By Wendy Lemlin

What makes a great girlfriend’s getaway? A spa day is always special; fabulous food goes without saying, and a little whiskey or wine never hurt. Shopping? Sure! Hiking amidst spectacular scenery? Not to be missed!  Yoga in a hot spring, a foodie tour of culinary hotspots, or a symphony performance at a mountain amphitheater? Now you’re talkin’! And, really, can anything beat sharing a bottle of wine with your gal pals around a firepit on the balcony of the amazing vacation home you’ve rented, while a zillion stars twinkle above your heads and the full moon is just peaking above the mountaintops that surround you?

When you hear “Park City”, you might think of snow and skiing, but I think of lush, green mountainsides, flower strewn meadows, and gushing waterfalls—not to mention living in the lap of luxury  that I couldn’t even contemplate in “real life”.

 It was a milestone birthday year for two of the four of us, so we did the big splurge for a

Utah getaway and rented an incredible private home in Deer Crest, part of the Deer Valley Resort area, for the first three nights of our “Girls Go Utah” getaway. Booked through Resorts West, the three story, 8,357 sq ft home—with another 3000 sq ft of outdoor patios and decks—boasted six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and such amenities as a home theater, wet bar, sauna, hot tub, wine room, firepit— and a glass elevator to whisk us between the well-appointed floors.

The enormous dream kitchen was equipped with everything, including an espresso machine, Vitamix, and earthstone pizza oven, and some of our best times were spent in that kitchen, cooking breakfast and laughing together. In the evenings, we’d return to the house from our adventures, open some wine and gather around the firepit or in the hot tub, and talk into the wee hours, sharing the stories of our lives.

 

In the winter, this ski in/out house in the midst of the Wasatch Mountains gives easy access to the slopes and ski lifts for which the Park City area is so famous, but in summer, those slopes provide excellent hiking on trails through wildflower filled fields and woods of fresh scented trees, with amazing vistas of lakes and valleys below, all accessible right out our back door.

 

One foggy and chilly morning, we drove off in search of a unique experience, and found it

30 minutes away in Heber, on the grounds of the Homestead Resort where we decided to warm up by doing yoga.

And by that I mean in a 10,000 year old hot spring.

In a crater.

On stand-up paddleboards.

As she conducted the class from firm footing on the crater’s edge, the Park City Yoga Adventures instructor assured us that the SUPs were very stable. We, apparently, weren’t, but luckily the 90 degree warm, mineral-rich water was so pleasant that we actually

enjoyed falling in while trying to assume the warrior, downward dog, or here-I-go-into-the water-again-stop-laughing-at-me poses.

Exploring Park City, with its upscale shops and galleries and outdoorsy culture filled another pleasant day. To get an actual taste of the town, we joined up with a guide from Park City Food Tours to sample bites and beers from some of the 30 or

so purveyors along Main Street. Although many parts of Utah are “dry”, Park City is not, and we learned that Wasatch Brewery, with their quirkily named session beers that poke fun at the conservativeness of the state–Polygamy Porter, for example—paved the way for the approval of breweries and brewpubs in Park City and Utah.

Later that evening, we dined extremely well in the historic house  and one time garage that is now the restaurant and bar/tasting room of High West Distillery, the first legally licensed distillery in Utah since the end of Prohibition, and producer of some very fine whiskey. The pan fried local trout that topped my salad tasted of fresh air and clear waters. BTW, in winter, you can ski right up to High West from the run that ends in town, have a fortifying libation, and catch the lift across the street back up to the slopes.

You can’t think of this area without the name “Sundance” coming to mind,so, of course we had to end our trip with two days at the luxuriously

rustic Sundance Mountain Resort, about 45 minutes away from Park City. Created by Robert Redford, and nestled at the base of 12,000-foot Mt. Timpanogos, the 5000 acre Sundance is all about the cultivation of art and self-expression, as well as the preservation of the land.

On our first night at Sundance, we were fortunate to catch a performance of

the Utah Symphony Orchestra under a star filled sky in the resort’s outdoor amphitheater. In the Art Studio, we could take classes in painting, jewelry making, pottery and photography. At the Spa, we enjoyed massages and treatments so good, that we were borderline catatonic as we floated back to our rooms. Even though our well appointed suites included kitchenettes, we chose to gather together for excellent meals at the resort’s restaurants, the casual Foundry Grill and the more upscale Tree Room, where, as you would expect, every delicious bite was fresh, organic and local.

More female bonding happened during the hike we took on a gloriously warm and

sunny day to Stewart Falls, an extremely photogenic 200 foot high cascade that falls in two tiers. We first boarded a chairlift that delivered us up the steep mountainside to Ray’s Summit, passing over the tops of trees, gurgling brooks and a doe who darted out from the woods followed by her two fawns. Tightly clutching the hands of my two dear friends on each side of me, I actually overcame my fear of chairlifts and settled back, enraptured by the view. Once off the lift, we trekked through forest and meadows for two hours until we reached the impressive falls, whose roar we heard long before we saw it.  We cooled off blissfully in the stream pools below the falls and spread our picnic lunch out on the nearby rocks, while butterflies and dragonflies danced around us to the chorus of woodland birdsong.

Family and couple vacations have their merit for sure, but there’s nothing like taking a few days away with those girlfriends with whom you have no other responsibility than to just be yourself. Go simple or go big, what matters is the camaraderie and bonding built from “girl time”. If you can mix together good food, good fun, and good friends, you can pretty much have it all. So, whether your goal is to amass memories of wild times to laugh over for years to come, or to experience some tranquil rejuvenation with which to strengthen lifetime bonds, the high elevation area around Park City, Utah is the perfect location for a cool summer getaway with the girls.

 

 

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If You Go

Park City Visitor Center

Visitparkcity.com

Utah Office of Tourism

Visitutah.com

Stay

Resorts West

A collection of private luxury homes available for rental

Resortswest.com  877-214-0102  Rates vary per property

 

Sundance Mountain Resort

8841 N. Alpine Loop Rd., Sundance, UT

800-892-1600  sundanceresort.com  Rates: $199 up

 

 

Play

Park City Yoga Adventures

Parkcityyogaadventures.com  415-695-4502

 

Park City Food Tours

PO Box 681397
Park City, UT 84068

http://www.parkcityfoodtours.com/

 

 

Dine & Drink

Wasatch Brewery

250 Main St., Park City, UT

435-649-0900   wasatchbeers.com

 

High West Distillery

703 Park Ave., Park City, UT

435-649-8300 Highwestdistillery.com

 

Tree Room

Sundance Resort