Deer Valley Resort this weekend is poised to launch a satellite parking operation that will extend into early April, a step intended to better manage the crowds and one that suggests much of the rest of the ski season in Park City could be busy.
Deer Valley on Wednesday said it will provide free satellite parking at Treasure Mountain Junior High for resort skiers starting on Saturday and stretching until April 2. The operation will run on weekends. The service will use a private shuttle with a direct route between the junior high and the Snow Park base in lower Deer Valley.
The schedule will run from 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with 15-minute frequency, depending on the traffic. The route is expected to end two weeks before the scheduled close of the ski season at Deer Valley. The crowds usually dissipate by early April, reducing the pressure on the Snow Park lots.
The resort in a statement also said the satellite parking, described as an “additional, convenient shuttle option,” will “balance capacity in the resort’s general parking lots which are expected to fill completely each Saturday and Sunday during the spring skiing season.”
The projection from Deer Valley regarding the weekend parking this spring points toward large crowds extending at least well into March. February and March are usually busy at Deer Valley and Park City Mountain, with Presidents Day weekend normally attracting large numbers of skiers and the spring break visitors arriving shortly afterward.
The choice by Deer Valley to provide a satellite parking operation is more evidence the community will likely remain busy after it has drawn large crowds during much of the time since the holidays. Even last weekend, which seemed set up to be a post-Sundance Film Festival lull, appeared to be jammed at certain times.
The plentiful snowfall this winter has contributed heavily to the crowded conditions in Park City.
There have been complaints in Park City about traffic and crowds this ski season, but they have not been as prevalent or as intense as they were during the 2021-2022 winter. In the most recent winter, there were widespread condemnations about the way the ski season unfolded, as Parkites unloaded on issues like traffic and parking. Much of the worry was centered on the operations at Park City Mountain and citywide issues rather than on Deer Valley.
Park City Mountain this ski season, in a dramatic move to address some of the issues of the 2021-2022 winter, introduced paid reservations for parking on the Park City side of the resort.
The Park City Chamber/Bureau, meanwhile, has released a lodging projection that covers the period through March 31 that shows occupancy rates consistently running behind those of the previous year. Lodging projections, though, are not necessarily reliable predictors of traffic or parking demand since many drivers are residents of the greater Park City area or the Salt Lake Valley who are not staying in hotels or other accommodations.
More information about parking at Deer Valley is available at: https://www.deervalley.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here#tab=parking.