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Park City Mountain Resort
Wild Rides and Fast Glides
By Kendeyl Johansen
When ready to descend the mountain, grab a wheeled bobsled and place it onto one of the slide's two tracks. It's easy to control the bobsled's speed with the hand brake but small children often ride with a parent. Take a deep breath, lean forward and go!
On the ride down, watch for squirrels along the sides of the track and take a deep breathe of the smell of fresh greenery. Enjoy the wind in your hair. Have someone posted at the bottom of the track to snap photos.
Don't forget to reward your brave bobsled team with a visit to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, located in the PCMR plaza. Choose an M&M encrusted caramel apple, a hunk of mocha fudge or moose-track ice cream nestled in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone.
Why struggle up rugged mountain terrain with a bike when a chairlift will do all the work? Families can relax while resort employees load bikes onto the chairlift but of course it's also fine to pedal uphill. Lift-assisted mountain biking offers special appeal to families with kids that would have trouble going up but no problem coming down.
"There's no age limitations on mountain biking," O'Brien says. "Parents can judge their child's ability." PCMR offers more than 30 miles of trails through the resort's 3,300 acres. "Trails range from beginner to hair-raising single tracks," O'Brien says.
p>Sit back and enjoy the slow chair lift ride up, a big contrast to the downhill thrill coming up soon. Use the birds' eye view to watch a hawk dive for prey, guess how tall the pine trees are or name familiar plants.