Clearfield, UT Outdoor Activities

Park City was founded as a mining town, filled with miners that purportedly drank, gambled, frequented brothels, and committed crimes. Park City Ghost Tours’ guides delve into this illicit history during 70-minute walking tours. They investigate the sites most known for hauntings and chills while relaying the harrowing history of each. Tours begin nightly at 8 p.m., when the sun is thoroughly below the horizon and it gets harder to tell the difference between a zombie and a parking meter.

Gleaming under the pale light of the winter sun, blades slice along the smooth surface of Resort Center Ice Skating Rink, sending icy dust spraying in their wake. Surrounded by the quaint, Bavarian-style walls of the Village shopping center, the outdoor oval beckons guests wishing to discover what ice skating was like before indoor rinks confined it and ice sharks rendered neighborhood ponds off-limits. Periodically throughout each public-skate session, a zamboni buffs the subzero sheet to present skaters with a surface as smooth and gentle as the festive tunes filling the air. Guests circle around hand-in-hand, remarking on the surrounding Christmas lights and fir trees while fledgling skaters focus on their footing and grasp complimentary ice-skate trainers for balance.

Between pirouettes or mad dashes across the rink, hands can warm up with steaming mugs of hot chocolate in the skate house. Nearby, in the Village shopping center, more balanced meals can be found at Food for Thought or Kristi’s Café, refueling skaters before they explore more than 40 winter-gear hubs and gift shops.

After moving to Utah in 1997, Will Westrate got right to work, assembling a team of fishing experts to lead expeditions along the Provo and Weber Rivers. Each of Will’s hand-picked guides have tallied more than 1,000 days of fly fishing on the local waterways, utilizing their knowledge to mimic seasonal food sources and catch fish on their way back from shopping. The Park City Anglers also regularly explore the Strawberry, Duchesne, and Currant Creek, as well as some smaller streams and tributaries throughout the region.

Blue Sky Adventures beckons adventure nuts with its 3,300-acre Blue Sky Ranch filled with abundant wildlife, mountain peaks, meadows, and canyons. The outdoor experts offer activities year-round. Summertime days are spent rafting, fly-fishing, horseback riding, biking, and spending warm nights in a yurt. During the winter months, nature lovers can take in the white-blanketed sights on a sleigh ride or dogsled, or try to sneak up on a rare species of snowman in a pair of snowshoes. Other group adventures include archery and a geo-cache scavenger hunt for the mountain’s golden egg.

Whether mounds of freshly fallen snow or fields of verdant grass blanket its ranges, Soldier Hollow hosts outdoor excursions that help visitors stay active year-round. The spring’s warm winds herald the opening of the resort’s championship-level golf course—whose 36 holes overlook Heber Valley and Mount Timpanogos—and the outset of scenic trail rides atop Rocky Mountain Outfitters’ trained horses. Meanwhile, mountain bikers traverse the marked trails, exploring the rugged wilderness and challenging tree stumps to races during self-guided tours.

When winter coats the slopes with fresh powder, Soldier Hollow adapts its activities for the frozen landscape. Using the mountain’s equipment, visitors hurtle down 1,200-feet of tubing lanes during two-hour sessions as wooded cross-country trails let skiers follow the tracks of deer who’ve stolen hikers’ sleds.