay, we stayed directly across the street from the PC base our first year in a less expensive condo.  I forget the name, but it was older, had cheap windows and we would not recommend that place.  For our first time, it was fine as the wife and kids had no previous experience.  We just needed to be able to walk to the base each day.  At night we had great views of the mountain until it got too dark, and it was cool knowing the mountain was right there.  Here is the downside of staying at the base…it is noisy.  PC base is pretty active after 4pm with deliveries, garbage and buses etc..running non-stop….so keep that in mind. From the base, it is walkable to town  but with kids, not ideal, who really wants to do that…its probably less a mile to town from the base, but then its another ½-1 mile up and down main street and all the cool side streets, plus you are walking “up” main st at a slight grade, so plan on good winter walking boots, no tennis shoes.

 

The last 2 years we have stayed at Park Station Conds.  We have thoroughly enjoyed this complex. This would be my recommendation.  It is priced reasonably well for PC.  It is literally at the base of Main st, could not be more convenient to EVERYTHING.  One day we walked back from the PC base after dropping our skis in the locker (me and kids couldn’t get hold of my wife, we had called it a day a little earlier than we thought). We walked in Ski boots, not ideal , but not the crazy far either.    Park Station has 2 and 3 bedroom units, a little dated but the location is great.  Nice large outdoor hottub and plenty of parking.  We walked in to town each night for dinner, drinks , shopping.  The wife loved it, she would drop us off at the base by 9 and head back to the condo, less than 5-8 min drive, then do her thing, read a book, coffee, shop, lunch, nap, dinner prep and then pick us up at 4:15-4;30 back at the drop off.

 

This year we are skiing Feb 26-Mar 3 (Our mardi gras break).  We are staying literally at the Town Lift.  We are paying a lot more, but we wanted to see what this unit/complex was like and we wont be doing ski school.  There is literally a ski shop on the ground floor (underground parking for renters) where we have our gear reserved,  and then step out of the shop and your on the Town Lift, literally.  There is also a diner (Bridge Café) right there as well.  This will be the best location we have stayed at thus far,  so im curious to see how we like it.  Down a short stone staircase from the Town Lift is main st and allthe shopping, eating etc.. Park Station to the town lift is about 200 yards, if youre following me, so Park Station condos and the town lift are close to one another as well, we just wanted to step up in quality of the unit, ski in ski out….we’ll see if the extra $$ is worth the extra convenience. 

We have 2-3 other families skiing with us this year, though everyone is staying different places (Montage in DV for 2 groups and Town lift condos for the other party, down the street from us)…we will likely not mess with the PC base this year as we can take Town Lift up and then traverse to the canyons and back, again no ski school and Pay Day lift gets crowded.

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cont'd.....

 

Another nice thing about that Park Station complex is the free bus stops right outside the door.   We skied Canyons until 4 sharp one year and didn’t want to make my wife come pick us up, so we took the lift from Canyons Base to bus stop…less than 15 mins later we are in the unit, not bad.

 

No reservations required this year for Park City lift tickets but there are other restrictions ,so do your homework.

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  • 5 months later...
2 hours ago, Reagan1k said:

I have 3 nights and basically 2.5 days to kill in Park City in about 4 weeks.

No plans yet and no obligations.  What should I do & where should I eat?

Thx! 

We go every year to PC/Deer Valley to ski.  We liked Tupelo.  It was much cooler when it was on Main St.  Dont know if there lease expired of if Covid got them, anyway they moved off of Main.  Solid place, not crazy expensive but very good.  

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On 6/2/2022 at 8:48 PM, jdhorn92 said:

We go every year to PC/Deer Valley to ski.  We liked Tupelo.  It was much cooler when it was on Main St.  Dont know if there lease expired of if Covid got them, anyway they moved off of Main.  Solid place, not crazy expensive but very good.  

Tupelo is serviceable, not fantastic IMHO. 

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  • 8 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, BrazilHorn said:

We are headed there for Spring Break in couple of weeks. Looking forward to getting away from work. 

Just got back from PC this past Saturday.  Conditions were excellent, we were in the middle of that Winter Storm, got 23" in 24 hours at one point.  If you need an intel on food or what not, let me know.  We didnt spend much time at Canyons, but we did take the Gondola over and back a couple times.  Hit up Deer Valley one day.

