Park City Debrief
Summer Trip Tid Bits & What to look forward to as the year goes on in Utah
What you will find:
Getting there, and when to go
The Neighborhoods, mapped out
Must hits: where to eat, drink, and shop
where to stay: areas and hotels
The Timp Hike
The lakes worth knowing by name
Rodeo Season: Kamas over Oakley
Deer Valley’s next chapter
I’d only been to Park City once before, in the winter over NYE, to ski - and I had such a good time, but the crowds were at another level. Summer is the opposite trip entirely.
Getting there, and when to go
You fly into Salt Lake City (SLC), which is an easy airport to get to - it’s a Delta hub, with nonstops on United, American, Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, and a few international routes as well. From the airport it’s about 35–40 minutes up into the mountains to Park City.
Go in summer if you want the relaxed version of this place. Sunrise is around 6am, sunset closer to 9pm - fly fishing in the morning, hiking mid-day, a lake in the afternoon, dinner in town. Ski season (Park City Mountain does both skiing and snowboarding; Deer Valley is ski-only) is a different animal, crowd-wise. Keep in mind the altitude is no joke - I felt exhausted most of the time and felt the sun quite a bit.
Neighborhoods, mapped out
Midway is technically its own town, about 20–25 minutes from Park City in the Heber Valley, but it belongs in this list because it’s worth the drive on its own - it was one of my new discoveries here. It’s got a Swiss-village thing going on and a walkable Main Street that’s quietly become one of the better food scenes in the area. This is where Olive Press Café, Ballerina Farm, and Harvest all live, along with a handful of other shops - and it doesn’t feel nearly as touristy. The Dainty Pear Co is the vintage-and-home-goods store that Olive Press Café is tucked into, and the sandwich and lunch selection there was our favorite by far.
Ballerina Farm is all the craze right now - this Midway location is new, with outdoor seating. I’d get the cinnamon rolls and croissants every time; they sell them frozen so you can pull them out the night before and have fresh-baked pastries ready for breakfast. They also do meat and produce boxes, soft serve, and baked goods. There’s a second location out in Kamas too which is an actual white barn and a bit bigger.
Old Town is the heart of it, and the most well-known part to those visiting! Historic Main Street, the base of Park City Mountain, restaurants and shops. This is where you want to be if you want to walk to dinner, but it can also get pretty touristy and overrun.
Prospector is a couple miles out, quieter, and walkable to trails and restaurants without the Main Street price tag.
Deer Valley sits up in the hills behind Old Town - more resort and private homes, the secluded-luxury vibe. Empire Pass and Deer Crest, further up, are where the newest development is happening, and I’m going for this spot next…
Must hits: where to eat, drink, and shop
Old Town
Restaurants: Riverhorse on Main special-occasion, Handle small plates, Fletcher’s American lounge.
Bars: High West Saloon the ski-in distillery, No Name Saloon local, buffalo burger. Shops: Dolly’s Bookstore, Hunter Gatherer.
Deer Valley
Restaurants: Glitretind - At Steins
Empire Canyon Grill casual, best views for lunch. Apres/seafood/wine: RIME — my favorite post-ski on the mountain more casual slopeside version buttt this one’s winter-only, ski season through early April. The other RIME Seafood & Steak, the fine-dining room inside St. Regis with a huge wine cellar, open year-round for a fancy visit.
Prospector
Restaurants: Freshie’s Lobster Co. Maine lobster, started as a food truck, Boneyard Saloon & Wine Dive gastropub on one side, wood-fired pizza and wine on the other.
Kimball Junction Restaurants: Hearth and Hill chef-driven
Midway Restaurants: Olive Press Café at The Dainty Pear Co., Ballerina Farm — cinnamon rolls, croissants, farm goods, Harvest breakfast/lunch café.
Where to stay: areas and hotels
If you want ski-in/ski-out and full-service, Deer Valley is where the big names are: Montage Deer Valley, St. Regis Deer Valley, and Stein Eriksen Lodge, all up on or near Empire Pass. I stayed at Montage Deer Valley on my ski trip and it was genuinely one of the best full-service experiences I’ve had at a ski hotel — ski-in/ski-out, staff who warm your boots and help you into them, and a gondola practically at the door when you’re ready to head up.
If you want boutique over big-resort, the Goldener Hirsch is the one — an Austrian ski-chalet-style hotel in Silver Lake Village at Deer Valley, just 64 rooms.
