Road Trip 21- Park City

You know what I love about Wyoming? It is still almost completely wild. The drive from Grand Teton National Park to Park City, Utah was filled with vast wilds. We drove mile upon mile without so much as a car passing us. We saw multiple herds of pronghorn antelope running through the sagebrush towards the shelters of the forest. We took in enormous skies and expanses so grand that only God could have created them.  I think its a good thing that Wyoming’s winters are so harsh and inhospitable. Its keeps most people from wanting to settle up this beautiful part of the country.

And so we drove from one amazing  part of country to the next. On this day our destination was Park City. Originally, it was just meant to be a stop over. Park City is a winter sport destination and not a summer vacation spot, right? Wrong! I had no idea there was so much to do in Park City. We stayed in the fantastic Hotel Park City and could have spent a week just on their grounds. Our cottage was gorgeous and the view was amazing (If you would like to read more about the hotel, read my review here).

We ended up spending most of our afternoon at the Park City Mountain Resort. There are so many fun things to do there from mini golf to zip lining to alpine sliding and coasting. We opted to take the kids down the alpine slide. It is one of the longest slides in the world and the only way to get to the top is to take the ski lift. To most people this is no big deal but for me, it was a huge deal. I am incredibly afraid of falling and heights and hanging above the trees for the 10 minute ride was excruciating. I couldn’t freak out because  than the kids would freak out which in turn would cause me to freak out even more. So I held onto Mari with a death grip and instructed Paul to do the same with Ben. I felt my stomach doing flip flops and my pulse race but I kept a smile on my face and pointed out all the cool things we could see from the lift. Maybe I wasn’t really trying to comfort the kids. Maybe I was trying to comfort myself. Either way, I survived.

Mari was less than excited about getting on the slide with her Dad but once she got on the slide she laughed and squealed. Ben was happy the whole way down with me. It was a ton of fun and having the ability to brake when you felt like the slide was going to fast was very reassuring.

Paul was trying to encourage me to try the zipline but in order to do so I would have to go back on the ski lift and that was certainly not going to happen. In hindsight I wish I had sucked it up and tried the zipline because our plans to zipline the next month on Oahu were thwarted by the fact that there were no zip lines on Oahu. Doh!

My kids played mini golf for the very first time in Park City. Ben was an immediate pro and Mari was much more interested in carrying around her ball and checking out the course decor than actually using her club to hit the ball in the hole. This is not to say she didn’t enjoy the experience, she just had a different approach to the game than most.

One of my biggest regrets is that we just didn’t have enough time in Park City. I wanted to check out the Olympic Park, take hike, and spend some time in that beautiful Hotel Park City pool. Alas, another trip from another time. We still had two more National Parks on our radar…

Family Travel Tips
Park City