Summer in Deer Valley – Trip Recap

I spent four nights in Deer Valley, Utah over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and it was a perfect summer getaway! We spent our days hiking in Deer Valley and exploring Park City and our nights eating delicious dinners. Deer Valley is known for its incredible skiing during the winter but it’s a great summer destination as well.

Here are a few of the things I loved the most about summer in Deer Valley:

• THE WEATHER! Temperatures were in the 80s during the day with very low humidity and dropped down into the low 50s at night. It was such a welcome change from the heat + humidity we have in the south.
• Long days + lots of sunlight. The sun rose around 6:15a and set around 9p but it didn’t get fully dark until almost 10. The abundance of sunlight really made it feel like you could maximize spending time outside to enjoy the weather and scenery.
• Lifts running. While Deer Valley only runs three of its 21 lifts during the summer, it was so lovely to have them both to access trails and for scenic rides.
• Trail systems. Love, love, love that there is so much access to the ski mountains during the summer through trails that criss-cross the mountains. There are nearly 70 miles of mountain biking trails in Deer Valley. Many of these trails can be shared with hikers and there are some hiking only trails.

As I mentioned in my last post, we stayed at the St. Regis Deer Valley. It’s located high along the slopes of Deer Valley Resort in a gated community called Deer Crest. It feels private and tucked away while offering full access to all that nature has to offer and an easy ride into Park City. The elevation at the St. Regis Deer Valley is just over 7,000 feet.

Here are a few amenities that the St. Regis Deer Valley offers:

• 14,000 square-foot spa
• 3,000 square-foot fitness facility with pool and mountain views
• Year-round outdoor, bi-level pool with hot tubs and mountain views
• 177 guest rooms (including 64 suites – ours had a full kitchen!)
• Butler service
• Twice-daily housekeeping
• Daily sunset champagne sabering ritual – v. sad I didn’t get to experience this, haha
• Daily s’mores bar at an outdoor fire pit
• Ski-in, ski-out during the winter
• Three restaurants on-site
• 24-hour room service
• Complimentary shuttles within a five-mile radius (they will take you in and out of Park City)

My stay at the St. Regis was extremely comfortable. Our room was spacious and well-appointed and the service throughout the hotel was friendly and attentive. We ate a lot of meals at the St. Regis and I found the food and drinks to be great too!

We spent four nights and three full days in Deer Valley. Here is a day-by-day breakdown of our trip!

DAY ONE

I was up at 6:15a our first morning in Deer Valley thanks to the time change. I called our butler and had a pot of French press coffee delivered to our room. We were in the restaurant for breakfast by 7:30 and out hiking by 10!

For our first hike, we took the Silver Lake Express lift from Snow Park Lodge to Silver Lake Village at mid-mountain. The lift in itself is a great activity and is beautiful and serene. It takes about 13 minutes to get from point-to-point.

We took the Silver Lake Trail up to the top of Bald Mountain. It’s a two-mile trail (one-way) that gains around 1,300 feet of elevation and offers stunning views of the Jordanelle Reservoir and Uinta Mountains in the distance on the way up. It’s a foot-traffic only trail so you don’t have to dodge mountain bikers.

Here’s the view of the Jordanelle Reservoir.

At the top of Bald Mountain you are at 9,400 feet elevation and have panoramic views of surrounding mountains. It’s gorgeous! Once you make it to the top, you can take the Sterling Express lift down to Silver Lake Village or you can hike back down by taking the same trail you came up or the Ontario Trail which also puts you back at Silver Lake Village. You can take the same Silver Lake Express lift back to the base.

Note: you only have to pay for lift tickets for rides up the mountain. If you hike up, you can ride down for free. 

It took us about one-hour to complete this hike and I would call it moderately strenuous. The trail is well-maintained and easy to navigate but you do gain a lot of elevation, especially towards the end.

Back at the hotel, we got showered and cleaned up for lunch at Brasserie 7452 in the hotel. We were seated in a great table on the patio with mountain views. The highlight of lunch was a glass of Veuve Clicquot. Perfect post-hike, “I’m on vacation” treat.

The day got even better after lunch as I was scheduled for an 80-minute massage at the Remede Spa. It was heavenly! I arrived at the spa around 25 minutes before my treatment to enjoy the steam room and the relaxation room. My therapist was seriously amazing. She provided just the right amount of pressure and addressed the areas of concern that I mentioned during our brief consultation. I had some stuff going on with the right side of my neck into my trap and shoulder as well as constantly managing my hip condition through loosening up all of the muscles around my hip. She gave me the BEST glute work that I have ever had in a massage! If she was in Charlotte, I’d book with her in a heartbeat.

