Day 12 - Stanley - Park City (Utah)

Stanley to Park City Driving day via Ketchum

We got up in the morning and found the weather had really changed for the worst it was very cold and raining. We were glad that today was going to be a driving day, as riding in this weather would not be fun. So we drove over to the Bakery for Breakfast.

We both tried the Oatmeal pancakes which were fantastic, we then worked out out our route to ParkCity, and headed back to the Motel to pack up.

We decided to drive to ParkCity Via Ketchum, although this was not the quickest route, so we could buy some guide books for the local area, for when we visited again, and the trails would be open. As my plan had been to ride the trails at Ketchum but the big wild fires had meant I'd had to change our plans and we had gone to Stanley instead.

The motel had been a good place to stay the first night we had been on the ground floor, and you could hear people moving around above you, but on the 2nd night we moved upstairs and the room was much quieter, the bed was a smallish queen, but was comfortable.

We drove south on Highway 75 towards Ketchum, stopping at Calena Summit to look at the views.

As we drove down to Stanley we say quite a few of the Helicopters that had been used for the fire fighting efforts.

We stopped in Ketchum and did some shopping, we got some really good bargains on outdoors clothing at Backwoods Mountain Spots, as the fires had meant not many people had been visiting. We bought ourselves burgers at the Burger Grill which were quite good. Before hitting the road on heading south.

As we drove out town you could see all the fire fighters tents, but the fires had now stopped, and they were now packing up.

By the time we had reached TwinFalls it was hot and sunny again, that's the great thing about America if the weather bad in one place just get in your car drive a 100 miles and its better elsewhere 8-), although the long drives can be very boring.

We caught glimpses of the Salt lake as we drove past it, and arrived at Park City at 7.30pm after driving about 388 miles, we would have got there a bit earlier but the GPS didn't have up todate maps and sent us right past Park City.

We then checked into the Marriott Mountainside which I had booked via the Internet while we were staying in Stanley, it was not a cheap place to stay but it had a great swimming pool and 6 hot tubs. I'd booked a King size condo the room was great, there was no view from the room - just a stone wall - But this meant the room was very quiet.

We both had a swim and hot tub, and then tried to find a restaurant open in town but couldn't’t find any as by now it was nearly 10pm.  So we went to an Albertsons and bought some frozen burrito's, an aubergine and cheese meal, salad and ice cream.  And we ate in the room, and the food was pretty good.  We finally got to bed at midnight.