5 Days in Park City

The Park City Mountain Village is the original base: the Payday six-pack and the Crescent quad leave from it, and the Town Lift starts in Old Town a short walk away. The resort opened here as Treasure Mountain in December 1963, which is why the first lifts feel like a town ski hill that grew up.

Use the first hour for warm-up runs on blue terrain. Altitude is no joke: the base is at 6,800 ft and the summit is at 10,026 ft, so slow down for the first two runs and drink more water than you think you need. Skip the wait at the busiest lift by riding the one next to it.

In 2002 the mountain hosted the men's and women's giant slalom, the snowboard parallel giant slalom and the halfpipe. The Eagle Race Arena and the Eagle Superpipe were the Olympic venues, with temporary stands at the bottom of each run: tickets sold at 99.8 percent, and the resort stayed open for normal skiing around it, the only Olympic venue that let spectators come and go.

The Eagle lift is aging. Park City's planning commission has approved upgrades to the Eagle and Silverlode lifts, but no start date is announced, so plan on the old chair. Ride it for the history and the steady blue runs underneath. The superpipe in winter 2026-27 is a 22-foot pipe, reshaped this summer, that will host Shaun White's Snow League around 21-23 January 2027.

The last run of the day is the Town run, which brings you to the base of the Town Lift, and High West is right there: the saloon is on Park Avenue and is called the world's only ski-in distillery. High West started in 2006 as the first legal distillery in Utah since 1870, with a small still in a former livery stable in Old Town.

Order a flight of the whiskeys and something to eat; in Utah, restaurants serve alcohol only with food. Distilleries can sell on Sundays, which state liquor stores can't.

Walk Main Street from top to bottom. After the 1898 fire the town rebuilt in brick and stone, and 64 of those Victorian buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Ontario mine, discovered by Herman Buden in 1872 and bought by George Hearst, was the first big producer, and the miners came from all over the world.

It's a good place to see what a mining town looks like after it's been made respectable. Galleries and ski shops have replaced the saloons, though a few old saloons survive. Look at the brickwork above the shop windows, which is where the original buildings still show.

The No Name Saloon is on Main Street and is known for its buffalo burger, a half-pound patty that locals defend. It has three bars and a heated rooftop patio, and it's loud on a ski-town evening.

Order the buffalo burger and a Utah draft beer. The beer is capped at 5% alcohol by law, and the bar will tell you which local brewery is pouring. Expect a wait on weekends.

Vail bought Park City Mountain in 2014 for 182.5 million USD and spent the 2015 summer joining it to the neighboring Canyons Resort, which it had leased since 2013. The Quicksilver gondola is the link, with the King Con lift upgraded to a six-pack to take the extra load.

Ride it in the morning, while the lines are short. Quicksilver is the reason the two sides count as one resort, and the reason Park City Mountain can call itself the largest in the United States.

Iron Mountain Express and Tombstone Express are the two main lifts on the middle of the Canyons side. The Over and Out chair, built in 2019, is a fixed-grip quad that runs from near the bottom of Tombstone to near the top of the Sunrise lift, a five-minute ride that cuts the trip back toward Canyons Village.

This is the sweet spot of the day for intermediates: long cruising runs with good views, and fewer people than on the Park City side. Experts can drop into the steeper terrain from Tombstone.

Red Pine Lodge is the mid-mountain base of the Canyons side, near the improved learning area that opened in 2025 with a kids' magic carpet. A ski-school dining room has been added there.

Eat early, before 11:30, or after 1:30. A lodge lunch on the mountain is expensive and the lines at noon are long; a smarter option is to have breakfast late and a snack on the lift.

Canyons Village is a pedestrian base built for a resort, with the ski-in, ski-out Grand Summit Hotel. The Sunrise Gondola, a 10-person gondola that opened for the 2025-26 season, almost doubled the uphill capacity from the base.

The old open-air Cabriolet is being replaced by a 10-person Skyway, and construction began in late March 2026; no opening date is announced, so don't plan around it. The new parking garage costs 29 USD (26 EUR) a day, free after noon.

The Orange Bubble Express is the bubble-covered chair at Canyons, and it gives its name to the free Orange Bubble Bite served in the village. On a cold afternoon it's worth riding for the wind protection.

Use it for a last run on the Canyons side, then catch the Quicksilver back before the lifts close. Don't leave it to the last minute: if the gondola lines up at 3:30 pm, a bus from Canyons Village to Old Town can be the easier way once the winter schedule is running.

The Red Banjo has been serving pizza on Main Street since 1962, which Visit Park City calls the town's oldest restaurant. It's a family room, with sandwiches and pasta on the menu too.

Go for a slice or a pie and a Utah beer. It's casual, nothing fancy, and good after a day outside.

The Jupiter lift is at the southern edge of the map, away from the rest of the mountain, and the terrain it serves is steep. The official site rates half of the mountain advanced, and this edge of the map is the place to look for it.

