Park City- The Greatest Snow on Earth
Park City is so much more than a ski town!
Jon and Jenn share their favorite winter activities to do in this city, just 30 miles from Salt Lake's airport. First off, did you know that the Sundance Film Festival is held there every January? Jon once ran into Mary-Kate Olsen, or maybe it was Ashley Olsen during Sundance. Jenn ate next to Woody Harrelson!
Plus, the Utah Olympic Park is in Park City. Utah hosted the Olympics in 2002 and this museum lets you see the different events up close, including riding in a bobsled!
If you're not into the cold, you can soak in the homestead crater: a geothermal crater that you can swim, scuba or paddle board in.
But yes...the skiing and snowboarding in Park City is what brings in the tourists. You can choose from Deer Valley, Park City Mountain, Canyons or Woodward. All are special for their own reasons. Jenn talks about the fancy Montage Resort as well.
Transcript from our podcast:
Jon: You know, the one thing as our podcast has gotten yeah. A little bigger and bigger mm-hmm <affirmative> each and every week, the, the one comment we I think get more than anything is our opening music. <Laugh> listen, if you think you could do better.
Jen: Yes. Please submit, submit your audio,
Jon: Send It. Or I've said it before. If you ...Two Tickets of Paradise.
Jen: Oh my Gosh.
Jon: Eddie Money.
Jen: Eddie money. If you're listening to this.
Jon: Yes, maybe you're not Eddie Money, but you're a friend of Eddie Money's agent.
Jen: Yes.
Jen: Doctor.
Jon: Yes.
Both: Whatever,
Jon: Just tell 'em that we need the rights to it cuz Two Tickets of Paradise would work so well, to open. Welcome to our podcast, it's Our Savings Starts Tomorrow my name is Jon, my wife, Jen sitting across for me. And it's just a travel podcast where we share with your fun stories and, and tips of different locations, mishaps, so many mishaps and... first of all, wow, thanks for all the downloads.
Jen: I know.
Jon: Gosh.
Jen: Woo, woo.
Jon: Look at us like professional podcasters almost, how about Instagram influencers? How do you feel that our daughter's photo is the most popular photo we've ever posted on Instagram, beat out you and I snuggling on a couch.
Jen: Well, because she's so cute.
Jon: You and I in Maui mm-hmm <affirmative>. It's a photo of her with some hot cocoa--
Jen: With Christmas lights.
Jon: I know if you're not following us on Instagram.
Jen: What's wrong with you?
Jon: Yeah, exactly. <Laugh>. Our Savings Starts Tomorrow. Park City, the greatest snow on earth.
Jen: We're doing Park City winter, right? Wintertime.
Jon: Oh, are We gonna do another one for summer?
Jen: It's like two entirely different places.
Jon: Okay. But this one is all about just the wintertime up in Park City, Utah... Which is a whole different vibe and feel than Salt Lake City, Utah mm-hmm <affirmative> or anywhere it's a resort town. And it's about 40 minutes from the airport, when you fly into Salt Lake City, you drive right up the mountain and there's Park City and its fun in the winter, even if you don't ski.
Jen: Totally. It's just a fun little town.
Jon: We're like kind of skiers, but not we're fair weather for one thing. It is nice out mm-hmm <affirmative> and then also skiing has gotten so expensive.
Jen: It is a so expensive.
Jon: Like honestly, we looked up once going for a few days, skiing where with the rentals and the, the ski lessons and staying like at a lodge mm-hmm <affirmative> compared to Disney world. Disney world was cheaper. Like that's how expensive skiing has gotten.
Jen: Well, it's it Park City in the winter is a true destination for like the world. Like people from all over the world come to Park City it's crazy.
Jon: It's a bucket list for people who are skiing enthusiasts. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> in fact, if you go up there, you'll meet people even in the off season who move to Park City just to be a ski bum. Like that's their literal life. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> is just wanting to be up on the slopes.
Jen: I wish I was passionate about like one thing, the way these ski bums are passionate about snow and skiing,
Jon: We're more like just slow and steady. There’re not many spikes, we just kind of keep on. We're like a mule, we just keep going. <Laugh> also the one thing about Park City is this is where Sundance.