If Old Town’s walkability matters more to you than ski access, the Waldorf Astoria Park City is the pick - slope-side at Park City Mountain and a few minutes from Main Street. Hotel Park City, Autograph Collection is the other Main Street-adjacent option - it’s technically about a mile out, but it’s a quick drive or an easy walk in good weather.
If you want the working-ranch version of luxury, The Lodge at Blue Sky (Auberge Resorts) is about 20 minutes north of Park City. It leans into horseback riding, fly fishing, and a whiskey distillery on-site High West, which everyone in town loooves. I also learned they do long-table dinners in summer, open-fire, farm-style, and you can buy tickets even if you’re not staying there see here. I’d love to go and reminded me of Outstanding in the Field when I first learned of it.
WildKitchen
This immersive open-fire dining experience, created by Guy Ritchie, returns to The Lodge at Blue Sky for a third year. It’s al fresco dining at a 24-seat communal table (one seating per night), inside a fully retractable canvas-and-hardwood tent, with chefs cooking everything on a single unit built to grill, fry, smoke, slow roast, and boil. Getting there is part of it too — a guided hiking excursion through the local terrain on the way to dinner. This year’s guest chef lineup includes Neal Fraser of Redbird in Los Angeles (July 4), PJ Calapa from Michelin-starred Marea in New York (Aug 7 & 8), Clare de Boer and Jess Shadbolt of Soho restaurant King (Aug 14 & 15), and Cedric Vongerichten of Wayan and Madé in New York City (Sept 25 & 26).
For my stay, I was visiting friends who have a place at Victory Ranch, a private club community out toward Kamas. About 30% of homeowners live there full time, the rest come and go. It’s very country-club-for-adults: an 18-hole golf course, world-class fly fishing on the property, The Barn (pizzeria, ice cream shop, gym, pool, tennis and paddle courts, all under one roof), and Freestone Lodge for dinner overlooking the river. You can’t book it like a hotel, and most plots of land are already sold — but if you’re looking to purchase, keep it on your radar. I also heard the same developers are now working on land in Sun Valley, so that may be the next one to watch.
The Timp Hike
We didn’t do this one, but we saw the mountain and got the backstory, and I felt like a newb for not knowing about it sooner - so now you can learn before you go. Mount Timpanogos (locals call it “Timp”) has a ridgeline that reads as the silhouette of a woman lying on her back. There’s a local legend built around it, a sleeping-maiden, star-crossed-love story. If you want to actually hike it, it’s about 14 miles round trip with a huge altitude change - it’ll take your whole morning and afternoon.
Lakes worth knowing by name
Four reservoirs you can boat, swim, kayak, or fish on Wasatch Back:
Jordanelle is the biggest - boating, salmon, views.
Deer Creek has the Timpanogos backdrop and is known for windsurfing and paddleboard. Rockport is quieter, better for fishing. Echo, a bit further out, is pretty sleepy.
You can also drive up the Mirror Lake Highway into the Uintas to visit smaller ones - Trial Lake, Lost Lake, Moosehorn.
Rodeo season: Kamas over Oakley
Check the calendar before you go - if a rodeo’s in town, it’s worth prioritizing. My take: go to Kamas Valley Fiesta Days over the Oakley Rodeo. Oakley’s is the bigger, more famous one — genuinely one of the top-ranked rodeos in the country over the Fourth of July, and there’s real culture in it — but it’s built around bronc and bull riding, which can be rough to watch if that’s not your thing. Kamas gives you more of the parade-and-fair energy without the harder edges, and I hear kids even bring out the smaller animals for their own event. Sounds so cute. Buy tickets direct — they go on sale in February/March.
Deer Valley’s next chapter
Worth knowing before you book: Deer Valley is in the middle of a major expansion on the east side of the resort, Deer Valley East Village. I hear there’s a new heated gondola (the East Village Express) that opened this past January. A Four Seasons is confirmed to open there for the 2027/28 ski season. There’s also been talk of an Aman property in the same area, but nothing’s been officially announced yet.
If you go for the winter route it is the ski passes: Park City Mountain is on Epic, Deer Valley is on Ikon. If Utah is your main destination, Ikon has the deeper roster here (Deer Valley’s expansion plus Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, Brighton). If Park City Mountain (the bigger of the two, skiing and riding both ) is your priority, Epic’s your pass.
That’s the summer version. I’ve only done Park City once in winter and once in summer now, and they might as well be two different trips - next time I want to catch it in shoulder season and see what that looks like. More soon!