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Deer Valley
Deer Valley offers lift-served downhill biking on a variety
of trails. This ski resort has, arguably, the most popular and most
variable lift-served biking trails in Utah -- if you feel like banging
downhill without spending your day grunting uphill.
Trails undergo yearly tweaking and additions, so a current map is
highly recommended. At the resort, you can get maps specific to Deer
Valley's system, or for all of the Park City area.
View down the hill, looking towards
Jordanelle Reservoir. Photo July 2002.
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The lift runs Wednesday through Sunday (subject to change). If you like to climb, it doesn't cost you anything to use Deer Valley's
trails if you arrive via connecting area trails. Note! Deer Valley may stop you from
climbing uphill on their resort trails on days when the ski lift is
running! This includes the gravel service road. On on-lift
days, use some sense in selecting which singletrack you'll climb -- if
you value your life.
Some trails are one-way downhill, for example Tidal
Wave.
The lift is shared by hikers.
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At the lower lodge (Snow Park) you can connect to the Deer Crest Trail system
to climb uphill to the higher (Silver Lake) lodge. From the upper lodge,
the best climbing plan is to head out on the Midmountain
Trail, then grab Team Big Bear or Tour
de Suds to climb uphill through Flagstaff to the back side of Bald
Mountain.
You can also climb up the gravel lift access road from the
bottom. To reach the doubletrack, head uphill past the lift, then veer
across southbound and climb steeply up Little Stick. When you reach the
Silver Lake Lodge, again hop onto the gravel lift road to ride uphill.
Note: You can connect to the Daly Canyon trails (such as
Tour des Suds and Gravedigger) via the Rossi Hill
trail.
View along a forested trail section.
This is a black-diamond section, featuring log drops, quick turns, and
slalom-like pathways. |
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Deer Valley connects to the west-side Park City trail
system via the Deer Camp Trail. This trail will take you northwest to a high-altitude
loop called the Flagstaff Loop. Continuing on, you'll arrive at the top of
Team Big Bear From here, you can connect via the Moose Bone trail to TG, from which you reach the Park City Mountain Resort
trail system.
The top of Deer Valley Connects to
Tour des Suds, TG, and other Park City Trails via the Deer Camp trail,
which heads northwest just behind the lift. This view shows the wide
meadow through which Deer Camp traverses. |
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Deer Valley has lift-served trails suitable for
reasonably-able beginners, such as Naildriver. Yet for hardcore riders, it
offers kick-butt technical downhills such as Fire Swamp, Aspen Slalom, and
Freestyle. You'll find a lot to like.
This handlebar view looks down a
typical section of aspen forest on Naildriver, an easier singletrack
route. This is near the connection to Twist and Shout. |
| Many of the trails have man-made features. Most of these
tech challenges have easy ride-arounds. In 2011, features were
well-marked.
Black diamond trails that don't offer ride-arounds are also marked at
the entrance. Don't go tramping through the brush around obstacles. Either
ride everything or stay off the trail.
A little roller coaster at the
beginning of Homeward Bound. |
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It will take you several trips down the mountain to find all
the little side trails. On some of the stunt areas, such as Homeward
Bound, you'll probably want to take a scouting and testing run first, then
hit the obstacles seriously on a second trip down the mountain.
Lots of log rides and balance stunts.
Note the ride-around route to the left. (The dirt on the sides of the
stunt isn't a ride-around -- it's from riders falling off the log.) |
| There are also some black-diamond runs down the face of the
mountain to the lower lodge. These are less-traveled and not well-known.
You can reach them by heading out eastbound on the doubletrack south of
Silver Lake Lodge. After crossing the paved road and climbing up to the
ridge ski slope, turn downhill (left) instead of entering Four Point.
(Note: there's another expert-level run that branches off
further down.)
Captains Log. Four feet in the air.
But only difficult in your mind. |
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Deer Valley is expanding, with new trails evolving. A new DH
trail from Ruby Lift down to Midmountain near Empire Lodge will open in 2012.
As a companion, a new trail links TG to Empire
Lodge.
A connecting trail from Bald
Mountain over to Ruby has been built in 2011.
Nearing the lift, we hit this trackway.
Great for building confidence on wooden structures. |
| Getting there: To get up to the Silver Lake
Lodge and l lift, I suggest
you drive, rather than riding from the bottom. Follow the signs in Park
City to get onto Deer Valley Drive. After the road divides, turn right
uphill just as the parking area for the Snow Park Lodge comes into view.
Follow this winding road uphill, ignoring the multiple roads taking off at
angles. Find parking at the lodge, and head towards the lift on the
sidewalk. Note that in 2017 the previous parking lot no longer exists,
being replaced by a new building. You can park at the lower Snow Park
lodge and take the city shuttle bus uphill. |
| From the bottom: If you, for whatever insane
reason, decide to ride uphill from the Snow Park Lodge parking area, there
are several routes, but they aren't easy to navigate: (A) As you face the
lodge from the parking area, there's a doubletrack on the right side.
Follow this up through two turns, then keep heading as close to straight
south as you can when you hit any forks. Eventually, you'll drop down
across a road and come around the south side of the lodge. (B) A bit up
the doubletrack, a singletrack heads straight uphill. Try to keep heading
uphill and southward until you reach the top of the hill, where you can
connect to doubletrack to roll down past the lodge. (C) Up the Gap Trail
(see the Solamere Trail), but connecting
southward onto Deer Crest. Eventually, you wind up on top of the mountain,
where you catch a doubletrack down past the lodge. This is the "long
way round" but it's actually my favorite route uphill. See the Deer
Crest to Silver Lake track GPX file. |
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