Park City in 5 Days: Wasatch Crest, WOW, and Lift-Served Gravity

Morning: Do not start with Wasatch Crest. Spend day one at 8,000 feet on the Mid-Mountain Trail, 22 miles of rolling contour singletrack, to get your legs and lungs on Park City time. Park at Snow Park Lodge and take the free Deer Valley shuttle up to skip the scramble for spots at Silver Lake Lodge.

Afternoon: Ride it as a point-to-point from Deer Valley toward Canyons and hop the city buses back. Keep something in the tank. This is a warm-up, not the objective.

Eats: Post-ride food and beer in town.

Morning: Gravity legs before the ridge. Park at the PCMR base off Kilby Rd at the Action Sports Hub and lap the Crescent chair, 1,700 feet of descent per run across 70+ miles of lift-accessed terrain. Woodward's Hot Laps lift serves the jump lines if you want to work on air.

Afternoon: Session the black tech to get your bike handling sharp for Wasatch Crest tomorrow. Watch the sky. Summer storms can shut the lifts for lightning.

Eats: Base-area food, early dinner, early night.

Morning: The signature day. Wasatch Crest is a ridge line above 10,000 feet, exposed and rocky, starting near 9,800 feet at Guardsman Pass. There is no parking at the pass, so take a commercial shuttle up from Canyons or PCMR. Expect about 1,600 feet of climbing including Puke Hill early, then the Spine, the exposed section where you keep your hands on the bars and your eyes up.

Afternoon: Critical detail: Millcreek Canyon is odd/even day restricted for bikes, and you can only descend it on even calendar days, so check the date before you commit to that exit. Big day, big exposure. Carry two liters, food, and a shell.

Eats: You earned a proper sit-down dinner in town.

Morning: A 10-mile ecosystem-hopping descent from the high country down toward Heber and Midway, aspen glades to pine to high sage with berms in the middle of nowhere. It rides best top-down. Set up a self-shuttle with two cars: drop one at the Midway finish, then drive up SR-222 in Wasatch Mountain State Park to the upper trailhead. State park day-use fee applies.

Afternoon: If you are solo, you can pedal back up the paved SR-222, or just climb the 2,300 to 2,500 feet from the bottom before you drop in. Fall riders come for the aspens, but midsummer the dirt is prime.

Eats: Grab food in Midway or Heber before the drive back, or dinner in town.

Morning: Ease off with a lift-served day at Deer Valley, which skews more XC and flow than Park City Mountain's gravity. The bike park lifts, Silver Lake Express and Homestake Express, run daily 10am to 5pm through September 20, then weekends only after Labor Day. Lap the Deer Valley trail network at whatever pace your legs have left.

Afternoon: Spin an easy favorite or call it and let the legs recover. Five days at this altitude adds up.

Eats: Last-night dinner in town.