Why Park City Utah is the best ski town in America

In the Rocky Mountains of Utah, Jeremy Drake discovers the luxurious Park City ski town and its rugged cowboy soul.

Park City is home to two world-class resorts, exceptional slopes, award-winning dining and a vibrant nightlife. It is also known as one of the best ski destinations in the world. What makes Park City special is its village gondola to Park City Mountain and its proximity to Deer Valley, both of which receive seven metres of snow annually. Utah even registered the tagline The Greatest Snow on Earth® as a state trademark in 1975. If you are looking for more Utah skiing options, Canyons, Brighton, Solitude and Alta Ski Areas are all also within driving distance of Park City.

Park City is so much more than your typical ski town. With award-winning dining, incredible shopping, and vibrant nightlife only 35 minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport, it is North America’s most accessible ski destination.

Park City’s money-cant-buy appeal

Depending on your mountain, ski resorts and ski towns throughout California and Colorado have a distinctive flavour. They’re either upmarket and luxurious or rugged, raw and full of city-based weekend warriors. Unlike the more premium resorts of Aspen Snowmass, Breckenridge or Heavenly, the twin resorts of Park City Mountain and Deer Valley in Park City, Utah perfectly manage to straddle both sides of this metaphorical snow pole.

While the city of Aspen and its resorts attracts old money, fur, white gloves and opulence, Park City (the town that shares a name with the ski resort within it) is the newest destination for America’s nouveau-riche. It’s a playground for authentic mountain locals. It’s also home to the annual Sundance Film Festival, with a creative community bursting with artistic flair.

Skiing in Deer Valley

Deer Valley is one of three ski-only resorts in the US. The ski resort epitomises the best in both on-and off-mountain services. Guest numbers are capped at 7,500 skiers, meaning that lift lines are virtually nonexistent. There’s a free overnight ski valet. As well as a fleet of 25 luxury Cadillac Escalades transporting guests via a surprisingly reliable, privately owned phone app.

So otherworldly and transcendental is this ski experience that politeness and kindness are also the resort’s official currency. I’m yet to meet an unhappy person. Consistently voted as the best ski resort in North America for 10 years, Deer Valley has forced every other resort in its field to lift its game. As a snowboarder, wearing a pair of skis (for the first time in 25 years) is hard. After all, I’ve spent years developing a thick skin from crashes and the looks of disdain I usually get from traditional skiers.

Wining and dining at Stein Eriksen Lodge

Without any choice at Deer Valley, I fully embrace my inner Stein Eriksen, a Norwegian alpine ski racer who, along with resort founder Edgar Stern, stood atop Bald Mountain in 1981 and had the vision to create the world’s best ski terrain.

Fast forward more than half a century, and I set off for Bald Mountain with another European. My softly spoken private guide, Uros from Slovenia, helps sharpen my skiing skills on the big and fast Deer Valley corduroy. Our turns are tight heading into the Anchor Trees, but we take our time and occasionally stop and ogle at the ostentatious homes, outdoor hot tubs and snowmobiles parked in driveways. Uros drops me off for lunch mid-mountain at Stein Eriksen Lodge. While I’m not staying here, I could take a nap by the fire after dining on their signature buffalo burger and drinking French champagne inside one of six temperature-controlled outdoor Alpen Globes on the Lodge’s expansive deck.

Giant Park City Mountain

Look to the next peak at the top of Deer Valley’s Empire Chairlift, and you’ll hear the snowboarders before you see them. They’re bombing huge turns on McConkey’s Bowl at Park City Mountain, just out of sight but impossibly out of mind. That’s because Park City Mountain is enormous.

The largest resort in the US, its terrain is celebrated by snowboarders worldwide. Technically made up of two individual ski areas, Park City Mountain and Canyons Mountain, they were merged by Vail Resorts in 2014. It has almost 3,000 hectares of terrain, 43 lifts and six terrain parks. Plus, ski-in, ski-out access to Historic Main Street in Downtown Park City.

Winter activities in Park City Utah

Beyond skiing and snowboarding, there is plenty to do in Park City Utah in winter. Explore the winter wonderland by dogsled, snowshoe hikes, or hot air balloon rides. You’re sure to get a unique perspective of the area’s snow-covered beauty.

