Summer in Park City
The perfect time for outdoor enthusiasts to visit Utah is summer
There's more to Park City than skiing. Spend a summer in the mountains enjoying all the mountains have to offer.
Park City’s famous for its world-class ski resorts, but most people don’t know that Park City has a lot to offer summer vacationers as well.
Most locals moved here for the snowy winters. However, many residents eagerly look forward to summer, when the hordes of tourists leave and Park City becomes a small mountain town again.
Nearby Salt Lake City is unbearably hot in summer, but just thirty minutes away and nestled in the Wasatch Mountains, Park City enjoys much cooler temperatures. Locals are very active, and most days you’ll see people strolling, jogging, and biking the long paths laced throughout Park City’s well-preserved open space.
All Seasons Adventures, a local guide service, offers a range of activities from fishing to rafting to geocaching. You can hire a local guide to take you fly fishing for rainbow, brown, and brook trout. The Provo River, just ten minutes from Park City and a favorite local fly fishing destination, is famous for its wide, meandering flats and abundant trout.
Try a rafting trip down the Weber River, “the mighty Webe” as local guides jokingly call it. It may not be as wild as the Snake River, but it has its tough spots, including one stretch of river dotted with boulders called the Rock Garden. Many enjoy spending an afternoon rafting down the river and absorbing the grandeur of Utah’s wide open spaces.
One summer event to come for is Park City’s annual hot air balloon festival. On a summer’s morning, it’s common to see hot air balloons floating in the sky over Park City. You can hire a balloon for a half-hour morning trip for about $115 per person.
The most popular summer sport here is mountain biking. In the summer, the ski resorts turn into mountain biking playgrounds. Bikers ride chairlifts to the top, where there’s a multitude of mountain biking trails to ride down. There are several mountain biking competitions here in the summer.
Park City’s also famous for its downtown area, Main Street. Boutiques and restaurants line the sloped street. Sundays, people come to the Park Silly Market, a street festival featuring products from local farmers and artisans.
On Fridays, Deer Valley Resort holds concerts, drawing artists such as Toni Bennett and Joss Stone. The summer closes with a jazz festival.
At the end of the day, you can get a table on a restaurant patio perched above Main Street. There you can sip a glass of red wine and watch the people on Main Street while the sun sets over the mountaintops.