Dinner that evening was at Grappa, an Italian restaurant at the top of Main Street in Park City. We scored an outdoor table and had such a pleasant dining experience. I’ll share all of the food in a separate post.

DAY TWO – JULY 4TH

After a leisurely breakfast, my goal for the morning was a trail run! We popped into the concierge to ask if it was safe for me to do a run on my own and to get guidance on trails. She assured us that it was super safe, especially since the trails were so busy on the July 4th holiday, and steered me in the direction of an awesome trail. I’m going to write a separate post about my trail run but let me tell you…it was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. Running at 8,000 elevation was no joke!

I finished five miles in just a little over an hour and it was one of my favorite runs of 2021! I sure wish I was able to do trail/nature runs like this more often.

We ordered lunch in our room while we got ready to head into Park City for the afternoon. Main Street was closed to cars for the Park Silly Sunday Market. There were tons of people out and about, vendors and a live band. It felt very festive.

We popped into Atticus for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. We stopped here twice during our time in Park City. It was a great coffeehouse.

Back at the hotel, I got dressed in my red, white and blue for dinner. We traveled back into Park City for reservations at Riverhorse. After dinner we decided to walk back to the hotel. It was about 1.5 miles from downtown Park City to Snow Park Lodge where we took the funicular back up to the St. Regis.

And yes, I walked 1.5 miles in these shoes no problem. They are seriously the most comfortable wedges that I have ever owned.

DAY THREE

Day three was a really special day.

We both agreed that we wanted to do a long hike and that we wanted to get over to the mountains on the other side of Deer Valley. Once again, we took the Silver Lake Express lift from the base of the mountain to Silver Lake Village. And then we hopped on the Mid-Mountain Trail to access the Red Cloud Trail.

The Red Cloud trail is a one-mile trail that offers a steady climb through aspen and pine forests. It crosses some of Deer Valley’s ski runs and ends at the top of Flagstaff Mountain.

Between the Mid-Mountain Trail and the Red Cloud Trail, we gained about 1,100 feet of elevation and covered two miles to get to Flagstaff. I loved this trail because it was much less populated than the Silver Lake Trail. I think we only passed one other couple on the Red Cloud Trail.

The Quincy, Northside, Silver Strike and Ruby chairlifts all converge at the top of Flagstaff Mountain. I imagine it’s a hopping place during the winter but was deserted during summer. The views were great from up there and you could see Sundance in the distance.

We decided that rather than backtrack, our destination was getting to the Montage Deer Valley. I can’t really tell you what specific trail we took to get there because I’m pretty sure we made our own way but two miles (and one groundhog sighting) later, we arrived at the Montage. Our whole expedition took us about two hours and we covered four miles.

We took a shuttle back to the St. Regis and headed straight to the outdoor patio to grab a late lunch.

We split a cheese and charcuterie tray and loved our bubbles at lunch so much after our first hike that we decided to do it again. Highly recommend champagne at lunch on vacation. 🙂

We had purchased all-day lift tickets earlier in the day so we decided to go for one last scenic lift ride all the way to the top of Bald Mountain and back down via the Silver Lake Express and the Sterling Express. Round-trip it took us about 40 minutes and was so relaxing and peaceful.

We had made dinner reservations at RIME in the St. Regis for dinner on our final night and I’m glad we chose to stay close. It made the whole flow of the day so laid-back. We were seated outside at a private table that had stunning views as the sun set. We even saw a few deer grazing across the grassy ski runs. I think we spent two and a half hours out there soaking up the perfect weather and our last night of vacation.

Our flight home to Charlotte the next day didn’t leave until 12:20p so we were able to enjoy a leisurely morning before Ubering to the airport in Salt Lake City (about 50 minutes away). I got in a strength workout in the hotel’s spacious fitness facility and it felt good to move before sitting on a long flight.

I arrived home with a newfound love in my heart for Utah and Deer Valley. I cannot wait to explore more of Utah and to return to Deer Valley during winter to see these beautiful mountains covered in snow. That being said, I HIGHLY recommend visiting in the summer for the reasons I outlined at the start of this post. You won’t regret it!

QUESTIONS

Do you prefer to be active on vacation or to do more relaxing/lounging? For me, it depends on the destination but I like a mixture of both!

What’s your favorite spa treatment? I’ll choose a massage over a facial any day!

What’s your favorite mountain destination?