Jen: Oh, yeah. And if you're like into celebrity sightings and stuff like that, it's kind of a cool experience to do.
Jon: Let me tell you my celebrity encounter during Sundance. So, I'm walking up. --
Jen: You've had a couple.
Jon: --Well, this is... I'm walking up main street. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and there's a famous ice cream shop called Java cow, which I know you're saying, wait a minute. That sounds like it should be like a coffee place. It is, but they do ice cream as well. And out walk this this smaller lady and we bump into each other, and I looked down and she looks up to me and she has these like big eyes and I'm like, you're Mary Kay and Ashley Olson. I said both of their name.
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: It was one of them. I don't know which one mm-hmm <affirmative> she took a step back from me as if I was going to mug her.
Jen: Yes.
Jon: And then kept walking. Yes. But that I ran into Mary Kay. Ashley Olson.
Jen: One of them sure. Were they smoking?
Jon: Usually they are.
Jen: Right.
Jon: But it's so cold, but it looked like they were smoking no matter what,
Jen: You know what, in Sundance, I had lunch with Woody Harrelson once.
Jon: Yes, you did. <Laugh>.
Jen: We went up to Sundance just to walk around, which is a lot of fun. And they have all these like breakout sessions that you can just go to for free. And we ended up sitting in this breakout session.
Jen: We didn't even know what it was. We're like, I don't know let's just sit here.
Jon: We just wanted to feel like we were part of the mucky muck.
Jen: And it was kind of cool. It was like all about like insuring a film, which I didn't even realize was a thing. And then you're sitting in it and you're like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.
Jon: And they were, yeah, it was really interesting. They were talking about how hard it is at the time Lindsay Lohan was kind of a train wreck. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> like how hard it is, to insure her and, and, and we're sitting there and next to Jen it's Woody Harrelson, and he's got this big bowl of noodles.
Jen: He had like a Styrofoam thing of just Chinese food that he was mowing.
Jon: Yeah, oh yeah.
Jen: And like, and he's sitting next to me, and I think he even offered me some.
Jon: He offered you bite of his noodles.
Jen: Yes. No, thank you.
Jon: But Bubba was hard. <Laugh> allegedly guess I don't need Woody's lawyers coming after us, but anyway, Sundance is in January, but it does make all the hotels even more expensive.
Jen: Oh yeah. it's super expensive.
Jon: For those two weeks. Even if you want to say in Salt Lake and drive up. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> every hotel in Utah, it's expensive for Park City. But speaking of skiing, there's so many cool resorts; like Deer Valley, --
Jen: Park City.
Jon: Park City Mountain, Park City Mountain right now has an ice-skating rink at the base.
Jen: Oh, that's cool.
Jon: Isn't that fun?
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: Yeah. They do it in the wintertime.
Jen: Oh, I didn't know that.
Jon: Yeah. Canyons village...so Canyons is actually owned by Park City Mountain. And, but canyons village is really cool in the winter. They do like fireworks and concerts and it's like a party. To me, that's the place to stay. If you're coming into town. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> like, if anyone said, hey, I'm coming in a, you know, Park City, where do I stay at? Canyons, definitely.
Jen: Unless you're like incredibly bougie.
Jon: Where would you stay if you're incredibly bougie,
Jen: Like Montage or St. Regis or Waldorf, like places that are probably closer to Deer valley, the creme de la creme.
Jon: We're not even allowed in the lobby.
Jen: I've been to Montage.
Jon: All right, fine. You are allowed, some of us are not allowed in the lobby. Deer valley is for skiers only, they don't allow snowboarding. But they have like ski, valets.
Jen: Yeah. It's pretty like, like I said, it's pretty bougie. It's pretty like snobby. I would think <laugh>, --
Jon: We've never been there.
Jen: We've never stayed there.
Jon: We'll judge you.
Jen: But I hear that it's amazing.
Jon: Yeah. They say like the grooms are great and I don't know what that even means. <Laugh> but that. Woodward is a newer resort that opened up kind as your entering Park City. It's a little outside of where all the other resorts are.
