Ikon Pass
The Skiing at Deer Valley
The Town: Deer Valley
Deer Valley looms above town, up Daly Canyon and around the bend of Deer Valley Drive, in a fabulous location that allows skiers to catch views of two towns: Park City to the north and west and Heber City to the southeast.
There is a small separation between town and the ski resort here, which makes Deer Valley something of a entity unto itself. There exist two main areas, Silver Lake at mid-mountain, and Snow Park, the main area at the bottom of the resort. A third base-ish area, Empire Canyon, is higher up, at the base of a geographical feature bearing the same name, and it is simply lovely. Famous and gifted people are known to get married in this spot.
As you may have guessed after reading our homage to the GREATEST TURKEY CHILI IN THE UNIVERSE above, the food at Deer Valley is the best—No. 1, undisputed—in skiing. It just is. Sun Valley has nice food (at least they have that—because their snow is LACKING for a Western resort), Beaver Creek has its cookies, and even Jackson Hole has come around with some very fine vittles in some of its eateries now, but there can be only one alpha dog. And the kingpin when it comes to food on the slopes is Deer Valley. This fact is undebatable, so please don't debate it.
Even the croissants and cookies, which are baked at altitude on-site, are perfectly fabulous. What's even better about all of this great food at Deer Valley: it's priced no differently than any other ski resort, even though this place has something of a reputation for being expensive. Put simply: the food here dominates.
Beyond the resort-owned restaurants and cafeterias, other top-end food options abound. From the lunchtime buffet at Stein Eriksen's (be prepared to roll straight into the car after this feast), to the kitchen at The Chateaux at Silver Lake to the seafood buffet run in the evenings by the resort, the food here is, again, the best in skiing. Eat, enjoy, ski, repeat.