# Coming to you live from... Utah



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

We drove up to Utah today from SoCal.  The main event of our trip is a week in Park City at Marriott Mountainside for mountain biking and whatever else we decide to do.  We check in there in two days.

Tonight and tomorrow we are staying just outside Panguitch UT, which in turn is a little outside Bryce.  I wanted to ride this red rock Bryce-like (or so I hear) trail called Thunder Mountain.  That’s tomorrow’s agenda item.

Found a sweet little place called Cottonwood Meadows Lodge, we’re staying in a little cabin on the property.  Just arrived a few hours ago: so peaceful.  It’s about a 15 min drive from the trailhead.

After Mountainside, we have two nights at Bryce Canyon Lodge, inside the park.  I’ll try to post some trip highlights as we go.

The cabin’s porch:


----------



## klpca (Jul 5, 2018)

Utah is so great. Have fun!


----------



## Passepartout (Jul 5, 2018)

Hmmm Butch Cassidy country. Have fun!


----------



## Greg G (Jul 5, 2018)

Boy, that looks nice.

Greg


----------



## DaveNV (Jul 5, 2018)

In Panguitch, if Buffalo Java is still there, it’s worth a stop. Great beverages, and excellent baked goods. 

Enjoy your Utah visit!

Dave


----------



## mjm1 (Jul 5, 2018)

Have a great time. We loved visiting Bryce and Zion. Utah has some amazing areas.

Best regards.

Mike


----------



## taffy19 (Jul 5, 2018)

Bryce and Zion are spectacular and your place looks cozy with lovely scenery too.  Did you plan this or found it on your way?


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

DaveNW said:


> In Panguitch, if Buffalo Java is still there, it’s worth a stop. Great beverages, and excellent baked goods.
> 
> Enjoy your Utah visit!
> 
> Dave



No longer around, according to the internet.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

taffy19 said:


> Bryce and Zion are spectacular and your place looks cozy with lovely scenery too.  Did you plan this or found it on your way?



We found it through Trip Advisor.  I considered all kinds of options: staying in a little hotel/motel in Panguitch, using hotel points and staying near the internet, staying in/near Bryce.  Then I stumbled upon this place: Little cabin on a farm, five stars in trip advisor, great reviews.  I booked it months ago.  So far, it is just as advertised.


----------



## DaveNV (Jul 5, 2018)

heathpack said:


> No longer around, according to the internet.



That's too bad.  It was a great place. Looking at street view on Google Maps, it looks like the entire building is gone.  I wonder if they had a fire or something?  It was a rather "antique" building.

Dave


----------



## vikingsholm (Jul 5, 2018)

heathpack, you may want to consider a day trip to Sundance when you're at Park City too. You can grab a lunch at their nice outdoor patio at one of their restaurants down at the base of the lifts, and take your bike up a chairlift to cycle down the mountains. We hiked it, but there were a lot of mountain bikers doing this when we visited there. It's a spectacular setting too, with great views from up top.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

vikingsholm said:


> heathpack, you may want to consider a day trip to Sundance when you're at Park City too. You can grab a lunch at their nice outdoor patio at one of their restaurants down at the base of the lifts, and take your bike up a chairlift to cycle down the mountains. We hiked it, but there were a lot of mountain bikers doing this when we visited there. It's a spectacular setting too, with great views from up top.



We’ll check out the possibility.  I just googled it and it looks like it would be a 45 min drive.  The problem is always that my husband doesn’t ride so what would he do?  It works well when I can ride right from or to the condo, he can just hang out and chill.  

But he loves movies.  Maybe there is an art house theater in Sundance?  I’ll see if I can figure it out.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

Well today I got a ride up to the Thunder Mountain trailhead, which is about 10min from the condo.  The plan was to ride 5 miles up the bike path through Red Canyon, then a couple of miles along a dirt road to the far end of the Thunder Mountain Trail and then take the trail 8.1 miles back to the start.

I will spare y’all the details of how this ride was something of a cluster at the beginning but in the end very very good.

The bike path is really awesome, I only saw three people total on it.  What a shame.  Easy enough for a casual cyclist to do and amazing red rock views.

The dirt road was just getting from point A to point B.

The trail was pretty darn cool.  Mostly ok for an intermediate rider with some tough sections that I had to walk.  A lot of steep switchbacks with loose dirt/silt/dust and rocks, not fun.  It hit my bars on a branch and crashed over the front of the bike.  Wasn’t hurt but I didn’t notice for 2 miles that my bike computer fell off the bike during the crash so I had to ride back to retrieve it.

