Park City, UT

Sunday, September 27

Today’s adventures take us from Helper, UT north to Park City.

We all slept in this morning until around 8:00am, after a restless night of sleep. We stayed in the nicest RV Park last night — clean grounds, full hook-ups, friendly staff, lots of amenities — but the one negative is that it’s located next to a railroad track. I jumped out of bed with fright at 2 o’clock this morning when I heard the train come barreling by our RV.

It’s a two-hour drive from Helper to Park City through some pretty intense mountain passes. Our poor RV (and our beloved driver!) have been through the ringer navigating those steep mountain passes on this trip. Along the way, we stopped in Spanish Fork, UT to pick up a Wal-Mart grocery order. Three things stuck out to Andi and I during our drive: 1) Almost everything is closed in Utah on Sundays. City streets that would normally be busy with people were completely empty. 2) However, there were TONS of people recreating. We saw people engaged in every activity you could think of from fishing to mountain biking to hiking to ATV off-road trail riding. 3) Utah is very well cared for — lawns perfectly mowed, buildings cared for, no trash on the side of the road. The drive from Provo to Park City, in particular, is really beautiful with the mountains so close in view.

Andi suggested we camp at Wasatch Mountain State Park, just outside Park City. This state park has so many recreation opportunities and is nestled in a picture-perfect neighborhood community called Midway, UT — we were really impressed! The campground has full hook-ups for $30/night which is practically unheard of for a state park. We found a quiet site overlooking the Wasatch Mountain State Park Golf Course.

After we paid for our campsite, we decided to drive into Park City to explore. Andi typed the address into Google Maps which lead us directly from the state park into Park City. The only problem was, it was up a steep and narrow mountain pass on a Sunday afternoon during peak leaf-peeping season. OMG, was that drive stressful! By the way, was that our third mountain pass today? Andi and I lost count.

We made it to Park City’s city center unscathed, and found a place to park in an open lot. From there, we decided to bike around town for a bit. We were in desperate need of some fresh air and exercise.

Downtown Park City transforms into a pedestrian walking mall on Sundays, so we parked our bikes and walked Main Street taking in all the shops, restaurants and live music. Park City has a really cool vibe — it felt like a mix between Aspen and Breckenridge, Colorado.

The four of us biked back to our RV and then drove back to our campground at Wasatch Mountain State Park — this time, taking the long way around via the highway. Tomorrow morning, we plan to go for a hike before saying good-bye to Park City.

Monday, September 28

Andi and I woke the kids up early this morning to hike the Bloods Lake Trail just outside Park City, UT. We’d heard great things about this trail, and wanted to make sure we experienced it before we left town. Taking the same narrow road over Guardian Pass that we drove yesterday, we climbed up to the top of the summit. Fortunately, the road wasn’t nearly as busy as it was yesterday and was a much less stressful drive.

At the top, we were surprised to find several cars in the trailhead parking lot. We hit the trail at 9:00am and began making our way to the lake. It was a beautiful trail, but a dusty one. We must have just missed the aspen leaves changing here — most of the trees are brown now.

The kids weren’t big fans of this trail a) because it was flat with nothing to climb over, and b) because the trail to the lake was all uphill. Andi and I enduring an hour of complaining from Aden and lots of breaks to catch our breath.

On the bright side, the trek from the lake back to the parking lot was all downhill, so there was a lot less complaining from everyone and we were able to add 3 1/2 miles to our weekly tracker. We were surprised how many people we saw on the trail. Tory said she counted 79 people and 5 dogs — on a Monday morning! I can’t imagine how busy this trail would be a weekend.

We could see that Park City, in general, is a very active place. There were people recreating every direction we turned — from fishing to hiking to golfing & more.

Andi had a lunch meeting with a friend in Park City at Noon, so Tory, Aden and I holed up in the parking lot of a Walgreens and did school in the RV. Around 1:30pm, the four of us hit the road for Idaho. We had a long afternoon of driving ahead.

Driving through Salt Lake City was long and stressful, but our travels were uneventful after that. In Twin Falls, Idaho, Andi and I decided to stop for dinner at Chick-fil-A and take it to the famous Shoshone Falls — known as the Niagra Falls of the West. Wouldn’t you know it that the falls were shut off when we arrived? Go figure. Apparently, they turn off the dam every once in a while to control the amount of water flowing through the Snake River. It just so happened that we visited at the exact moment they did this.

We didn’t get to see the Shoshone Falls in action, but we did get to view the big, beautiful canyon and stretch our legs a bit after an afternoon of driving. When we got back to the RV we realized the passenger window had been cracked and about a hundred flies made their way into our RV. The entire ceiling was covered with them! I went on a killing attack to get them all out while Andi laughed. Blech.

We got back on the road from Twin Falls, ID and drove until dark. Andi and I agreed to sleep at an Idaho rest area since we didn’t need any services. No sense paying $40 to stay at an RV Park when we we planned to leave bright and early tomorrow morning. Sleeping at a rest area is exactly as you’d expect — loud, but free. Tomorrow, we’ll drive another four hours to our next destination— McCall, Idaho.