Still searching for snow, we headed to Park City, Utah. And no, they didn’t have any snow either. So, we cut our planned skiing down to only a day and looked into other options. Our hotel offers a free shuttle into the historic downtown. Main Street is a few blocks long and has many shops and restaurants. The Park City Museum is also downtown and they provide a great history on Park City from it’s mining roots until it became a premere skiing destination.
The old jail 
I’m ready to work the mine
In the 1960’s, you would ride this mine car through the converted mining drain tunnel, which would then hoist the car up to the ski lift.
We had a great lunch at the Eating Establishment and even managed to do a little Christmas shopping.
Another beautiful warm December day and we went to check out some of the Olympic facilities from 2002, when Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics. At the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, you can take a tour of the facilities and go on a bob sled run. There are only 16 bobsled runs worldwide and considering costs for the 4 man sled alone are above $100,000, it’s an expensive sport. I took the tour while Will decided to keep his feet closer to the bottom of the hill and just tour the ski museum. The tour was $15/person and lasts about an hour. Rudy gave us some really great info on the facilities and how the athletes are able to continue their training in the summer. The bob sled tour is done on the ice track in the colder months and on rollers in the summer. According to our guide, when they first started offering the winter bob sled ride, they found some people would pass out because of the G-forces that the sled gets on the turns. Now, the winter bob sled runs for the general public starts at turn 5 and not at the top. SLC has put in a bid to host the winter Olympics for 2030, keeping my fingers crossed.
Nordic Ski Jumping Anyone?? 
2002 Olympic Mascots
Top of the Bobsled Run 
The Bobsled Track
That night, we headed out to the Egyptian Theater to hear the Steep Canyon Rangers. They are a Grammy winning blue grass band from North Carolina that Steve Martin collaborates with on occasion. The Egyptian Theater has a long history in Park City and is one of the main theaters used for the Sundance Film Festival every January in Park City. The band was really good and there was even a full bar, which was a special treat as the theater is only allotted so many nights for hard liquor during the year. I never will understand the Utah liquor laws.
Got up the next morning to some strong winds. We had planned on skiing, but Will didn’t want to ski because of the windy conditions and all for the joy of skiing basically one open run. Instead, we opted to hike. We headed about an hour NE of Park City to hike the Lofty Lake Loop Trail, near Kamas, UT. Normally, it’s not possible to hike this trail in the winter as the road to the trail head is closed for the season. The trail is about a 5 mile loop in a forested area and meanders around a number of small lakes. It was a beautiful hike and the wind was blocked by the trees most of the time. We had our micro spikes on for this hike as most of the trail was snow covered. We were really glad to have those as it made for more secure footing.
We got back to the hotel around 5 and noticed that the ski gondola was full. Come to find out that the gondola had just been released from a 4 hour long wind hold. So these people had been stuck on the mountain with no other way down all afternoon. So yes, Will made an excellent call on not skiing that day.
On our drive to Boise, we made a quick stop in Twin Falls to look at the Shoshone Falls. It’s off season for the falls and currently is only a trickle. Still it was fascinating to see and would love to come back in the Spring to view it when the falls are in full force.
It was time for us to leave Park City and head to Bogus Basin outside of Boise, Idaho. We had booked a ski-in/ski-out condo at the top of the mountain. But unfortunately for us they were also experiencing a lack of snow and are currently only open on the weekends.
The night we arrived the ski area received about 3 inches of snow and we found ourselves fogged in. So, we figured it was a good day to just chill. The fog stuck around all day. It wasn’t until the next morning, when we were finally able to see some of the view as we were up above the clouds.
We drove down the road about 10 miles or so and found the Miller Gulch trail to hike. It was a little muddy in spots, but overall a nice hike.
We had tickets the following night to Hamilton down in Boise. We still had another night at the condo, but after thinking about it decided to just pack up and get a room in town. Boise was expecting some weather and we didn’t feel it was wise to drive back up the road in bad weather conditions, if we didn’t have to. Ah yes, the choices you make in your 50’s as opposed to those you make in your 20’s. So, checked out of the condo in the morning and went to hike the Adelmann Mine trail. The wind was bitingly cold and the trail was muddy; so after going up just and mile and a half we turned back. We hurriedly stopped to look at a historic diversion dam finished in 1904 and decided it was time to find something to do inside. We went to the Idaho State Museum. It’s a nice museum with a number of interactive displays. And even though, we had passed a number of truck hauling potatoes on our drive from Park City to Boise, we learned that Idaho does grow other crops and they even have a number of wineries.
That night, we had a nice dinner at the Casablanca Cuban Grill and enjoyed the Broadway Tour performance of Hamilton.
