Despite Brigham Young's strictures against prospecting for precious metals – he feared a Gentile "Gold Rush" – the first mining camp at PARK CITY, just thirty miles east of downtown Salt Lake City along I-80 through the mountains, was established in the late 1860s. In 1872 George Hearst laid the foundations of the Hearst media empire by paying $27,000 for a claim that became the Ontario Silver Mine, worth $50 million. These days, the Park City Mountain Resort (tel 435/649-8111 or 1-800/222-7275, www.parkcitymountain.com), and the nearby The Canyons (tel 435/649-5400 or 1-888/226-9667, www.thecanyons.com) and (skiers-only) Deer Valley (tel 435/649-1000 or 1-800/424-3337, www.deervalley.com) resorts constitute Utah's largest ski area, with the season usually running from mid-November to mid-April. Daily lift passes for each resort cost around $60; equipment rental outlets include Park City Sport (tel 1-800/523-3922) and Gart Brothers (tel 1-800/284-4754). In addition, Park City hosts the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, held over the second half of January each year.

Park City has for many years been engulfed by an ever-growing sprawl of new condos, factory outlets and other developments, and has become completely unrecognizable since being overhauled for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Its restored Main Street now makes only token gestures towards mimicking the mountain mining community it used to be, its shops and restaurants striving instead to emulate the chic resorts of Colorado.

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