The last vestiges of summer were upon me and having always wanted to visit Park City, Utah, I decided to make the short flight from Denver to Salt Lake City followed by a short shuttle bus ride into town. With a colorful history, Park City is a perfect mountain getaway offering great skiing, dining, shopping, and a variety of outdoor diversions.

The discovery of silver in Park City in 1868 sparked an influx of miners and the town was built around this precious metal. With more than $400 million in silver pulled from the surrounding hills, Park City created no less than 23 millionaires in its heyday including George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst.

Since many of the original homes and businesses were constructed from wood, Park City suffered the same fate as other towns when fire inevitably broke out in 1898 destroying three quarters of the city. Brick and stone replaced wood in less than one and a half years and many structures still remain, housing galleries, boutiques and a variety of retail establishments.

The now popular sport of ski jumping was started in Park City in 1930 on Ecker Hill, and in 1931, Alf Engen set a world record there by jumping 247 feet and went on to claim five other world records.

Park City has three top ski resorts: The Canyons, Park City and Deer Valley. These are all serviced by modern conveyances offering scenic and convenient ways to get to the top. In the early days, however, things were not quite so easy. In 1965, a mine train took skiers into the Silver King Mine Tunnel via a modified trolley that was pulled two and a half miles through the pitch dark Spiro Tunnel to an old shaft elevator that lifted the skiers 1,750 feet to the surface. This was quite an ordeal and not for the faint of heart.

I spent most of my time at the Park City Resort and stayed at the Blue Church Lodge and Townhouses, conveniently located just a block off of Main Street. My visit happened to coincide with Park City’s annual Kimball Arts Festival where artists from all over the country set up booths along Main Street and sell sculptures, paintings, woodwork, jewelry, and all sorts of eclectic art.

Each of the resorts has its own charms and appeal with year-round fun for the entire family. Park City has a chair lift that will take you to the summit of Bald Mountain for some skiing in the winter or hiking (over 325 miles of trails in the area) or biking in the summer. There is also horseback riding and the 2,300-foot long ZipRider™, the longest zipline in the world with speeds of up to 60 mph. Park City is also a shopper’s paradise and I spent many hours leisurely browsing the shops and galleries. There are delightful respites, coffee houses and restaurants on Main Street and I stopped by one of the local favorites—the Java Cow and Bakery—on more than one occasion for some ice cream and people watching.

There are many dining options in Park City and Shabu is my recommendation for some excellent Asian cuisine. Two brothers who love to ski run this establishment; hence, they are only open in the evenings. Try the firecracker shrimp and dim sum, appetizers both of which are delicious. If your palate has other tastes, you can choose from over 100 cafés and restaurants that dot the town.

The Canyons is one of the country’s largest winter resorts with both summer and winter activities. Gondolas cruise to 8,000 feet and there are miles of hiking trails, spa services at the Canyons Grand Summit Health Club and a Saturday Concert Series.

Deer Valley has an upscale feel with chairlift rides, Summer Adventure Camp for kids, luxury accommodations, and a summer concert series. For the latter, crowds gather in the slope-style amphitheater with picnic baskets and wait for the music to begin at twilight. I caught one of the Broadway reviews on a warm summer night complete with a full moon rising behind the treetops against a backdrop of stars. This, I thought, is why people love coming here year after year.

Park City played host to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, considered by many to be the best-run and most successful Olympics in history. Today, you can still share in this excitement at the Utah Olympic Park. I arrived just in time to see the weekly Freestyle Exhibition Show (held on Saturdays) and it was truly amazing. Even in the summer, athletes walk up to the tops of three water-slicked ski jumps and careen down to the curved incline before launching into all manner of aerial acrobatics and landing in a large pool below to the adoring cheers of the crowds.

You can also experience the Xtreme Zip zipline with a 435-foot vertical drop, the stainless steel Alpine Slide or a tour of the Alf Engen Ski Museum. The tour is an all day event and well worth the price of admission.

Of course I had always heard about the famous Sundance Film Festival founded by Robert Redford but never realized that it was held here every January. Many of the films screened at the festival are shown outdoors at the municipal park under the stars during the months of July and August.

Park City is located only 36 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport and is easily accessible all year long. Like those early miners, I felt that there is still something beckoning to be explored and precious to be discovered in the hills of Park City, Utah.