Jen: Yeah, it’s Like Jeremy ranch area.
Jon: Yeah. And they have skiing there. They're really known for ...Tony Hawk is like one of the initial investors in this.
Jen: Oh, that's cool.
Jon: And so, it's really made for like snowboarding extremes. There's a lot of big jumps on it Uhhuh and bowls and all that stuff.
Jen: That's where Liam learned to snowboarding.
Jon: Yeah. We took him there and he always wants to go back. The problem is it's the runs ... they're made for people who are like in their twenties who wanna go on jumps. I'm too old for that now. I'm afraid I'm gonna break my hip and that's gonna be the end of my life. So <laugh> I do the falling leaf. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> all the way down. So, it's, it's not really made for me, but he loves it there. They have tubing.
Jen: Oh yeah. I love the tubing.
Jon: They have an indoor skate park.
Jen: Oh, I didn't know they had an indoor skateboard.
Jon: Yeah. So, in the wintertime you can still go and, and practice everything. I mean, Woodward's really made for like the extreme sports.
Jen: Yeah. That's cool.
Jon: Yeah. Ski school is a must. We do it every year. We, you know, we live in Utah, But we just,
Jen: I get rusty. If I only go like once or twice a year, I need to refresh.
Jon: And then, you know, ski rentals are another thing that you have to think of while you're here, you can do it all online, these days
Jen: and gear, but you know what? You can rent all of that stuff.
Jon: All of it including coats.
Jen: Yeah. You can rent it all.
Jon: I don't know Though, if I want to rent A coat,
Jen: I wouldn't wanna rent gloves. That's for sure. Ugh.
Jon: Why are they moist? There's no reason for the gloves to be so moist
Jen: Well, it's like your nose is like running and you're like, yeah.
Jon: But we said there's so much more to do besides skiing in Park City. And one of the places to start is Park City main street.
Jen: Oh yeah.
Jon: That's like,
Jen: That's where everything happens.
Jon: Every like place has their like --
Jen: Main Street,
Jon: Main Street. And this one you have to walk uphill and downhill.
Jen: Oh my gosh.
Jon: And it’s a hike
Jen: It is a hike.
Jon: I mean, really.
Jen: I know because we just did it like a couple weekends ago for a holiday party and they dropped us off at the bottom and it was,
Jon: We were up, we were supposed to be up at the top., and you were wearing heels?
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: And it was a little icy mm-hmm <affirmative> it was a, yeah,
Jen: It was a whole thing.
Jon: Yeah.
Jen: We're not gonna get into it. <Laugh> there was a fight.
Jon: Jen yelled at me. She ended up being like a block ahead cuz I was supposed to be the navigator turns out I didn't know where we were going
Jen: Anyways.
Jon: Yeah. So, all the like nice restaurants are on Main Street.
Jen: Yeah. Unless you're going to a restaurant at one of the hotels.
Jon: [mumbling09:11]
Jen: Yeah. Yeah. All of the restaurants, bars, like this is where your nightlife is.
Jon: Yeah. But it's an early nightlife. Don't you think?
Jen: Yeah. You know why? Because everyone's getting up early. Oh yeah. To shred the NAR is that what people say
Jon: To shred the NAR
Jen: I don't know is that a thing?
Jon: Some people might say it. We should never,
Jen: I know.
Jon: That's also where like the Java Cow, that is like a famous place that I was talking about earlier. That's where Mary, Kate, Ashley Olsen goes. They have the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory there.
Jen: Yep. You could buy art, all sorts of like... there's a ton of like random art galleries.
Jon: I know.
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: We don't go in 'em, you would think we would. We go into the other places.
Jen: It's just like a lot of... again it's for the tourists to come in. It's like a lot of like scenic photographs and like, I don't know, like [inaudible10:04]
Jon: Yeah. The Park City Museum is on Park City, main street. Have you ever been inside the Park City Museum? I don't think so. I'd recommend it really. Have you been
Jen: In there? No.
