6AM Utah time, but 8AM Pittsburgh time, we were bright-eyed and ready to start our day. What better way to wake up than with a sunrise beautifully placed on top of the Rocky Mountains? We did a quick search for breakfast and then got ready for our day. We were anxiously awaiting our adventure.
We couldn’t leave for the day until we had a little play time with Ashley’s drone. So we took to the grassy concert area of our resort and put the “aircraft” in the air (you’ll see our resort at the beginning of the above video). After we had some pretty awesome footage of the hotel and snow capped mountains, we hopped in the car to our next destination.
On a recommendation, we decided to visit Sundance, the name of the resort and the city. It is beautiful and a Utah favorite because it is equipped with mountainous views, hiking, biking, and in the winter, skiing.
The drive was beautiful. At times, we would find ourselves in little towns with light poles uniformly decorated and other times, we were on busy highways facing mountains covered in snow. On the other side of our destination, we stumbled upon a vast lake sprinkled with kayaks and fishermen and a few other people stopping to take in the beauty before us. Of course we had to take some pictures because it was too beautiful to pass up.
Shortly after our stop we arrived at Sundance. We drove to the resort location down a road that followed a fast moving stream and clung tightly to the side of the mountain. We found parking and started to make our way around the property.
There were shops, restaurants, and other little things to do in the resort area itself, but we were more interested in seeing the tippy top of the mountain; so we paid our $20 scenic lift fare and hopped on one of the most breathtaking rides we have ever been on.
On our way up Ashley discovered she was “kind of scared of heights” and the whole way up was slightly nervous one of us would lose something. The ski lift was a good 20-30 minute ride up to the top, overlooking tons of Alpine Trees, waterfalls, and mountain bikers/hikers.
Once reaching the top (altitude approximately 8300), it was warmer than what we expected– windy, but still warm. So, we decided to whip out the drone and attempted to take flight. Success! Of course we stayed up there for a while taking photos, making new friends, and playing with the drone.
We decided to make our descent after we felt like we took everything in. The way back down was just as beautiful as the way up but it was then that we realized sunscreen would have been a good idea! We got some major sun!
Once making it to the bottom, the resort had a few places to shop, eat, and fill up our water bottles. We enjoyed delicious chicken salad sandwiches from the Sundance “Deli” before jumping back in to the car and starting our 45-minute trek on the Alpine Loop. Rumor has it that we had a decent chance of seeing moose and because of the time of year, moose babies; we weren’t so lucky but we surely aren’t giving up; we still have 5 days! However, we did get to see a doe and a turkey with her baby chicks in tow.
It was time to head back as we both fell tired and a bit miserable from sunburn. Though we originally planned on going out for dinner…. we stopped at the Park City Wal-Mart, just a half a mile down the road, and grabbed a frozen pizza so we could stay in and watch Jane The Virgin and look at all 300+ photos we took of the day.
We fell into bed– exhausted from a full day and the time change. What will we get into next? Stay tuned… 😉
xo,
Ash & Er
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