Celebrity Travel
Park City Turned a Dying Silver Town Into Robert Redford's Sundance and an Olympic Ski Resort
A former silver-mining town in Utah's Wasatch Mountains, Park City now hosts the Sundance Film Festival each January and America's largest single ski resort, drawing a part-time celebrity population alongside Hollywood's annual arrival.
By BigTravel.in Editorial Team · · 2 min read
Park City began as a 19th-century silver-mining boomtown, and its Main Street, still lined with Victorian-era brick storefronts built during that period, is one of the few well-preserved mining-era main streets left in the American West. The mines closed in the mid-20th century, and the town's second life as a ski resort and film-festival fixture has almost entirely eclipsed the first.
Sundance, without actually being in Sundance
The Sundance Film Festival, founded by Robert Redford, is held each January largely in Park City itself, filling Main Street's restaurants and shopfronts with premieres, parties and a heavier-than-usual concentration of actors and directors for ten days. Redford's own Sundance Mountain Resort and the Sundance Institute are located separately, roughly 45 minutes away near Provo Canyon, a common point of confusion for first-time visitors expecting the festival's namesake resort to be in town.
America's largest single ski resort
Park City Mountain became the largest single ski resort in the United States after a 2015 merger connected it by gondola to the neighbouring Canyons Village, giving the combined resort thousands of acres of skiable terrain. Deer Valley, Park City's other resort and long known for a no-snowboarding, service-heavy approach, sits on the opposite side of town and has historically drawn a distinct, quieter clientele.
An Olympic venue that still trains athletes
Park City hosted several sliding and ski-jumping events during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and the Utah Olympic Park built for the Games remains a training centre for USA bobsled, skeleton and ski-jumping athletes, with public rides and tours available outside training hours.
Traveller tips
- Salt Lake City International Airport is roughly 35 to 45 minutes away by road, the closest major airport.
- Sundance runs in the third week of January most years; accommodation in town books out and prices rise sharply during the festival.
- Park City sits at around 2,100 metres; some visitors feel the altitude on arrival, particularly with exertion on the slopes.
- Deer Valley and Park City Mountain are separate resorts requiring separate lift tickets, despite sitting a short drive apart.
Where this is
Park City, Utah