Jon: Okay. <Laugh>
Jen: But, well, I know that it was like established by miners
Jon: And not young kids. We're talking about the kind who are digging for silver.
Jen: Yeah,
Jon: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and I also... you just got my joke. It was like a 10 second pause. It was also where all these soldiers from the US came to watch over the Mormon establishment that had moved to Salt Lake City. So that's how Park City became what it is.
Jen: Interesting.
Jon: Yeah. And you'll learn about that at the Park City Museum, I assume. <Laugh>
Jen: Assume. Well, and like, okay. Also, the Utah Olympic Park,
Jon: That's like what we take first of, when we moved here to Utah, everyone came to through, we took to the Utah Olympic Park.
Jen: We've lived here for how long now 13 years.
Jon: Yeah.
Jen: And I think that we've probably been there like 130 times.
Jon: Oh yeah. Oh. Especially those first five years when people would just visit, like, that was our thing. It was like a go to
Jen: But it is very cool. You should definitely check it out because the Olympics were here.
Jon: Yeah in 2002.
Jen: Yes.
Jon: And up at the Utah Olympic Park, they had the Bob sled. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> they had the skeleton or the skeleton. They had the luge, and they had the Nordic combined events,
Jen: Like the downhill skiing and stuff.
Jon: Yeah, exactly. And you could still do the Bobsled run and it's so much fun.
Jen: Yeah, I've done it. It's pretty sweet.
Jon: You go up there, you have to watch a safety video. Don't worry, you're not driving it. They actually have like Bob drivers, --
Jen: Like Olympic ones, Uhhuh <affirmative>
Jon: And you just sit there and hold on and it is the greatest experience.
Jen: It really is. Did you do it in the winter or the summer?
Jon: I did the summer.
Jen: I did it in the winter.
Jon: Oh man.
Jen: Yeah. '.
Jon: The winter I hear is better.
Jen: Yeah. Cuz you're like on ice.
Jon: Yeah.
Jen: It's like Legit.
Jon: And the summer one they have you on like, like roller blades.
Jen: Yeah. It's still very cool, I'm sure.
Jon: It's still fun,
Jen: But not as cool as my experience in the winter.
Jon: Yes, exactly. It's more of just like a big Alpine slide in the summertime. You can also actually in the summertime, they'll let you do skeleton down this track on the wheels, which is fun.
Jen: Oh, you know what is really cool also in the summer. We're not talking about the summer, --
Jon: but it's the winter one. Yeah.
Jen: Is the kids practice their downhill skiing into the giant pool.
Jon: Yes.
Jen: Actually, not just kids, I mean adults too. And it is so cool to watch.
Jon: Yeah. The flying ACEs show, but in the wintertime, you can actually see 'em launch themselves.
Jen: Oh, like actually ok yeah
Jon: Doing the actual thing.
Jen: Yes.
Jon: And you can actually tube down part of the jump.
Jen: No thank you. But that sounds, that would be cool for some people.
Jon: For me, I don't know.
Jen: Okay. You, you wanna break a hip <laugh> and die.
Jon: They also have these high ropes courses that are there that are open year-round. So, if you wanna do something like that. If you are saying, that's great, but I don't wanna be cold the whole time. Then you need to go over to the Homestead Crater, which is outside of Park City by about 15 minutes. We went to the Homestead Crater in the summer it's a geothermal crater that you can swim inside of. It's really deep. 30 feet deep, I think is what it is. 60 feet deep.
Jen: Yeah, because it's like the, the deepest place to you can dive in Utah.
Jon: It is so warm in there. So, I bet it would be great in the wintertime.
Jen: Yeah. Because you know when it's a hundred plus degrees outside, you definitely wanna jump into a Thermo.
Jon: It was 80 something degrees, water. And then the air temp is hot too. And it, ...
Jen: But in the way into, it would be really cool because it has like an opening up at the top. So, I can only imagine if it was like snowing and then like the snow hitting you and you're... yeah. It'd be really cool. You
Jon: You can snorkel in there. You could swim in there. You could do a scuba dive lesson. They do paddleboard yoga
Jen: Inside There?
Jon: Yes.
