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Park City Recreation

The Best Town in America: Park City, Utah

park-city-utah-best-towns_fe“Know how I can tell that’s a local?” asks Dana Williams, the 58-year-old mayor of Park City, Utah, nodding toward a fit thirty-something guy in a flat-brimmed baseball hat. “The bandaged wrist.”

Park City feels like a Colorado ski town dropped into Utah’s 12,000-foot Wasatch Range, with one significant difference. Unlike Telluride or Aspen, it has a major city, Salt Lake, and an international airport 30 minutes away. Local love for Park City can feel a little over the top—it got two-thirds as many votes in our contest (5,179) as it has residents. To see if that affection was justified, I parachuted in for a 72-hour, Chamber of Commerce–led recon tour. What I found was a town that breeds the active lifestyle.

In winter, Parkites can access three world-class ski areas from town: Deer Valley, Park City, and the Canyons. Then there’s climbing, hiking, and camping in 500,000 acres of wilderness in the nearby Uinta Mountains, 370-plus miles of trails, a blue-ribbon trout stream (the Provo River), and an Olympic training center built for the 2002 Salt Lake Games. More than 100 Olympians still live here. There are also lax(er) liquor laws than elsewhere in the Beehive State—and Utah’s first distillery since Prohibition, High West.

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Live It Up At The Sundance Film Festival

imagesEvery January, the best and brightest in filmmaking descend upon Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival. Founded by Robert Redford in 1985, the festival is a nonstop celebration of independent movies, launching blockbuster hits such as Precious, Napoleon Dynamite and last year’s breakout film, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival takes place from Jan. 17 to 27 and extends throughout Park City’s hotels, restaurants and breathtaking landscape. Home to the “Greatest Snow on Earth,” the Park City area offers world-class skiing in addition to trendy boutiques, high-end art galleries and nightlife.

For an unconventional hotel experience, try the celebrity-frequented Washington School House. Built as a school in 1889, Washington School House graduated to a new level of luxury with a complete interior renovation, featuring amenities such as a heated pool, complimentary breakfast, ski valets, and a 24-hour concierge.

Anyone visiting a state with 14 ski resorts has to make time to hit the slopes at least once during Sundance. A recent multimillion-dollar project at Canyons Resort introduced the heated-seat chairlift — the Orange Bubble Express, providing the ultimate in comfort for the ride up the mountain. If skiing isn’t your preference, head to Main Street for some pre-event shopping at Flight Boutique, for contemporary items by kensie and Elizabeth & James.  Afterward, wear your new threads to dance the night away at Downstairs, a nightclub opened by Danny Masterson of That 70’s Show.

A trip to the Sundance Film Festival is not complete without a meal at Sundance Resort’s Zoom, opened by Robert Redford in 1995. The sophisticated, American restaurant serves locally-sourced fare like slow roasted beets with Utah goat cheese and Koosharem Valley Utah trout.

Click here for the complete list of suggestions from SheKnows.

Park City Museum Celebrates History of Bogner Ski Fashion

“Kathy Burke, who is the apparel buyer for Cole Sport, went to Munich, Germany, and saw a huge exhibit of all these winter clothes Bogner, one of the pioneering companies in ski wear, had designed over the past eight decades,” Morrison [Museum Director] said. “She said that she would see if she arrange to get some of the clothing for a display.”

The result is the “80 Years of Sport in Style” exhibit that will be at the Park City Museum until Monday, Jan. 14.

“Bogner has designed the German Olympic Ski Team outfits since 1936 and we were able to get some of the designs from the 2002, which, of course, was the year the Olympics came to Park City,” Morrison said. “It was perfect timing for us and it’s fun to have a display about skiing and ski clothing while visitors are here for winter activities.”

“I think what draws people to this display is their own experience in ski fashion,” she said. “A lot of people who visit our museum have been skiing for most of their lives and they like the fact that we have a one-piece, pink ski suit and leather boots in the window. It has evoked a lot of memories for people like them.

“For the newer skiers, the exhibit is a reminder to them about how long the sport has been around,” she said.

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Thing to Do in Park City: Sleigh Rides

If you’re looking for a unique winter experience while you visit our beautiful city, why not take a sleigh ride? Glide across the snow on a romantic journey or get in the Christmas spirit with family as you travel through our breath-taking mountain scenery. A horse-drawn sleigh can take you to viewpoints you won’t find on foot and you’ll be able to look over breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains and Park City. Check out the rest of the article for information on some local sleigh ride companies.

Click here to see the sleigh ride options.

2013 Sundance Film Festival Announces Spotlight, Park City, New Frontier Films

After announcing its slate of in-competition and Next films yesterday, the Sundance Institute has released the lineup of films and art installations in the out-of-competition Spotlight, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier categories.

More scheduled lineups, including the Premieres and Short Films categories, will be released early next week.

Click here to read the Sundance Institute’s list of Spotlight, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier sections.

Utah’s Park City Resorts Host To Pre-Olympic Winter Action Sports Series

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, together with the Utah Sports Commission has jointly announced a schedule of five major winter action sports events in Utah leading up to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

Some of the most important World Cup and Sprint U.S. Grand Prix events will be coming to Utah’s Canyons Resort, Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort, and will also include the official naming of the first ever U.S. Freeskiing Olympic Team.

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