For those who still want to enjoy the mountain but crave a different experience, heli-skiing, the alpine coaster, and tubing will get the adrenaline pumping. Park City is also home to the annual Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor and director Robert Redford, a gathering of independent film artists in January.

Culture, distilleries and movie moments

Any ski resort with a ‘Town Lift’ and a distillery bar you can literally ski to (High West Distilling) intimately understands the importance of mountain culture. The mountain and the town of Park City are inextricably linked. Every Downtown corner is steeped in pioneering American history. I keep expecting to bump into Kevin Costner either on the back of a horse, or straight off the set of Yellowstone, which was filmed here. Or rushing out of the historic post office with a stack of letters just like his 1997 Academy Award-winning film The Postman. Once you see the building, you’ll understand why.

Straight off the slopes, I wander the streets searching for the three elusive Bansky paintings scattered around the city’s backstreets. I stumble upon, and then stumble out of, Alpine Distilling. As the most decorated botanical distiller in the country, owner Sara Sergentis offers guests a masterclass in gin making, and her Bramble cocktail is one you simply can not miss.

Dining & après-ski

Dining in Park City is a treat with a variety of award-winning restaurants, reflecting various culinary influences, and locally sourced organic ingredients. From casual cafes to fine dining establishments, there is something for everyone’s palate. For freestyle Asian cuisine, dine at Shabu. Or for an intimate dinner, The Mariposa at Deer Valley Resort will please the senses – from the crackling fireplace to the six- and eight-course tasting menu. Expect Wagyu Coulottee with carrot bone marrow, spinach, and cipollini onion, served with Worcestershire au jus. Finished with a chocolate Boule de Neige; a cappuccino cookie, chocolate crumble and chantilly, with raspberry sorbet.

Visitors can après-ski at one of the many bars, clubs, and historic saloons that offer live music and cocktails. The town is also home to a plethora of breweries, distilleries, and wineries. For appetisers and beers, Park City Brewing has a range of quality brews to try. If one-of-a-kind gins, whiskies and liqueurs are your cups of pleasure, Alpine Distilling is a must-visit.

Fireside Dining

Our horse-drawn carriage glides down the dark ski slope at pace. In the distance, the silhouette of a cowboy hat, the thump of hooves and the warm glow of a fireplace at Deer Valley Resort’s famed Fireside Dining are the only reminders I’m not dreaming. Unlike other traditional restaurant waiting areas, this one is highly experiential.

Admittedly it’s pitch black and about minus 14 degrees Celsius. Still, the combination of adrenaline and a soft cashmere blanket is enough to warm my ski-weary muscles from my first day on the slopes.

Now that I’m beneath the timber-clad ceilings of Fireside, it’s much warmer. The cheese oozes off the communal raclette onto my second plate of steamed potatoes. I can’t help myself as I indulge and attempt to replenish calories from a day of challenging skiing. The restaurant’s signature, ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ dining experience centres around five stone fireplaces. It’s a raw and delicious experience. The anecdotal conversations with other diners as we watch our meals cook in open flames make me feel like a fancy Butch Cassidy hosting a cowboy cookout.

America’s greatest ski town

At one point during the 1860s, there were more than 300 mines in the Park City area. I hike past the remnants of the Ontario Mine on a guided snowshoe adventure with White Pine Touring and marvel at the conditions its workers must’ve endured in these mountains. Rare minerals may have birthed this town, but its ski culture well and truly defined it.

That was magnified tenfold by hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics, which were held in Salt Lake City and its surrounds. Remnants of this legacy-defining event are scattered throughout the region. This story may have started in the dark, in a horse-drawn sleigh on a Deer Valley ski slope, but it ends in a bobsled at Utah Olympic Park. And there is no better metaphor for your diametrically opposed experiences in Park City.

In 46 seconds, I travel up to 106 kilometres per hour. Through 10 gravity-defying turns, my body is crushed beneath almost three g’s of force. At the end I’m cold, sensory deprived and exhilarated, but deliciously hungry, still craving more from America’s greatest ski town and planning my next trip before I’ve even left.

Disover more Park City attractions at visitparkcity.com