| Park City Ridge Area/Range |
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| Park City Ridge   | 
| Page Type: Area/Range Location: Utah, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.62400°N / 111.5676°W Activities: Hiking, Skiing Elevation: 10116 ft / 3083 m | Page By: mtn runr Created/Edited: Feb 20, 2006 / Oct 27, 2006 Object ID: 174358 Hits: 1338 Loading... Page Score: 82.94% - 10 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Overview Park City Ridge forms a headwall of Millcreek and, partly, Big Cottonwood canyons in the Wasatch Tri-Canyon Area. The ridge is rounded, in the general mold of the more Northern parts of the Wasatch range, and only a few high points on the ridge exceed 10,000 ft. It is the playground of trail runners and mountainbikers in summer, and of skiers and boarders in winter.
Still it is a formidable mountain range, spanning a dozen miles between Parely's Summit and Guardsman Pass, and containing 3 of Salt Lake County's 32 highest (10,000+) summits.
Great Western Trail (GWT) traverses almost the entire length of the ridge, and Mid-Mountain Trail (MMT) crosses the bowls of its East side. GWT also doubles as the route of Wasatch 100 ultramarathon between Red Lovers a.k.a. Desolation Pass and Sleepy Hollow Jct (miles 67.6 thru 72.9).
The prominent high points of the ridge, North to South, are Murdock Peak (9,602), Hill 9,990, home to the Canyons' ski lift of the same name, Silver Hill (10,006), Scott Hill (10,116), and, further South across the deep chasm of Scott Pass, Jupiter Bowl Hill (10,029).
Iron Mountain, Flagstaff Mtn, and Bald Mtn dominate the spur ridges descending towards Park City.
The area has seen much silver mining activity since 1850s, and served as a gateway to Brighton (across Scott Pass) and Alta mining areas, before the roads through the Cottonwood Canyons were improved. Guardsman Pass road tok place of the older Scott Pass road in the 1960s, it was constructed as a National Guard training project, if you could believe that.
In the mining era, the evegreens were logged and the area was stripped clean of timber, but in 1910s and 1920s, a huge nursery at what is the Spruces CG area today planted millions of seedlings and restored much of the forest in the area.
The area has also been used for grazing, and the meadows of Upper Millcreek (todays Nordic Park) were a site of the Tri-Canyon area's last sheep grazing permit, through 1960s. Todays' dog owners access to Millcreek is largely a legacy of this grazing permit, with the rest of the nearby drainages all under watershed restrictions.
Watershed and recreation are still the two prime, and often competing, uses of the area. In the recent years, Salt Lake City blocked development of Willow Lake drainage on the Big Cottonwood side of the ridge, turning the area to conservation, while on the Park City side, the Canyons resort extended its lifts and condo developments to within hundreds yards of the ridgeline.Getting ThereNothern fringes of Murdock Peak can be accessed from Lambs and Toll Canyons. Both trails converge at the Northern end of the meadows of the avalanche cuts of Murdock peak, from where the trail continues through the conifers to the NE shoulder of the peak.
South of Murdock Peak, the West slopes of the ridge are accessible from Upper Millcreek (the creek trail and GWT join at the lower end of Upper Millcreek meadows, from where GWT takes the North Fork, Nordic Park Trail heads up the Middle Fork, and a fainter trail turns sharply right into the South Fork, towards Little Water bowl. The best access on the East side could be by MMT off Bear Hollow Dr in Sun Peak ( N 40° 41.96 W 111° 33.99)
SW side of 9,990, Silver Hill, and Scott Hill is served by Mill D (Desolation Lake branch), Beartrap, and Willows trailheads in BCC. You can get to the NE side through The Colony perhaps, but the legal way to get there is through the White Pine Lake area, just off the junction of MMT and Iron Mountain trail (off Iron Mountain Court, N 40° 40.157 W 111° 31.740). From White Pine Lake, an old mining roads ascends Pinecone Ridge overlooking Thaynes Cyn).
Scott Pass road (which is also the route of GWT) starts at a locked gate off Guardsman Pass road, but the area is also accessible through Mill F summer houses (either Iowa Tunnel road or Hanscom Cutoff TH), and off MMT in Thaynes Canyon. Red TapeLots of assorted restrictions in this hodgepodge of private and public lands. Even a few segments of the ridge are private land. The areas where landowners were actually known to go after non-motorized tresspassers are lower White Pine and the mouth of Thaynes.
Lambs and BCC are watershed areas, no non-resident dogs allowed.
Upper Millcreek is off-limits to mountain bikers on odd days. Fee is required for Millcreek Road access ($2.25 dayly or an annual pass).
Toll Canyon is a private conservation area.CampingThe Spruces and Jordan Pines CGs are next to one another in BCC. Otherwise camping is allowed on public land at a set distance off roads and streams. In winter, FS Yurt operates at Big Water TH in Millcreek. Images
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