If you are so inclined, we found a great bar off Main St called Alpine.  They make their own Gin along with another spirit, pretty cool vibe.  Collin was our server and he was great. 

https://www.alpineparkcity.com/

 

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18 minutes ago, jdhorn92 said:

Just got back from PC this past Saturday.  Conditions were excellent, we were in the middle of that Winter Storm, got 23" in 24 hours at one point.  If you need an intel on food or what not, let me know.  We didnt spend much time at Canyons, but we did take the Gondola over and back a couple times.  Hit up Deer Valley one day.

If you are so inclined, we found a great bar off Main St called Alpine.  They make their own Gin along with another spirit, pretty cool vibe.  Collin was our server and he was great. 

https://www.alpineparkcity.com/

 

For sure. We are staying in Canyons area, as older son wants to snowboard (we had always stayed in Deer Valley prior). 
Will definitely hit that bar, want to hit High West as well. 
It’s us and another couple (each with 15/13) year old kids. 
What was favorite place y’all ate at?

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8 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

For sure. We are staying in Canyons area, as older son wants to snowboard (we had always stayed in Deer Valley prior). 
Will definitely hit that bar, want to hit High West as well. 
It’s us and another couple (each with 15/13) year old kids. 
What was favorite place y’all ate at?

We did the Aplenglobe dining experience at the Butchers House.  A little pricey, but the kids (we had 4 teen girls between the 2 families in our group) loved it.  It was right by the Town Lift.  We ate at 501 Main.   We got seated by the door, so it was cold, but the food was pretty good.  The Eating Establishment was excellent.  My wife went for an early lunch, as she doesnt ski, then the 4 adults went back for dinner w/o the kids.  We made reservations for the 3 nights we went out.  I would recommend that for Main St dining.  Cloud Dine at the top of Dreamscape lift, up pretty high on the mountain was a mad house at lunch, so if you can go to miners camp or the dining near the Bonanza lift, i'd do that.  Cloud Dine was very crowded and people were having to stand by tables to wait for people to finish eating.  Of course that was a single digit temp day with high winds, so the conditions were pretty tough and people were likely wanting some respite.  This was our 5th year in a row going during the kid's winter break, always a great time.   View from the condo.

 

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3 hours ago, jdhorn92 said:

We did the Aplenglobe dining experience at the Butchers House.  A little pricey, but the kids (we had 4 teen girls between the 2 families in our group) loved it.  It was right by the Town Lift.  We ate at 501 Main.   We got seated by the door, so it was cold, but the food was pretty good.  The Eating Establishment was excellent.  My wife went for an early lunch, as she doesnt ski, then the 4 adults went back for dinner w/o the kids.  We made reservations for the 3 nights we went out.  I would recommend that for Main St dining.  Cloud Dine at the top of Dreamscape lift, up pretty high on the mountain was a mad house at lunch, so if you can go to miners camp or the dining near the Bonanza lift, i'd do that.  Cloud Dine was very crowded and people were having to stand by tables to wait for people to finish eating.  Of course that was a single digit temp day with high winds, so the conditions were pretty tough and people were likely wanting some respite.  This was our 5th year in a row going during the kid's winter break, always a great time.   View from the condo.

 

 

 

Nice!  we are headed out for a week on the 13th and staying at that place right by the orange bubble lift in the Canyons (Grand Summit i think?).  Went last year for spring break, but did not venture out too much into town but want to hit up a few more places to eat this time so thanks for the recs.

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  • 1 year later...

Bumped.  We are switching it up this summer and going to Park City instead of Vail. We have driven to Vail from Austin the last three years.  Has worked out great.  The drive to Park City looks challenging in two days.  I’d do it no problem just me.  But unless we do it in 3 days and go through Colorado, most of that drive from Albuquerque to Park City looks fucking desolate.  Worried about everything one worries about with two kids that need to hit the head every two hours and an anxious wife who has seen too many “breakdown” movies.  This isn’t really us being cheap more than we like to bring a lot of stuff with us when we go - bikes, fishing poles, etc.  And it could be a ton of fun if done right, it seems.  Thoughts or advice?  

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Depending on your urgency, you could always take your mountain bikes and ride Moab or Fruita for a day or two on the way.

And for me, the first half of that drive--from Austin to ABQ--is what's going to suck, especially once you get past Coleman.

You might also consider that Colorado detour and doing the typical Texas tourist stuff between Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Montrose and Grand Junction, etc. Lots of options. The world--err, the West--is your oyster.

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