pcmr: park city mountain resort

Sunday morning it was determined to be important that we go out to breakfast.  H and I had planned on Ruth's Diner, since that's always such a great place to take visitors.  We had completely forgotten that it was Father's Day, however, and our jaws dropped when we rolled up at 8:30 a.m. to see a completely full parking lot and what looked like a 45+ minute wait.  R and I needed coffee too badly to suffer that line so we drove back into town, sitting down right away at The Other Place.  It wasn't as scenic as what we had planned but we all got plenty to eat, they kept our coffee mugs filled and we were in and out in less time than it would have taken for us to get seated at Ruth's.

Father's Day call from the kids

After breakfast, we drove back through Emigration Canyon, taking the scenic route to Park City and ending up on the Jeremy Ranch road.  We were hoping for moose in the creek but were out of luck on the large animal front, not even getting any range cattle standing in the middle of the road.  We continued into Park City, pulling into the lot at Park City Mountain Resort.  The plan was to do a modification of a hike we'd done back in 2012:  we were getting a late start and the sun was strong, so we just wanted enough to stretch our legs and perhaps earn a beer or two.

Getting into summer means getting under this hat

We started on the Spiro Trail - which has undergone a LOT of work by local trail crews and is in great shape - which brought us to Eagle and Crescent Mine Grade.  Instead of grinding away on the sunny ridge, we stayed on CMG which was mostly shaded and which brought us back down to the center of the resort. 

Park City Mountain Resort

There were lots more wildflowers in bloom here on the Park City side, including gentians and columbines, both of which aren't even close to flowering yet in the Cottonwood Canyons.  There were also lots of MTBers on the trails; we always stepped off the trail to let them by, no matter who was going uphill/downhill, and 99% of them were friendly and cheerful about sharing the trails - as everyone should be, because who could be cranky being outside on such a beautiful day?!

Hike stats:  4.09 miles, 900 feet of elevation gain, 1:33 moving time