Park City & the Wasatch Back

Over the ridgeline from Salt Lake, on the eastern flank of the Wasatch, lies the high country where the city goes to play. The Wasatch Back is cooler and higher than the valleys below, threaded with ski runs, alpine lakes, and the silver-mining history that started it all. At its center sits Park City, which struck silver in the 1860s, nearly died when the ore ran out, and reinvented itself as one of the great ski towns of the American West — home now to the Sundance Film Festival each January and host of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Two resorts rise straight from the edge of town: Park City Mountain, the largest ski area in the United States by acreage, and the polished, skiers-only slopes of Deer Valley. Up the hill, the Utah Olympic Park still keeps its bobsled track and towering ski jumps in use as a training center, with summer zip lines and a museum for everyone else.

East of Park City, the small town of Kamas marks the start of the Mirror Lake Highway — State Route 150 — which climbs into the Uinta Mountains, one of the only major ranges in the country that runs east to west. The road passes a string of alpine jewels — Mirror Lake, Trial Lake, Ruth Lake — and crests above 10,000 feet at Bald Mountain Pass, one of the highest paved roads in Utah. Locals stock up first at the Samak Smokehouse, a jerky-and-provisions institution at the canyon's mouth.

South of all this opens the green Heber Valley, where the Heber Valley Railroad still runs its historic steam excursions along the water, Jordanelle State Park gathers the boaters, and the Swiss-flavored town of Midway hides its strangest treasure: the Homestead Crater, a warm mineral spring sealed inside a beehive-shaped dome of limestone, where you can swim — or even scuba dive — in the heart of the rock.

Come in winter for the snow and the festival; come in summer for the lakes, the trains, and the long light over the high meadows.

What to See in Park City & the Wasatch Back

16 places across the region, grouped by what they are.

Park City & the Wasatch Back rewards the unhurried. Pick a base, fan out, and let the country between the headline stops surprise you.