February 21, 2014 Canyons. UT

We drove from Salt Lake City to the Canyons in 25 miles. I must say that driving in Salt Lake City is as crazy as driving in the state of MA. We got to the Cabriolet gondola parking lot in the first row which was about 40 feet from the gondola. This gondola is free and gets you to the base facility. There is parking for $15 and $25, but I did not need the expensive lots. The lifts start at 9 am and we were in  the first group. It's been about 8 years since our last visit, and the area as grown with lifts, buildings and more  that were on the slopes and everywhere.  The thing about being a ski resort in the Vail Assoc group is all about land and building places to sell. We have a Lake Tahoe pass for Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood, and they all have condos.  Our Tahoe Value  pass let us buy a senior day ticket at half price for  $36. It was sunny with 1” of new. I rode with some locals and they mentioned the snow pack was still light but last week's storm opened more terrain. When I was there in the old days all of the terrain was open and the brushy terrain was covered. We skied the groomers and a few folks were climbing to ski some steep lines within the resort with 4-6” of the last storm. For 2 hours we had nice groomers, but then the enormous ski school groups were everywhere. It had  been an out-of-school week because the kids were everywhere.  The slopes were getting icy and the edges had the shaved ice. I remember old days back East with its trails that were great for a couple hours and been became ICY.  We did not get to the Ninety-nine 90 Express or Peaks lift. Those lifts have nice treed terrain, but the nice terrain was skied out and the locals don't talk. .  After 3 hours it was time to move out.  We are heading to Wolf Creek Pass, CO.  We spent the night at Moab and plan to get up early to see the sunrise in Arches National Park. Old folks get in free with the National Parks pass.