Skiing/Lodging/Transportation/Dining & more in Park City, Utah including Deer Valley/The Canyons (3/11) Top Pick
We have covered many ski destinations but none have been as convenient and fabulous as Park City including Deer Valley and The Canyons. The short approximate 100 minute nonstop flight from LAX to Salt Lake City was great on Southwest Airlines. www.southwest.com
One has the option of renting a car but unless you intend to travel outside the Park City area, it is unnecessary. Reserve the All Resort Express/Park City Transportation shuttle that will get you from the airport to your lodging 45 minutes-one hour depending on the other stops as they can take multiple guests. www.allresort.com &
www.Parkcitytransportation.com
Driving into Park City at night is a magical experience. People light the trees around their house with different colored lights year round. It sparkles the hillside with luminescent color. It is truly enchanting as the lights reflect on the snow. It is almost as if it is Christmas year round in Park City.
Lodging/Ski Rentals- We stayed at the beautiful The Chateaux at Silver Lake condos located at mid-mountain in Deer Valley. The Resort offers breath-taking views, and the accommodations are luxurious. We stayed in a one-bedroom suite. The room was decorated with rich elegant fabrics and woods. There was a heated towel rack in the bathroom, a big spa jet tub and shower, complimentary hi-speed internet access, a gas fireplace in each room, a pillow top feather bed and a queen size Murphy Bed. There was a fully equipped kitchen, cable television, and a spacious, comfortable living area. We really felt at home. The Chateaux has heated, complimentary, covered parking which is nice when finishing up after a day out in the cold. We enjoyed their fitness center and the year-round, heated, outdoor pool and hot tub. After a day of skiing we enjoyed live music in the bar downstairs. The convenience was incredible as you walk right across the street and you can get on the Sterling Lift right there. The free public bus transportation was super convenient and reliable heading from Deer Valley to Park City to The Canyons. The Chateaux also offers a free shuttle around Deer Valley and to Park City. If you are in need of ski or snowboard rentals, look no further than in the Chateaux resort to find Ski N See adjacent to the lobby as it couldn’t be more convenient. They will even hold your skis so you can pick them up in the morning. They have multiple locations around Utah but this is the closest to Deer Valley. More at www.skinsee.com for more info on this beautiful lodging, please visit www.the-chateaux.com
Skiing/Dining- Some of the best skiing you will find anywhere in the world. Besides the light fluffy snow after a storm, the variety between the three mountain resorts is quite different and unique. The terrain and diversity on each mountain caters to all different levels of skiers and snowboarders with the exception of Deer Valley, which doesn’t allow snowboarders. Let’s start with Deer Valley. This luxurious resort specializes in upscale skiers and families. While a major part of all the blue runs are groomed, the mountain also has some advanced runs and tree skiing. I found Deer Valley to be a great place your first day or if you wanted a more mellow day as you can ski groomed cruisers enjoying the beautiful surroundings. They also have a day care children’s center that is top rated and mountain hosts to help you with anything you need. Deer Valley (mountain photo below) also offers complimentary ski check and hosted intermediate group tours each day. www.deervalley.com
Deer Valley is most known for their fine dining choices and was voted the best in the country. With an array of highly rated restaurants, we experienced some great dinners including the Seafood Buffet and Fireside Dining. They are both so unique and nothing like you will find anywhere else. The seafood buffet takes place in the Snow Peak Lodge at the bottom of the mountain and has world-class food. Stations include the natural buffet with salads and cold items, sushi, clams/mussels and soups, hot fish entrees with specials (we had fresh seared to order tuna loin), vegetables and starches to accompany your meal, prime rib and other selections and of course the dessert station. It is hard not to overeat, so choose wisely.
