amyx

We will be visiting the SLC area late August for two days. Here's my planned itinerary:

1st day: Half day (PM) - Sundance
2nd day: Half day (AM) - Utal Olympic Park (Park City)
2nd day: Half day (PM) - Snowbird or Deer Valley Resort ???
3rd day: Half day (AM) - This is a Sunday. Will attend the choir and tour Temple Square in SLC

How does this itinerary sound? I would like to get some advice as to which resort we should visit on the 2nd day, Snowbird or Deer Valley. What would be the best way to visit either resort? Which activities should we plan? We would like to possibly take a lift and view the mountain scenaries. If time allows, maybe we will do some light hiking. Is the lift (plus the views) worth the money they charge (about $20 per person) at the resort?

BarbaraS

On the 2nd day I would skip Snowbird and spend the entire day in the Park City area. Deer Valley is in the Park City area. After you spend time at the Olympic Park I would head over to Main Street get some lunch, do some shopping, and ride the Alpine Slide, then you could drive over to Deer Valley.

amyx

Thanks Barbara for your kind suggestions. I didn't realize Deer Valley is right in Park City. Alpine Slide sounds great...my husband will surely enjoy it! What sould we expect to do at Deer Valley? Does the resort charge an entrance fee or does it just charge for the lifts?

BarbaraS

I don't know of a lot to do at Deer Valley in the summer. They do offer horseback riding, biking and hiking. There is a Utah Symphony performance Aug. 23. in an outdoor ampitheater. They are suppose to have some great restaurants. You could probably find plenty to do in Park City if you wanted to skip Deer Valley.

jet519

We took a trip to Utah, Wyoming with our kids several years ago and spent some time in Provo, Salt Lake City before going to Jackson Hole. One of the highlights on our way to Jackson that is pretty close to Salt Lake City was Antelope Island which is in the Great Salt Lake. There are huge rocks all over one area on the island that are great fun and easy to climb and you have a 360 view of the lake. It was beautiful. There are also buffalo (contained) and a place to grab lunch (buffalo burgers!) You can also go to a beach area of the lake but it stinks. The kids really wanted to do it anyway though! The island is small and there is basically one road through it. You wouldn't spend more than a couple of hours of your time but I thought it was a unique experience and we got some great pictures.

LaurenSKahn

If you have time, go north to Promotory Point to see where the golden spike was hammered joining East and West in 1869 for the first time. They reenact the trains touching about once an hour or so. I found it very moving.

I cannot say that I was overly impressed with SLC itself unless you are into genealogical research (I am) or are a Mormon (I'm not).

As someone else mentioned, there is a lot to do in Park City--and, yes, that Alpine Slide is a blast!

The highlight of my trip was using the Family History Library (Mormons are really into genealogy for reasons that I am not going to detail here). If there is anything crazier than discovering descendants of Jews who became Mormons, you tell me. I had some information and really isolated where they were in about 30 minutes in the FHL. We did meet during the vacation. They lived down the street and around the corner about 1/2 mile from where I was home exchanging.

We did do a lot of day tripping and overnights within Utah and the area to go whitewater rafting, horseback riding, etc. The whitewater rafting capital of the US is Moab, UT (south of SLC about 2-3 hrs). In my opinion, the best of UT is all the outdoor activities.