A Brief Stopover in Park City, Utah

I’ve been to Park City Utah many times, including several times since we started blogging, but for some reason, I’ve never written about it. I and we have been here in all four seasons. I’ve come for dinner while working in Salt Lake City. I’ve skied here several times. We’ve come for weekends. I came for the Olympics in 2002. And every time I come, I appreciate it more.

Park City isn’t large. Most of the shops, galleries, stores and restaurants are located on its one uphill sloping Main Street. Homes, accessing Main Street from metal stairways, climb up the hills to either side. There’s plenty of parking both on Main Street and in parking garages behind its buildings.

Park City was founded in 1868 as many prospectors came to mine the area for silver and lead. Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon Church (Latter Day Saints), had encouraged his followers to focus on agriculture instead of precious metals as mining would bring “outside infiltration” into Utah Territory. For the LDS flock, however, that infiltration came anyway. In 1862, the U.S. Army started bringing soldiers, many of whom were veterans of California’s mines, in order to protect the mail delivery. Many of those soldiers recognized the potential of these hills for their precious metals and the boom began.

In 1898 a terrible fire burned much of Park City, burning around 200 businesses and homes in Utah’s biggest fire, but the residents banded together to rebuild it.

Later, skiing became a big draw, and the Treasure Mountain Resort was founded in 1963 when United Park City Mines looked to revitalize the city and turn it into a tourist destination. Treasure Mountain Resort later became Park City Mountain Resort which, with neighboring Canyons Resort, was acquired by Vail Resorts and the Canyons and Park City were connected combining to offer 9,300 acres of skiable terrain on 444 trails accessed by 62 lifts.

Park City is also famous for its annual Sundance Film Festival. The festival was founded in 1978 as the U.S. Film Festival. Its goal was to attract more filmmakers to Utah as well as showcase American-made and independent films. In 1981, the festival moved to Park City and was moved from September to January. In 1991, it was renamed “Sundance” after Robert Redford’s (whose production companies founded and operated the festival) character in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Among the films which premiered here were The Blair Witch Project, Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Get Out.

The McPolin Barn greets you as you roll into town from Salt Lake City. I love a good barn, and this one has fascinated me for years, so this time, I finally took the ride out to walk along the Farm Trail which goes through and around it. The barn was built by Dan and Isabelle McPolin who came from Ireland to mine silver. Dan turned to farming when an accident injured his eyes and hands. The farm is now owned by Park City.

In addition to strolling Main Street, we ate out at our go-to: Fletchers. While we’ve eaten at several of Park City’s restaurants, we are by-far no experts. However, this place is our favorite. And as a blue moon rose over the town and a lightning storm raged to the northwest, I climbed several of Park City’s metal stairways to take in the beauty of nature at work.

Park City was our last stop on this epic road trip before returning to Colorado for the first time in 483 days. It’s an old favorite and was a great finale before returning to our home state.

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