A few weeks ago I had the great fortune to have some business meetings set at the St. Regis Deer Valley, one of several ski resorts in & around the town of Park City, Utah. Even though it was shoulder season, meaning the slopes were closed and many restaurants were also closed to prepare for summer, I had a wonderful trip and had to share!
First, a word or three on the ridiculously awesome St. Regis Deer Valley. I had never had the fortune of staying at a St. Regis property before, and this certainly didn’t disappoint being a 5 star luxury property and all! This place is certainly unique & luxurious, but still fits in to the mountain atmosphere with lots of stone, wood beams, and fireplaces galore. The hotel is actually located within a gated community at the base of the mountain, which actually means that cabs don’t always have permission to get all the way to the lobby, especially if they arrive after normal hours. It turns out that this was actually by design, as they wanted to limit the traffic through the neighborhood. SO – the St. Regis just built a funicular, with a small building at the base of the hill on the main road in order to accommodate late or other arrivals, which in this case was me! I have to say, the very fine leather-upholstered banquet in the funicular let me know that this was no ordinary ski hotel! The second clue? When the elegant, british butler (!) escorted me to my room and then showed me around. He offerred to unpack for me (!!), but feeling unbearably awkward about that, I declined. My jaw was still a bit on the floor from my gorgeous “suite” that was far nicer than my apartment (and larger). Now, because we’re in the travel industry and were there for a meeting during their slowest season, we had all been upgraded to suite rooms, but even without the gorgeous, full kitchen and living area, complete with fireplace and balcony overlooking the slopes, the bedroom itself was great. A full, walk-in closet and huuuuge bathroom just completed things. If I’m honest, the dim lighting in the bathroom and the quality of the towels I thought were sub-par compared with everything else, but that’s nitpicking at this point. Literally, everything else about this place was perfection. Every day we went from complimentary s’mores (with fancy options, naturally – I can’t tell you what an addition a reese’s cup makes to a s’more!) at 5pm to the daily champagne saber ceremony at 5:30pm (complete with a small champagne tasting afterwards) – both cozied up next to one of the many gas fireplaces that dot the property. The pool beckoned, but it was JUST chilly enough that we chose instead to take advantage of one of the several large hot tubs. I’ll remind you that this is literally at the base of slopes, which we found out really only reached up to the mid-mountain base. As an avid skier, my mouth was watering just knowing that what we were looking at was a tiny fraction of all the acres available to ski! This is certainly not a bargain basement option for folks looking for a cheap ski vacation, but Deer Valley itself caters to a more refined ski client- no snowboarders allowed!! Here are a few pics from around the resort to help give you an idea of how lovely a place it is!
Next up, a few words about the town of Park City itself. Obviously, being the home to the Sundance Film Festival each year has given this little old mining town some serious cachet – many of the adorable, historic buildings in the main downtown have been faithfully restored, and now house cute shops and delicious restaurants. It’s only about 2 miles down the road from Deer Valley, and boasts ski lifts directly out of the main part of downtown to the second of three major ski areas in the valley (in this case, the eponymous Park City resort). We elected to take an awesome walking tour of the town which was focused on food, but included some really good nuggets of history. Right downtown there’s a really cute little museum about the town which shows everything from its mining past (HOW anyone survived that job is beyond me) to the growth of the ski industry, to its current taste of Hollywood each winter. It was cute, full of fun stories, and included as part of our walking tour, but even if not it would’ve been well worth the 15-20 minutes we spent walking through. After that – it was time to restaurant hop and really get a feeling for this super cute little town. From tip to tail, it’s maybe a half hour walk, and it’s full of all sorts of suprises. Of course there are the historic buildings, like the original train depot that’s now a restaurant, and the stories about the brothels that lined the one street, and the bootlegging that happened in certain bars that are STILL bars, but there’s more than just that sort of thing. (Park City has always been a racier part of the usually conservative state of Utah!) There are a few Banksys that the town has preserved (from when the documentary “Exit through the Gift Shop” was screened at the festival), which is pretty cool, and even in shoulder season there was some really great food to be found. From the elegant tastings at Riverhorse, to the modern farm-to-table spot called Haven, to the surprisingly tasty Thai spot we finished with (in an elegant former hotel lobby, with original stained glass!) – I was pleasantly surprised by the food scene there. This is all thanks again to the awesome walking tour put on by Gourmand Tours and it’s adorable founder, Chris. Having a local who is so passionate about her hometown really is a great way to gain a better understanding of a place. Here are some shots from around town that I hope do it some justice:
The final thing you need to understand about Park City is just how proud they are of the 2002 Olympics. Apparently, this was the “most successful” games in history, measured partly by attendance & ratings, but also because it actually was incredibly profitable for the area. Obviously much of the village and games took place in the host city of Salt Lake, but a lot of the alpine events were held up in the area around Park City, and in fact there is still some facilities you can tour, thanks to those profits (besides skiing the slopes where the freestyle or slalom races were held). Namely: the Utah Olympic Park, which is located about 10-15 minutes outside of Park City (just past ski resort number 3: Canyons). We elected to take one of the super reasonable $10 tours of this facility, which is still a state of the art training facility for several sports. All of the sliding races were held here (luge, skeleton, and bobsled), and all of the ski jumping as well. They’ve added a training pool and ramps for the crazy people who do all the aerial jumping tricks (which was all being remodeled while we were there, since it was off-season). The tour took us up through the sliding track, which was larger and yet more compact than I’d expected, and features some truly impressive-looking ropes courses for more regular folks to use in the summer. I say it was larger in some ways, because if you’re standing next to a turn, the sheer height & bulk of the walls to keep those crazy riders held inside was impressive, and lets you know just how much force they’re being subjected to through those turns. It was more compact because I didn’t realize that the racers actually turn back uphill for the last third or so of a race, so the track curves in & around itself (and is another reason why they need to get as much speed as possible during the downhill part). I will say that our guide patiently explained each of the sports really well, and I can tell you that I will watch these events the next time with so much more appreciation. I mean – the luge is the teeniest little sled you’ve ever seen, and those people go hurtling down at like 80-90 miles per hour. Steering with only their feet. (Apparently, it’s much more dangerous than skeleton, which just seems insane since you go down chin first in skeleton!) Like I said – crazy people… who apparently start learning this sport at like 8 years old (they just start lower down)!!! More crazy people? Those that go straight down an incredibly steep hill completely straight and then fly in the air for multiple football fields. The top of the ski jump hill was vertigo-inducing for some of our group, and even I – again, who loves skiing steep stuff – was a little freaked. Besides all that, you cannot see the landing from the top of the hill. The line you (maybe) see in the photo is not where they land, that’s where they are able to stop themselves after landing & then skidding for a while – total, crazy optical illusion. Here are some shots that certainly do not do it justice, but it will give you an idea:
There’s also a little museum about the games themselves at the facility, which we had a few minutes to check out (including some really awesome clips from the games themselves), so it’s yet another spot that I highly recommend, if you’ve got a free hour or two the next time you’re in town. All in all, though I couldn’t hit the slopes and spent much of my time there in a conference room (albeit a lovely one), Park City earned it’s place on my list of must sees. I can’t wait to return when there is tons of snow and I get to take advantage of at least one or two of the amazing ski resorts there! (Note: Canyons & Park City are both owned by the massive Vail Resorts, but Deer Valley is still independent – though it has recently purchased another couple of resorts on the back side of the valley, giving you a bit more trails to ski… besides the apparently miles and miles of back country terrain that is perfectly available between all these resorts! Seems like it might be skiers paradise to me!)