We're back! But it's a different adventure and in a different area in the mountains! You already know from my previous post that almost anywhere is Utah can be an adventure AND it's sometimes a bit of a drive. Although there are still some great highlights and not the typical places that are shown on social media either. If you aren’t some advanced hitch hiker or a serious adventurer with the packs and tents this is a place for you!
Within the Wasatch Mountains in what’s called Little Cottonwood Canyon, you have a beautiful drive to your main destination. As you enter into the mountains, you find beautiful landscape and the further up the mountain road you go and the more you feel as if you’re on top of the world.
The road feels like it just keeps winding up the mountain without end, until you get to the Ski Resort. The Snowbird Ski Resort is pretty obvious and you’ll see the signs right off the bat. Try to park closer to the entrance if you can if not there’s always valet. The reason is because you can easily go into a lovely and soothing creek bed area of the river that provides the exact sounds so many pay for in their white noise machines or apps! Plenty arrays of greens and colors in the lush landscape (when it’s not the snowy winter season) and when there is snow a beautiful rush water noises against rocks and rice and a different white canvas landscape scene!
My family, daughters and I enjoyed exploring a few times with a few other different additional people with us. It’s always a spell binding day the moment you enter into the canyon areas. The truly spell binding moment is when you reach the top of the mountain from the Ski Resort. So you enter the resort and it’s amazingly well maintained temperature (for both the cold and warmer season) and you have plenty of shops for your convenience and needs, whether for the cold or to change out should you not have the right clothes - yes that includes shoes too. You have a few eating spots within the facility and even outside on the pavilion and terrace areas. They have the specific ski stores and then there’s also these outdoor “rides” or sports to enjoy including that of an outdoor track and slides. We never ventured that route because the girls were too small but they always enjoyed watching those that participated.
We went more for the large gondola ride up to the top of the mountain…that’s where we never did realize how much time we spent up there and the colors of both the sky and the sun never seemed to be the same! It was always a mesmerizing experience.
There is a specific hiking tail as well as an ATV trail and then a cyclist trail as well for the dirt/mountain bikes. When you got to the top there was an observation deck with a few snacks sold and restrooms but it also opened up to multiple different areas that you could trail through the mountains.
The top most point was on the observation deck which was gated and had a safe guard in place for all looking out. Then there was an open road area that anyone (including the maintenance workers) could use to have a longer drive than the direct gondola route to the top.
My girls and I have taken so many different pictures from different angles in the five times we went up and on separate occasions because like I mentioned, there is never a day with the same colors in the sky and that affects how the landscape looks as well.
You’ll leave the facility physically exhausted and it’s an all consuming exhaustion because of the altitude, your body, the adrenaline, in addition to the overwhelming beauty you witness anywhere. One of the most beautiful highlights is when you leave the ski resort at almost the exact time of the sunset…you witness the drive all the way out onto the main highway that will take you back to the Salt Lake City area. It’s something that will stay with you forever.
A Distinct Woman
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