Our family loves snow, and we had our hearts set on a snow-covered holiday season. We had a few options in mind and ultimately settled on Park City, Utah.
For the months of December and January, we made Mountain Valley RV Resort in Heber City our home. Mountain Valley is a beautiful park and offers all the amenities. We enjoyed staying there and getting to explore our surroundings from its convenient location. Heber City is a really cool town that offers some of the “big town” shopping options but still has a quaint, small-town feel to it. We thought Heber City was an undiscovered gem, resting in the shadow of Mt. Timpanogos and the Wasatch Mountain range in the Heber Valley area. It’s just a quick 20-minute drive south of Park City, and our original plan was to spend lots of time there. But believe it or not, we only went to Park City two or three times. Why? While Heber City and Park City are awesome, we blame Midway!
Sandwiched in the Wasatch mountains between Heber City and Park City is the less-than-6-mile-long, Swedish-inspired town of Midway that stole our hearts. Our initial draw to the town was dining at Café Galleria in one of its picturesque outdoor, heated Alpenglobes. The globes were by reservation only, and the first reservation we could secure was about three weeks from our time of arrival. Since the town was so close, we decided to take a drive to check it out prior to our reservation. (Photos: Adventurtunity Family)
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It was on this drive that we realized how much the little town had to offer. For starters, the buildings lining the main street and the surrounding streets are architecturally inspired by Swedish designs. It almost felt like we were visiting a Swedish village in the Alps!
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Coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, businesses and a doughnut shop brought Midway’s Main Street to life. The backdrop of towering, snow-covered mountains made the town absolutely irresistible, and we couldn’t get enough!
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Along our travels, we share a doughnut tour and seek out local doughnuts from mom-and-pop doughnut shops. We were excited to see in Midway and happily indulged in her daily fresh specialty doughnuts. In addition to Judy’s sweet treats, there is also a creamery in town. The locals raved about the ice cream; however, we weren’t able to try it during our visit. We did visit their farm’s walking-tour ice-sculpture display.
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During the holidays, local businesses each sponsor a holiday ice sculpture for the community to enjoy. Our son loved walking through and seeing all the sculptures.
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Just a few blocks away was the Homestead Resort. While we didn’t need accommodations, we did visit there a few times to enjoy a horse-drawn sleigh ride, ice castle tour and Crater Hot Spring.
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The Midway Ice Castles are man-made with over 20 million pounds of water! They are one of four locations throughout the states to offer these magnificent ice creations.
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Inside you will find an amazing display of frozen architecture with embedded colorful lighting, carved-out tunnels and even some ice slides to enjoy. Barely 100 yards away from the twinkling ice castle, the Crater Hot Spring is a naturally occurring crater created from thousands of years of snow melt deposits. It descends an amazing 200 feet deep into the earth. The water is a very comfortable temperature at about 90 degrees, and it is the only viable option for scuba certification in Utah. It often has Groupon packages for a 40-minute crater soak/swim, but we booked ours directly through Homestead. On average, it’s about $15 per person. The ice castles are seasonal; however, the Crater Hot Spring is open year-round.
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In the opposite direction, across town from the Homestead Resort, is Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, a snow lover’s playground!
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Built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Soldier Hollow offers cross-country skiing, snow tubing and more in the winter months. But it also hosts all kinds of activities year-round for world-class competitors and weekend warriors alike.
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The Salt Lake City area had an uncharacteristically snow-deprived early winter season at the end of 2020. But thankfully, there were a few light snow showers that gave us the opportunity to quickly make our way to Soldier Hollow for an afternoon of snow tubing. Its tubing setup was great and perfect for young children. It has a conveyor belt that brings you to the top of the hill and about eight lanes for tubing.
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You can go down by yourself or as a group connected to one another, which makes for a lot of family fun. When we went, the snow surface was great and the runs were FAST! Kade, of course, had a blast and loved the speed. After tubing, we had more fun throwing snowballs at each other and enjoying the view of Midway from the mountainside.
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We loved the Midway, Heber City and Park City area so much that we came back a few months later to enjoy it in the spring. This time, Echo Island RV Resort was our home for a month. It’s located northeast of Park City in the sleepy little town of Coalville, right on the Weber River. It is conveniently located right off the highway and offers great access to outdoor activities in the area. There are five reservoirs within a few miles that provide great opportunities for fishing, boating and other water fun. We loved the campground and plan to come back and visit again.
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During our stay, we managed to make it back to Café Galleria for Mother’s Day brunch in one of the Alpenglobes.
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And we went back yet again a couple of weeks later for lunch with friends. In case it isn’t obvious, we really enjoyed Café Galleria!
If you are heading to the Salt Lake City or Park City area, be sure to find your way to Midway and try a wood-fired pizza or egg skillet at Café Galleria!
