Salt Lake City, UT
Leading up to our departure, we raced to move out of our beloved apartment, told the Powers That Be we would be out for a long lunch, and tried our best to spread some holiday cheer. We just didn't get around to planning the trip. We certainly planned to do it, but not really how it would be done.
Upon our arrival in Breckenridge, we wished we planned how to buy lift tickets without feeling like a sucker. At $165 a ticket, it was quite a wake up call. Triple digit lift tickets as far as the eye can see forced some frantic googling…and luckily led to a solid solution.
We decided to purchase a Mountain Collective pass for around $520. The pass gets you two days of skiing at 16 different mountains, plus some other perks. We we’re already planning on hitting 4 of these 16 mountains anyway so the decision was a no-brainer. Looking at a map of our new found lift ticket wealth, we decided to add Salt Lake City to our list of stops.
Liz and I have been to Salt Lake a handful of times. Direct flights from New York to some of the most snow in the country makes SLC a workaholic’s long weekend dream. On our last visit we even looked at some commercial/warehouse properties to develop our own logistical toe-hold in the West. This time around it was all about skiing Snowbird on the cheep and easy.
We pulled out of the Nordic Lodge in Steamboat and pointed the 4Runner west on route 40. We didn’t turn off it for 300 miles. Snow-caked roads transitioned to dry pavement as we swung around Dinosaur National Monument. A new landscape emerged here and, until hitting the Wasatch Range, we got our first taste of the southwestern flavor.
There was no way Merlin would to let us pass through a town named Park City and not visit their dog park. He had a blast at one of the most impressive fenced parks I’ve seen to date. It was huge but sightly with nice views, agility equipment, and a pond.
We rolled in to our La Quinta with just enough daylight to be reminded how impressive a natural backdrop Salt Lake has. The whole valley is ring-fenced by surging mountains and even the most modest of discount hotels will have god damn views.
The next morning we were snaking our way up the canyon to Snowbird. The half hour drive flew by and we found ourselves on one of the first trams to the top. We spent the morning on the sunny Mineral Basin side of the mountain before closing the day out with fun fast runs down the main face. The modern and geometric design of the lodges, along with the canyon’s lack of real-estate development, really made this base area one of our favorites.
As I mentioned, this was not our first time to SLC. Prior to our last visit, my mom gave us a gift certificate to a very well reviewed restaurant, Valter’s. Ultimately we didn’t get to use the free meal, and the certificate itself got lost in the busy year’s shuffle. When my mom found out our next stop would be Salt Lake, she diligently got to work amassing enough evidence to convince even the surliest of floor managers that we should dine gratis.
After a trip to the local dog park, we hopped into an Uber and headed downtown to Valter’s. We were not prepared for what we encountered. White table clothes, a straight-laced staff, and proper bread plates had us shaking in our Merrill and LL Bean boots. We reached maximum awkwardness when the check arrived and I had to clarify I’m the guy whose mom called ahead to pay for his date.
The food was great and we had a lot of fun with the whole predicament. On the way home our driver enlightened us to the meaning of La Quinta. It literally translates to “the fifth", but culturally it would mean “take a hike”. This whole time we figured it meant “next to Denny’s”.