This is expert terrain: strong intermediates should ask patrol what is open before riding up. If you're an expert, go early after a storm and check the patrol board before you start.

The McConkey's Hi-Speed Six-Pack carries you up into the southern bowls. A six-pack is a chair with six seats, so lines move quickly, and it's the best way to cover this side.

Stay together as a group: the bowls look open, but a wrong turn leads to a long traverse. A fall line map in your pocket helps.

When the resort opened in 1963, skiers didn't ride a lift to the top. They boarded a mine train and rode nearly 2.5 miles through the Spiro Tunnel into the mountain, then took a mining elevator that lifted them 1,750 ft to the surface at the foot of the Thaynes Canyon chair. The old ore trams were converted into chairlifts.

The Thaynes lift now serves that part of the mountain. Riding it is the nearest you get to the old route; the tunnels below are closed to visitors.

Atticus Coffee, Books & Teahouse is on Main Street and sells coffee, tea, scones and bagel sandwiches, with new and used books on the shelves. It's a good first stop after the Town run, warm and unhurried, and a place to dry out before dinner.

Order a scone and something hot, then browse the bookshelves. If you want a beer instead, remember that Utah limits draft beer to 5% alcohol, so a pint is lighter than in most states, and stronger beer comes in bottles.

Collie's is a family-owned sports bar on Main Street with smoked ribs, wings and brisket, and more than twenty TVs. It's the place to watch a game over dinner.

It's not Texas barbecue, but a plate of ribs after a day in the south is what the body asks for.

Peak 5 and the Ninety-Nine 90 Express lead to the high, quiet western edge. It's a different feel from the Park City side: longer runs, wider slopes, and fewer people.

This is the day for intermediate cruising or, for experts, the steeper lines that start at the top. Go early, because the snow softens as it warms in the sun.

Super Condor Express is the northernmost lift on the map, at the far end of the Canyons side from Old Town. Ride it for the quiet runs and the views back across the ski area.

Don't start the trip back to Old Town late: the Quicksilver gondola and the buses have their own closing times.

Finish with the long way home. Take the Quicksilver back to the Park City side, and ski the last run down to the Town Lift, finishing a few minutes from Main Street.

If you've been skiing all week, this is the run that connects the town and the mountain. Wave to the people sitting on the patio at High West as you come in.

Union Patisserie is a Parisian-style café and wine bar on lower Main Street, led by James Beard Award winner Galen Zamarra. It's a short walk from the Town Lift, so you can ski down and be in the door in ten minutes.

Come for pastries in the afternoon, and for hors d'oeuvres and wine at night.

Handle serves a seasonal, locally sourced menu and earned a MICHELIN recommendation in August 2026. It's the dinner for the last night of skiing.

Reserve ahead.

The Eating Establishment serves breakfast all day, lunch from 11 and dinner from 5, and is known for baby back ribs. It is a good place for a slow start on your day off.

Order eggs, then leave by 9:30 for the Olympic Park.

Two museums share the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center at the Utah Olympic Park, and both are free. The Alf Engen Ski Museum covers the history of skiing in the Intermountain West, with touch screens, video and a virtual reality ski theater. The Eccles Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum holds artifacts and highlights of the Games.

The park was built for 2002 and will be used again for the 2034 Winter Olympics. The four jumps opened on 12 December 1992, and the bobsled track on 25 January 1997.

The Winter Bobsled Experience puts you in a sled on the 2002 Olympic track. The ride lasts less than a minute and pulls up to 4-5 times the force of gravity. You must be 13 or older and weigh at least 100 lb, and you check in at the Quinney Welcome Center 15 minutes before your session.

Many people only come to watch. Athletes train here on the ski jumps, and there is no charge to look around the grounds.

The Park City Museum is at 528 Main Street and is open every day from 10 to 5. Start here to understand the silver boom, the 1898 fire and the mine disasters, including the 1902 explosion at the Daly West Mine that killed 34 miners.

Ask about the Park City Historic Mine Route, which has a free audio guide, maps and directions on the museum's site.

The Silver King Coalition was one of the world's most famous silver mines by 1892, and what's left, according to the area's history, are weathered mine buildings and water towers, and most of the old shafts are closed off with large steel doors.

The museum's free audio guide is the best way to find them. Dress for the snow, check on the museum's site that the route is open in winter, and don't go inside anything with a door.

Riverhorse on Main is an upscale American restaurant with prime steaks and macadamia-crusted halibut, and live entertainment from 7 pm every night.

It's the farewell dinner for the trip. Reserve a table a week ahead if you can.

The Egyptian Theatre has stood on Main Street since 1926, and it was a main venue of the Sundance Film Festival for decades. The festival left Park City after January 2026, but the theater still runs a professional company with musicals, plays and concerts.

Check the schedule on the day you arrive; shows were listed at 10-40 USD in an older listing, so confirm.