The Crest Trail

Background

We classify this as an Epic for the amount of climbing, difficult technical features, distance, and exposure. If you’re a fit and experienced rider, you’ll love this point-to-point.  Even intermediates can conquer this Epic but should plan accordingly and stop often for rest, food, and hydration.

There are bailouts if need be. Before you reach Puke Hill, you can turn around and descend back to where you started via a myriad of trails that drop you into Old Town Park City, or at the top of Puke Hill (9.3 miles), you can turn east and descend the 4 mile Pinecone Trail to Mid Mountain and Spiro, which will take you all the way back to town with minimal climbing.

If you stay on The Crest, you’ll pop out onto the Ridge Connector which takes you down to Mid Mountain (mile 15). From here you can access the Red Pine Lodge to refuel or you can descend Ambush and Holly’s Trail to the Park City Mountain Canyons Village and grab a beer and food there.

Description

If you’re interested in a 3+ hour ride with some epic views of the Wasatch mountains, this is the ride you want. Capable riders will enjoy the long climb, challenging rock features, and flowy descents that cross the highest ridge in Park City and ends on an excellent flow trail. This ride includes the Wasatch Crest Trail, an IMBA Epic-designated ride.

The ride starts in the Park City Mountain main parking lot. From here you climb up through some of Old Town’s most classic hand-cut and machine-built trails. By the time you reach Shadow Lake at around 9,000’ you’ll be riding through high-alpine meadows and valleys. The real challenge starts at mile 9.3 when you hit Puke Hill. From here, you’re going to be in 10-20 minutes of hell as you power up a half mile of steep doubletrack to the top of the Park City ridgeline. If you decide you’ve had enough, you can bail and ride down Pinecone which connects to Mid Mountain and Spiro.  But for those who keep going, you’ve reached The Crest Trail. This super smooth and flowy singletrack traverses the ridge above Park City and offers incredible views of Brighton and Solitude ski resorts in Big Cottonwood Canyon. You’re not done climbing yet though. The Red Dirt Triple Fakeout (you’ll know it when you’re done with it) plus a few mellow, short climbs have you gain an additional 800’ or so of overall elevation.

Tired yet? Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief, because the hardest part is done, you’ve reached the top! Here you’ll find a few tricky rock gardens and The Spine, a scraggly rock feature 20 feet tall and 150 feet long with multiple line choices. An easy go-around is present for those who aren’t quite confident in their technical riding skills. But if you’re looking for the best photo or skills test, the line along the top will have you pick through a tricky spine with high- consequence falls off each side.

From here you descend on fast-flowing singletrack through open meadows and groves of aspen and pine trees until you hit the Mid Mountain and Ambush trails. One last 15–25 minute climb on the Olympic trail will put you on the top of the Utah Olympic Park (UOP), with incredible 360-degree views of Kimball Junction, Round Valley, Glenwild, Pinebrook, and Jeremy Ranch. Your last descent is a long one, 5.7 miles of singletrack that ends on the BYOB flow trail and the paved Millenium Trail. Now you’ve earned it— food that is. Head into Kimball Junction and go to Maxwell’s for pizza, Red Rock Brewery for good pub grub, or Whole Foods if you’re looking for something a bit easier on the gut. All of these fine establishments serve beer by the way.

Directions & Parking

This Epic is a point-to-point—meaning you’ll want to drop a car off at the end in Kimball Junction, have a shuttle pick you up, or ride the bus back to the starting point. The Sweeney’s Switchbacks Trail starts in Old Town Park City where parking is limited. We suggest parking in the main Park City Mountain lot and accessing the trail via Lowell Avenue to the southeast.

The ride as detailed ends in Kimball Junction, below the UOP. You can park a car here or at Redstone by your restaurant of choice. To take the bus back to town, take the paved Millenium Trail 0.5 miles to the next trail junction and turn left. Climb the remaining 0.2 miles to the Kimball Junction Transit Center.

Here you can hop on the white-line Electric Express and take a quick, and free, 10 minute ride back into town.