BUT eventually I got to the hoodoo madness.  Wow.  Just trying not to stop every 3 seconds to take a pic, trying to keep my eyes on the trail.  I kept thinking, “what a great country this is, that there’s trails like this and you can just go ride em for free”.  I saw again a total of three other people on the trail- a dad and his two little sons, maybe 8 and 10 years old.  Where’s everybody?  Holiday week.  Incredible trail.  My mind is blown by this trail not being Grand Central Station.  Did see a large group equestrians, maybe 15 of them.  Lots of hoof prints and horse pucks on the trail.

Anyway, a great experience, worth crashing and being hot and having to walk lots of the trail.

Tomorrow we are heading to Park City and we’ve decided to take all day to do it by driving Scenic Highway 12.  I’m debating getting up early to ride before we check out, I have to look at ride details to figure out logistics and if this even makes sense to attempt.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

Having trouble inserting pics for some reason.  Here’s one from the trail.








Here’s me at the ride end, covered with dust from my fall and also from the bike kicking up dust.  Excuse the hair, it always does that hideous scarecrow thing when a bike helmet gets on my head.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

Again trouble posting, here’s the pic to go with the dusty trail comments above.


----------



## klpca (Jul 5, 2018)

How's the weather? Looks like it must not be too hot. Have fun riding!

And based upon your story, I think that we would probably enjoy hearing about the beginning cluster as well.


----------



## clifffaith (Jul 5, 2018)

Passepartout said:


> Hmmm Butch Cassidy country. Have fun!



We took a trip on the Heber Valley Railroad last month while we were in Utah (about 25 minutes from Park City). They told the story of a widow in the area about to lose her land, and the banker was coming the next day to evict her if she didn't have money to pay off the mortgage. That night a stranger knocked on her door and asked if he could have a meal and bed down in the barn. Over dinner stranger says he notices the woman seems to be worrying about something. She tells him she is losing her home the next day since she did not have $2K to pay off the mortgage. Stranger reaches into his pack and hands her $2K. She of course demurs but he insists, tells her to make sure she gets a receipt signing over the house to her, and confirms what time the banker is due. Next morning when she wakes up, stranger is gone. Banker arrives at the appointed hour and she pays off her mortgage and gets a receipt. Of course the banker meets the stranger along the road on his way back to town, and Butch Cassidy relieves him of the $2K.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 5, 2018)

klpca said:


> How's the weather? Looks like it must not be too hot. Have fun riding!
> 
> And based upon your story, I think that we would probably enjoy hearing about the beginning cluster as well.



Temps in the 80s and low 90s.  Not too terrible.  I should have started earlier though.

The cluster is not much of a story really.  I didn’t feel like riding but had gone to great trouble to get here, so I was determined to ride.  But I dithered away my morning, got a late start, then realized I forgot my helmet, husband went to get it, couldn’t find it, no cell reception, finally found it, even more of a delay to the start (this was relevant because of the rising temps).

Then my crash at the beginning of the trail, and losing my bike computer and needing to ride back to get it.  Which I knew would delay me getting back to the trailhead when I said I would and then my husband would worry.  So I was rushing along, not having fun, not sure I’d ever find cell reception.  

Then once I got to hoodoo madness I had cell reception to get a text out to husband to change the pick up time, and the trail got so beautiful and it was more open with a nice breeze so I felt much cooler.  Everything went from “this ride is a mistake” to “wow I’m so lucky to be here”.


----------



## klpca (Jul 5, 2018)

heathpack said:


> Temps in the 80s and low 90s.  Not too terrible.  I should have started earlier though.
> 
> The cluster is not much of a story really.  I didn’t feel like riding but had gone to great trouble to get here, so I was determined to ride.  But I dithered away my morning, got a late start, then realized I forgot my helmet, husband went to get it, couldn’t find it, no cell reception, finally found it, even more of a delay to the start (this was relevant because of the rising temps).
> 
> ...


 it's always something! I'm so glad that the hoodoos made up for the rest, especially having to double back for your computer. It sounds like it started off as "one of those days" but turned into one of the "best days ever"!


----------



## Greg G (Jul 6, 2018)

heathpack said:


> Well today I got a ride up to the Thunder Mountain trailhead, which is about 10min from the condo.  The plan was to ride 5 miles up the bike path through Red Canyon, then a couple of miles along a dirt road to the far end of the Thunder Mountain Trail and then take the trail 8.1 miles back to the start.
> 
> I will spare y’all the details of how this ride was something of a cluster at the beginning but in the end very very good.
> 
> ...



Wow, that is some scenery.

Greg


----------



## Passepartout (Jul 6, 2018)

Greg G said:


> Wow, that is some scenery.


As many here know, I have traversed the USA, on the ground for nearly 4 million miles over 30 years, and IMNSHO, Utah is the most scenic state in the Union. Others are welcome to their opinion, but that's mine.