The other awesome dining experience is Fireside Dining at the Empire lodge (pictured above) offered Wednesday-Friday. They also turn around their day lodge right after skiing into a European style food extravaganza. This is also buffet style and served in different rooms. Some food is heated and presented under fireplaces like the wonderful melted raclette cheese. The plates are hot as the cheese melts right on the plate in front of the fire. Select from breads, meats and vegetables to mix with the cheese. It is so tasty and it is difficult not to resist a couple servings. There is always a soup/stew station with specialties each night like the potato pancakes and crawfish etoufee. The meat station offers some sort of specialty like the leg of lamb. We had the privilege to eat lamb with squash and grits as side dishes. Once again, do not miss the dessert station, which offers chocolate, caramel and white chocolate fondues to dip fruits, cookies and other treats in to finish your incredible meal. Wines and a full bar are available at each place. If you want to take a break at Fireside Dining, horse drawn sleigh rides are offered for $30 for 1-6 people to add to your experience
We also had some great Italian food delivered from Ghidottis (www.ghidottis.com) one night and enjoyed the delicious Royal Street Café for lunch another day. Royal Street Café is located at mid-mountain and the food was just tremendous. The tuna tartar, crab tower, jerk chicken sandwich and tuna tacos were to die for. Again, their desserts and specialty mixed drinks and Margaritas are top notch.
www.deervalley.com/dining_shopping.html
Park City Mountain Resort (www.parkcitymountain.com/winter) is such a contrast with its beautiful area and views. Besides the nice shops and dining at the resort, Main Street is a hop, skip and a jump away. Take the reliable free bus service from the Canyons to Park City to Deer Valley. You can even take the town run to ski right to Main Street if you want to stop for lunch or end the day there. I had a couple favorite things at this resort. One was the daily Signature runs and report you can pick up which shows about 5-6 groomed runs throughout the mountain. They even groomed a black diamond and a double black diamond run, which was the first time I had that ski experience. A selection of long double blue runs also complimented the steeper ways down. Park City has some of the widest runs you will ever ski. The new adventure alleys (five of them) were thrilling and not just for kids. These are new swirl runs carved out through trees but wide enough where you wind back and forth until you pop out of the area. They are marked with snow bugs. I haven’t seen them at any other resort in the past and they were fun including my favorite one called TNT.
They also have designated terrain parks/half pipes for snowboarders, night skiing from 4-9pm, the alpine coaster (a roller coaster on the mountain) and Gorgoza Tubing Park about 8 miles away. There is a kid’s section called Fort Frosty with little rides for kids including mini snow-mobiling and a fun tubing park for children 3+ and for adults. A great place we stopped for lunch was Legends Bar and Grill among many other great choices. Wow, what a place!
We suggest the Park City Museum right in the heart of Main Street. It is a fun, hands-on history lesson. Everything you might want to know about Park City is here. The museum takes you back in time and lets you experience a train ride, an underground ski lift and it even lets you set off explosives. This is a must see and kid friendly! For more info go to www.parkcityhistory.org
More about Park City at the following websites www.parkcitymountain.comand www.parkcityinfo.com
Photo of Park City groomed run
Maybe my favorite of all the mountains was The Canyons enormous ski resort. With the recent addition of the Iron Mountain Express lift, The Canyons has expanded its already huge variety of terrain and acreage. From there, catch the Dreamcatcher for a diversity of fantastic skiing. This mountain had all types of runs for any type of skier/snow-boarder. Some of my favorite runs were the double blue diamond groomed runs off the Sun Peak and Super Condor Express chairs. The popular Orange Bubble Express (pictured below) offers a shield and heated seats (great for the cold, windy and snowy days). The Tombstone and Peak 5 chairs offered some great black diamond runs but easier blue runs to get down if need be. There was one section where you can ski through blue run areas of multi-million dollar homes, which had quite the scenery. For the extreme and double-black diamond runs, head to the Ninety Nine 90 Express where there is no easy way down or off to the right on the Super Condor Express. You definitely need at least 2-3 days to grasp a good part of the vast area. They have added some new restaurants & shops to the resort and we tried the Alpine House and Red Pine Lodge for a couple lunches, which were both delicious. More at www.thecanyons.com
Overall, the Park City area was outstanding from the skiing to lodging to food to activities. If you are in need of any assistance, I highly recommend contacting Craig McCarthy from the Park City Chamber Bureau, as he was the most helpful of any contact I have ever met for travel questions. We would like to thank him for his incredible hospitality and help with our trip. He can be reached at [email protected]