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.