----------



## vikingsholm (Jul 6, 2018)

heathpack said:


> We’ll check out the possibility.  I just googled it and it looks like it would be a 45 min drive.  The problem is always that my husband doesn’t ride so what would he do?  It works well when I can ride right from or to the condo, he can just hang out and chill.
> 
> But he loves movies.  Maybe there is an art house theater in Sundance?  I’ll see if I can figure it out.


Not sure if they had a regular schedule of movies going on at the ski area - they have facilities for that in Park City though. We were too busy with outdoor activities to check. There was an outdoor concert starting the evening we left there however.  

It is a splendid place - well worth the visit. It's got more spectacular rock ridged mountains than the more rounded ones around Park City itself. If he doesn't bike, you can both chairlift it up to the top where they have a little cafe with an outdoor patio and big views. Then he could chairlift it down while you ride.

Just another option, but one we try to take advantage of every time we go to Park City. The drive from PC to Sundance is pretty nice too.


----------



## DaveNV (Jul 6, 2018)

Passepartout said:


> As many here know, I have traversed the USA, on the ground for nearly 4 million miles over 30 years, and IMNSHO, Utah is the most scenic state in the Union. Others are welcome to their opinion, but that's mine.




I agree. I’ve been to more than 45 states, and in the USA I think Utah (at least the southern half) is pretty darned dramatic scenery.

Dave


----------



## WinniWoman (Jul 6, 2018)

Passepartout said:


> As many here know, I have traversed the USA, on the ground for nearly 4 million miles over 30 years, and IMNSHO, Utah is the most scenic state in the Union. Others are welcome to their opinion, but that's mine.



Haven’t been yet, but I am sure this is very debatable. So many states have really gorgeous scenery everywhere. Alaska comes to mind as one of many.


----------



## DaveNV (Jul 6, 2018)

mpumilia said:


> Haven’t been yet, but I am sure this is very debatable. So many states have really gorgeous scenery everywhere. Alaska comes to mind as one of many.



It’s different from Alaska in a very dramatic and beautiful way. You need to visit. 

Dave


----------



## Passepartout (Jul 6, 2018)

mpumilia said:


> *Haven’t been yet*, but I am sure this is very debatable. So many states have really gorgeous scenery everywhere. *Alaska* comes to mind as one of many.


Feel free to chime in after you've been there. Yes, Alaska has a lot of scenic beauty, but there's so much of it. Alaska is 1/5 the size of the whole lower 48!


----------



## WinniWoman (Jul 6, 2018)

DaveNW said:


> It’s different from Alaska in a very dramatic and beautiful way. You need to visit.
> 
> Dave



Planned for Sept. 2019!


----------



## DaveNV (Jul 6, 2018)

mpumilia said:


> Planned for Sept. 2019!



Which parts?

Dave


----------



## Karen G (Jul 6, 2018)

We just drove home today from being at our daughter's condo in Brian Head, UT, for a few days and went through Zion National Park on the way back, so I know what beautiful scenery you are enjoying in Utah. Very familiar with Panguitch and Bryce Canyon. Have fun!  I do agree that Utah scenery is spectacular.


----------



## WinniWoman (Jul 7, 2018)

DaveNW said:


> Which parts?
> 
> Dave



Just 5 days. Flying in from NY to Vegas and driving to Cable Mountain Lodge (Springdale)- Zion - where we are staying for the week, and will check out Bryce also.


----------



## Sugarcubesea (Jul 7, 2018)

I never really thought much about Utah or about putting it on my bucket list... These pictures are just beautiful and I'm now going to ensure that one day I get here...Thank you for sharing your story


----------



## WinniWoman (Jul 7, 2018)

Sugarcubesea said:


> I never really thought much about Utah or about putting it on my bucket list... These pictures are just beautiful and I'm now going to ensure that one day I get here...Thank you for sharing your story




We always think National Parks when we decide to travel via air.


----------



## Karen G (Jul 7, 2018)

mpumilia said:


> Just 5 days. Flying in from NY to Vegas and driving to Cable Mountain Lodge (Springdale)- Zion - where we are staying for the week, and will check out Bryce also.


Do you have the National Parks Senior Pass? When we went through Zion yesterday the cost was $35/car but we were happy to present our senior pass instead.  I saw that the cost of a lifetime senior pass has gone up to $80 but there's an annual pass available for $20. If you don't have one, you can get it at the entrance gate. You'll need it to get into Bryce Canyon, too.


----------



## Karen G (Jul 7, 2018)

Sugarcubesea said:


> I never really thought much about Utah or about putting it on my bucket list... These pictures are just beautiful and I'm now going to ensure that one day I get here...Thank you for sharing your story


 Definitely take a look at all the national parks in Utah as well as the nearby areas of northern Arizona which include the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Page, AZ for Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon. Check out this site:  https://www.visitutah.com/road-to-m...CqyPrtSKNxdxXiRUly12A7KYQDowraI0aAgBAEALw_wcB


----------



## WinniWoman (Jul 7, 2018)

Karen G said:


> Do you have the National Parks Senior Pass? When we went through Zion yesterday the cost was $35/car but we were happy to present our senior pass instead.  I saw that the cost of a lifetime senior pass has gone up to $80 but there's an annual pass available for $20. If you don't have one, you can get it at the entrance gate. You'll need it to get into Bryce Canyon, too.



