Park City is gorgeous, no matter when you go. Photo: Haro
Just before the calendar flipped over to 2025, I headed to Utah for a quick work trip. Park City was the final destination, and I was excited, to say the least. There was a snowboard built for deep powder packed snug in its bag and I had visions of face shots and chest deep snow soaking through to my underwear. Sadly, as is sometimes the case, Mother Nature had other plans. There was just a skim of snow when I arrived, the skies blue as blue can be, and not a whisper of the white stuff in the forecast.
There was, of course, enough snow at the top to slide around a bit and get a feel for one of the world’s most famous mountains, but you know what? Despite the fact that my plans for riding epic pow were thrown unceremoniously into a roadside ditch, I had more fun than I thought I was going to have. There is a LOT to do in Park CityPark City, no matter what the weather is doing. So here are five things you definitely should see and do, no matter what the snow is doing. But it should go without saying that if the snow is doing good things, do that. But also do these.
1. Snow-permitting, Ride Park City Mountain
On the left, what I saw. On the right, what I could have seen.
Park City Mountain is mind-bendingly big. From the Westgate Park City (a beautiful hotel with a restaurant called Edge that served me a tomahawk pork chop I would promise my firstborn for), the lifts are just a stone’s throw away. The entrance of the hotel is literally a three-minute walk to a chairlift. As I mentioned, the snow was decidedly not great when I was there, so I wasn’t immediately aware of just how much terrain there is at Park City Mountain. At first glance, it appeared to me that this world-famous mountain had only two lifts and two runs.
But as anyone who knows me knows, I am an idiot. Within an hour or so, after eating a $15 dollar hot dog that was legitimately worth $15, I noticed that I was missing a vast part of the terrain. There are 7,300 ridable acres there, 330-plus rideable trails, 40 lifts, 13 bowls, six terrain parks, a halfpipe, and a mini pipe. It’s a huge area. It would take a person forever to know it well enough to not get lost, but that forever would be the most fun forever there ever was.
2. Eat (Especially at These Four Restaurants)
Park City, like Arby’s, has the meats. Tomahawk pork chop from Edge Steakhouse (L) and bison tartare from the Riverhorse on Main (R). Photos: Haro
Park City is not cheap. I heard someone say that the billionaires were pushing the millionaires out. One thing good about a gluttony of riches for us regular folk is that the food needs to keep up with the tastes of the uber-wealthy. And let me tell you, it keeps up. It speeds by them, I think, throwing mud on their Bentleys and scuffing their Jimmy Choos as it does. Prepare yourself, because food will never taste as good as what you eat in Park City.
From the burgers at Draft’s Burger Bar to the bison tartare at the Riverhorse on Main (honestly one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth), and the pork tomahawk steak at Edge Steak House to the campfire Idaho trout at the Midway Mercantile, everything I ate in Park City seemed to be the best thing I had ever eaten. The Riverhorse on Main is a fantastic restaurant — Park City’s top rated one, in fact, as well as a 16-year recipient of the Forbes Travel Guide Four Star Award. Chef John at the Midway Mercantile walked me through his extensive and beautiful restoration of one of the nicest places to eat I’ve been, and his food is cared for as tenderly as the building was. It was such a wonderful experience that still, all these months later, I think about it.
3. Drink This Local Whiskey
If you are a bourbon fan, High West will tickle your fancy. Photos: High West
Don’t drink if you don’t drink, obviously. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but for a place full of Mormons, there sure are a heck of a lot of places to drink in Utah. But if you, like me, are a fan of strong drink with heady fumes, an ice-cold glass touched by just a breeze of orange oil, and a dark room that hums pleasantly with the low chatter of many other partially drunk people, Park City is a wonderland. I’m a bourbon guy — scotch can be thrown back into the peat bogs from whence it came — and Park City has a distillery called High West that blasted my hair back in the best way.
Not to get too bougie here, but my take on a good bourbon is a bourbon that stands alone. If I can swallow it warm, inhaling deeply as I do, and feel just the hint of a pleasant burn, I’m a happy man. If I know I can enjoy it by itself, I know I’m going to love it in a well-made cocktail. High West bourbon (I don’t think they even bother with scotch, God bless them), tastes a bit of caramel apple and vanilla. Maybe there’s a bit of pecan pie or something is hidden somewhere in there too. Basically, it’s a perfect bourbon, smooth and silky and just about as perfect as a bourbon can be. And if you’re looking for a good place to drink said perfect bourbon, the Palomino is a damn good place to do it. It’s a cool little bar next to the aforementioned Riverhorse on Main, and they serve a lot more than just High West bourbon.
4. Tour the Utah Olympic Park
Tours aren’t often all that great, but this one is all that great. Photos: Zimmerman Agency
Okay, hear me out on this one. As a general rule, I hate “tours.” I hate stumbling around a place with a bunch of other stumblers, taking boring pictures of things that might be interesting in real life but are not interesting to the person you’re going to show the pictures to when you get home. I dunno, maybe I’m too scatter-brained for them, but tours haven’t historically been my thing. Until I toured the Utah Olympic Park. That particular tour WAS my thing.
The place is huge. If you haven’t seen a Nordic ski jump in real life, I recommend you do. Sure, you can watch those athletes soaring through the air on television, their bodies flattened over their skis as they drift slowly towards the bottom, but until you’ve stood at the top with your guts flip-flopping around, you can’t really appreciate just how insane it is that they willingly throw themselves off those jumps. There is also a bobsled and skeleton track, which led me to make about a million jokes about the Jamaican bobsled team (“Sanka, ya dead?”) until the very proper tour guide (who was likely completely over tourists making Cool Runnings jokes) informed me, much to my delight, that the Jamaican bobsled team WAS ACTUALLY THERE TRAINING AT THE TIME.
5. Visit the Serenity Spa at the Westgate Park City
“Serenity now!” Photo: Westgate
When I left the Serenity Spa, I was angry. Not at the spa, but at the fact that I had gone my entire life without anyone telling me how great a good massage can be. Rachel, the woman who massaged me, had hands that could crush stone, I’m sure, but a voice and a presence that could melt them. She asked me a million questions first, then tailored the entire treatment specifically to my old aches and pains.
I suffer occasionally from bouts of insomnia for weeks on end that make me unsure if I’m actually awake when I should know that I’m actually awake. I was in the middle of one such bout when I arrived in Park City, which was unfortunate. Sleep is nearly impossible, especially if I’m in a strange place or around strangers. Rachel, the strong-handed masseuse, made me fall asleep for at least 10 minutes. I can’t stress to you how unlikely it is for me to fall asleep in that situation, but it says more than I ever could about just how relaxing she made my experience. It was followed up by a long soak in a eucalyptus-scented steam room before boiling myself in a whirlpool I could have done laps in. All in all, that two-hour spa visit was one of the best two hours of my life. I urge you to go to Park City, Utah, if only for this place. Ask for Rachel. You will not regret it.