Jen: It's not that big really?
Jon: But there's like three.
Jen: Okay.
Jon: I don't know.
Jen: That'd be kind of cool, I guess.
Jon: They have all do that. Also, I, as I was doing research, I didn't even know we do this in Park City. Do you know? They offer a dog sledding.
Jen: No.
Jon: Yeah. You could take your kids and go dog sledding and they actually teach you all about the dogs and, and how to take care of them. And then you actually spend time out on the trails behind the dog. And they're saying it's like really fun.
Jen: Oh, that's cool.
Jon: Yeah. We took our kids on a sleigh ride of cuz it's Christmas time. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> as we're recording this and there was like Clydesdales pulling like this wagon around. They did not enjoy that.
Jen: No. They were like, when is the fun part?
Jon: Right? Actually, there was a point when they said, does this take us to the activity we're going to? I was like, no, this is the activity we drove an hour to get to.
Jen: Well, I bet what the dogs are it's going faster than the Clydesdales. It was just, this was like more of a trot.
Jon: Yeah. You know what, we'll do it. And then we'll post some photos up on our Instagram. Oh, that would be fun. Snowshoeing, since it is
Jen: Oh no, I know I saw that you put this on the list and I'm like, interesting. And you have like a lot of notes for snowshoeing and I'm like, Uugh. And I'm like, okay, how about snowmobiling? That's what you wanna do. Yeah. snowmobiling.
Jon: Don't snowshoe.
Jen: Don't snowshoe.
Jon: Don't do it.
Jen: No one wants to do that.
Jon: You know, its hiking, which is already kind of slow enough. But now what you're doing is you're hiking in the snow.
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: And it's cold.
Jen: You can rent ..., If you're interested in that, go to the sports place and rent this stuff and just wander around, yeah.
Jon: But snowmobiling.
Jen: Oh my gosh. It's so fun.
Jon: It's usually in[inaudible15:27]so it's outside of Park City by I get about 15 minutes. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and you sit through a five-minute instructional video.
Jen: I feel like it should probably be longer than that.
Jon: I could have used maybe a little bit more.
Jen: Yes.
Jon: And then you hop on these huge snowmobiles mm-hmm <affirmative> that are like heated on the handles.
Jen: They're nice.
Jon: And they just say, all right,
Jen: Be back in an hour or two.
Jon: And we went with our family mm-hmm <affirmative> and you go out into the wilderness. On these huge machines that you've never been on before --
Jen: And they go fast.
Jon: They go super-fast.
Jen: I mean, I feel like it went fast. I don't know exactly how fast I was going.
Jon: I was going like a hundred miles per hour.
Jen: Okay.
Jon: <Laugh> 40, probably 35 somewhere in there.
Jen: It seemed very fast.
Jon: But you gotta kind of be pay attention cuz there's trees everywhere.
Jen: And I like flying over hills. Like I was like launching it, the air. Yes.
Jon: And if you go like after snow, you're on top of powder and powder sinks; so, you gotta keep going. Otherwise, your snow mobile will actually sink. Then you have to dig yourself out or hope that another snow mobile tour comes through, who can help you that's the only ways to do it. I rolled mine. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> I was fine.
Jen: You were fine. But I don't know if the snow mobile was really fine. The gas was like, it was a whole life. I don't know,
Jon: The gas was leaking on me. I was trapped underneath it for a second Uhhuh. I was like, it's gonna explode. And this is where, this is how I die.
Jen: I know.
Jon: -- In the winter, in the it's like my biggest fear in life is to die while being cold.
Jen: Oh, that's your biggest ...,
Jon: That's my biggest fear.
Jen: Okay, interesting. Okay. Yeah. And there's there was many times where several of us got totally stuck. Yeah.
Jon: Yeah, but it was worth it.
Jen: But we also were, we were being a little --
Jon: Silly.
Jen: We were being a little silly but what I love about snowmobile is it takes zero skill mm-hmm <affirmative> you don't have to be in shape.
Jon: No.
Jen: You don't have to be like, literally you could put your grandma on one.
Jon: You grip it and rip it.