Yes- my husband has the $10 one! We are lucky!


----------



## heathpack (Jul 7, 2018)

You know, I think I might be the only person on this planet who went to Alaska and felt “meh”.  So far I like Utah better.

Yesterday was a looong day.  I didn’t ride in the morning, just didn’t want to feel rushed.  We left our sweet tiny cabin around 9:30am and hit the road up Scenic UT Route 12.  What a great drive.  Huge variety of epic landscape, there is no one picture that captures it.

But here’s a nice one: red rocks and lush green, so beautiful.






Then.... it got not so fun.  Lots of construction, delays with roads turned single lane for stretches, towns with slow speed limits and stoplights, slow moving vehicles like camping trailers and trucks hauling heavy things.  We packed a lunch and had a delicious picnic while still on route 12 but needed to run a few errands and didn’t get to Marriott Mountainside until 6pm.  Long day but at least our room was ready at check in, lol.

Fixed ourselves a nice dinner of sautéed lamb chops in our unit, then we walked down to watch an outdoor film in a city park.  Sundance Summer Film Series, I won a schwag bag and the film was great.  Man on Wire, if anyone’s interested.

Slept in a little today and then went exploring up Park City Mountain on the mountain bike.  Literally riding from the front door of the Marriott, totally awesome.  I had a plan but at the base of the mountain none of the trails were labeled (they want you to pay to carry your bike up the lift, I guess).  I wound up on the wrong trail but it was no matter, I had a map, picked the brains of other riders on the trail, talked to some Bike Patrol guys I met and had a great ride.

Really nice trails and nice scenery: open grassy areas with grasses as high as your eye, cool forested areas with pines and birches, wild flowers.  Just really nice riding.






Then back to the condo, got some chores done (laundry and bike stuff).  Fixed lunch.  Walked around the resort and village a little.  Came back to the Marriott to find them pouring wine (free!) in the lobby.  Just a nice chill day.

Tomorrow I’m going to get up a little earlier and try to ride up Park City Mountain and then over to Deer Valley.  We have a “presentation” at Summit Watch at 2pm.  Pre-arrival offer for a $200 restaurant gift card enticed me, plus I do want to check out Summit Watch and downtown Park City.  The restaurant gift card is for a restaurant group that has 5ish restaurants.  Two bargain nights (a taco Tuesday and Thursday deals at a casual Italian place).  Plus two of the restaurants have family meals to go.  I’m thinking we can eat most of the rest of the week off that $200 restaurant gift card, lol.

More money to spend on the Alpine Slide and Alpine Roller Coaster.  Both right here at the village where Marriott Mountain sits.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 8, 2018)

Got out a little earlier today, rode up Park City mountain then to Deer Valley via Mid Mountain trail.  Sweet ride, took the bike path back to Marriott Mountainside.

Lots of people out biking and hiking today.  Everyone was so polite and well behaved on the trail that I thought I was in Canada, lol.  Well except for one hammerhead type guy.  Trail etiquette is that the person going uphill generally has the right of way on a narrow trail. If you’re going downhill, you skootch off the trail or stop to let the uphill person pass.  All you usually say is thank the person for yielding to you, wish them a nice ride and tell them if you’re riding with more people and if so how many are behind.  It would go something like this: person stops for you and doesn’t say anything, you say, “thanks, it’s just me, have a great ride”.

 So I’m riding uphill and Mr Hammerhead is coming down hill.  His job is to yield for me but he’s clearly in a hurry, so I pause a little.  He says urgently, “Cmon Cmon Cmon!”  It takes me a second to process this and I stop.  “What did you say?  Cmon?”  I guess I was looking at him with a “how rude” face because he says to me, “I was just trying to get you to ride through”.

Funny because mostly people are just really chill.

Anyway, beautiful ride.  Got back to the condo around 11am, showered, fixed lunch and then headed to Summit Watch for our sales pitch.  We didn’t like the locale or resort anywhere near as much as we like Mountainside.  The sales pitch was pretty painless and we collected our $200 restaurant gift cards which we used a little of to pick up a very tasty to-go family meal of lasagne and Caesar salad from a place called Ghidotti’s.  With some wine back at the condo.  Nice day.

I somehow managed to pull a scapular muscle though, maybe my trapezius.  Stretching, foam rolling, myofascial release tonight.


----------



## heathpack (Jul 8, 2018)

Mid Mountain Trail


----------