Street Address: (lower lot is north of the resort village)
1345 Lowell Avenue
Park City, UT 84060

Route / Trail List

• Sweeney’s Switchbacks Access – 1 miles
• Sweeney’s Switchbacks – 5 miles
• Flat Cable – 5 miles
• Jenni’s – 9 miles
• Mid Mountain Connect – 1 miles
• Mid Mountain – 3 miles
• Tommy Two Steps – 5 miles
• Three Candles – 8 miles
• Keystone – 5 miles
• Shadow Lake – 0.8 miles
• Blazing Saddles – 7 miles
• Puke Hill – 5 miles
• Wasatch Crest – 5 miles
• Ridge Connector – 2 miles
• Mid Mountain – 0 mile
• Ambush – 4 miles
• Olympic – 2 miles
• Moose Puddle – 3 miles
• UOP Service Road – 3 miles
• RTS Connect – 0 mile
• BYOB – 0 mile
• Millenium Trail (paved path) – 7 miles

Crutial Trails Intersections

• Sweeney’s Switchbacks access – to start the ride, get up onto the ski run underneath the Town Lift via Lowell Avenue and head southeast for 1 miles. Once the cat track opens up to a steep run up the hill, you’ll see Sweeney’s Switchbacks on the right.
• Sweeney’s Switchbacks to Flat Cable – you will cross an access road at 5 miles. Turn right here, this is the beginning of Flat Cable.
• Flat Cable to Jenni’s – after 1.1 miles, you’ll pop out of the trees and cross a ski run. To the right will be the Payday Lift mid station and the top of the alpine Continue straight until you encounter Jenni’s Trail. Veer left and continue up.
• Tommy Two Steps to the Viking Yurt – at the top of Jenni’s, head west on the Mid Mountain Connector. You’ll pass Mid Mountain on your right. Continue up until the road becomes singletrack and you head south toward Deer Valley. This short pedal on Mid Mountain allows you to access Tommy Two Climb for 1.4 miles until you reach the Viking Yurt.
• Three Candles to Keystone – on the west side of the Viking Yurt is the Three Candles Climb this for 0.8 miles to Keystone.
• Keystone to Shadow Lake – the Keystone Trail ends at a forked road. Veer right and continue for 430 feet or so. The Shadow Lake Trail will be on your
• Blazing Saddles to Puke Hill – at the top of Blazing Saddles you will be in a saddle between two hills. To access Puke Hill, veer right and start climbing the doubletrack.
• Top of Puke Hill – congrats, you’ve made it! Wasn’t that fun? Here you can bail out down Pinecone, but to continue the ride, head west along the ridge toward the radio towers. You’ll be on doubletrack for a couple of miles while traveling along the ridge between Park City (on your right) and Big Cottonwood Canyon (on your left).
• Crest to Ridge Connector – this junction is key—if you go the wrong way, you’ll end up in Salt Lake After the final stretch of the Wasatch Crest, you’ll come out of a wide, fast section into a small meadow with doubletrack leading off to the left and singletrack to the right. Take the right trail, this is the start of the Ridge Connector.
• Ridge Connector to Mid Mountain – the Ridge Connector is a fast trail that spits you out on the Mid Mountain At this junction, make the 180-degree left heading North East and continue on a fast, flowy descent. This junction is really easy to blow by as the trail is so fast and it easily dumps you onto Mid Mountain. Make this left to stay in the right direction.
• Mid Mountain to Ambush – you will ride a fast bit of Mid Mountain through the woods before crossing a ski run and encountering a 3-way intersection in an area of reddish dirt. Ahead of you is Hunter’s Trail and to the right is the top of Take Ambush and continue descending.
• Ambush to Olympic – to get on the last climb of this Epic, you’ll ride off of Ambush to a three-way Ambush veers to the right while Rob’s is straight ahead. Veer slightly left toward the Olympic Trail and it will begin climbing right away.
• Navigating the UOP – after descending Moose Puddle, you will find yourself on paved service roads in the UOP. Make a left turn off the trail and follow the road toward the main parking At the top, on the opposite side of the Quinney Welcome Center and guest parking lot, is the entrance to the BLT Trail. Stay on BLT for 1.1 miles then take a left onto RTS. After just a couple turns, BYOB will be on your left.