Jen: Yes. It's and you, you don't, we can go as slower, as fast as you want, really. Like it's, it's really fun for the whole family.
Jon: I would probably spend a day snowmobiling instead of, of snowboarding.
Jen: Oh,
Jon: At this stage of my life.
Jen: Oh, me too. Definitely.
Jon: Yeah. It's easier.
Jen: Especially if there had like a little cup holder.
Jon: Oh yeah. I would definitely do a [inaudible17:44] next time. I don't know if that's safe or not,
Jen: But I'm just saying I don't really think so. So don't listen to him.
Jon: Why did you say you wanted to talk about cross country Skiing?
Jen: Well, that's like another thing you
Jon: Mocked me saying, let's talk about snowshoeing and then you're like cross country skiing.
Jen: I know people like it. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> I don't understand why it's like a worse version of skiing.
Jon: You actually gotta do it though at the Olympic place where they did the cross-country skiing.
Jon: Yes.
Jen: And I don't, I don't know. Maybe it's just the day that I went, but it just seems like you're like on skis that are skinnier than regular skis. And then you're just like on ice.
Jon: Yeah.
Jen: It does not seem like safe.
Jon: And then you slide your feet.
Jen: I didn't like it.
Jen: Okay.
Jon: But you are more than welcome to try it.
Jen: But you should try it. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Jon: What else did someone try then? If they're not into that and they want more of a warm, relaxed experience in the Winter.
Jen: Oh okay. So again, I'm going back to my bougie hotels.
Jon: Yes, please.
Jen: But they are very nice. They have amazing views and a lot of them have really cool like bars and restaurants. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and it's like a fun place to go grab a drink.
Jon: Yeah. I agree. I think that if you're gonna go up to Park City, even if you're staying at an Airbnb or whatever. It's fine. Just go into one of these hotels. They're not gonna kick you out.
Jen: No. And just grab a, if you don't drink, you can have a hot chocolate, like Montage has.
Jon: Chocolate's amazing.
Jen: Is it montage or St. Regis that has hot chocolate. But yeah, they have... And then I, their drink menus are also really cool. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and another thing to do is going to High West Whiskey.
Jon: Oh yeah. That's winter or summer.
Jen: That is winter or summer. So, there's one, there's a High West on main street that you can go to.
Jon: That's fine. And I think that they do like whiskey tastings there as well. Or you can go a little are up to the actual High West distillery. You could do like a distillery tour, which we've done, which is super cool. They have a restaurant, a bar,
Jon: Their restaurant's awesome.
Jen: You could buy Boozer on Sunday. I don't, know how that works, but apparently you can,
Jon: They have something grandfathered in or yeah. Who knows? There is Utah drinking laws. So, you have to kind of find your loopholes and High West has them. So yeah, it's worth it for that reason on a Sunday for their Sunday brunch and they have good, good whiskey.
Jen: Oh yeah.
Jon: It's really, and it's just beautiful. They actually have a ranch; you can stay at there too.
Jen: Yeah. And oh my gosh. I've been to a wedding there and it was beautiful
Jon: And we didn't even talk about like, yeah. All these places like that you were mentioning have weddings. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> winter, if you want like that winter Wonderland wedding thing. It's for you.
Jen: I will say Park City is just beautiful. It's so pretty. Mm-Hmm
Jon: <Affirmative> it is. That's why people travel to Park City from all around and it is the greatest snow--
Jen: On earth on earth.
Jon: You'll winter there. You'll see it. And that does it. Another episode of Our Savings Starts Tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't done it yet, will you please give us a review?
Jen: Yes.
Jon: Five stars and write something nice.
Jon: And then call Eddie money. Tell him that. We just want the rights. He doesn't have to cut something new--
Jen: And we don't need the whole song.
Jon: No, just " two tickets in paradise' That's it?
Jen: Yeah. Maybe like twice.
Jon: Okay. Yeah. Tell 'em we need it twice.
Jen: Yeah.
Jon: So, if you could do that, that would be fantastic. And then also follow us on Instagram which is also Our Savings Starts Tomorrow. Bye. Bye.