Park City Requiring Paid Parking Reservations on All Park City-Side Lots for 2022-23

Just days after a similar announcement for Stowe, Vermont, Vail Resorts announced a new paid parking policy for several Park City lots on Friday. The resort will require paid reservations for all the Park City-side lots, including Main, First Time, and Silver King, seven days a week until 1pm. Full details have yet to be released, but guests will need to secure their reservations by booking online or via a mobile app. Most Canyons-side lots will remain free at all times next season.

To encourage carpooling, cars carrying four or more individuals will be exempt from paid parking through this policy. However, reservations for carpools will still be required to access these lots.

Reservations will begin in late 2022 for the 2022-23 season.

A map of Park City’s parking options for the 2022-23 season on the Park City side. Despite the legend at the bottom, the Main, First Time, and Silver King lots will no longer be free.

Our Take

While it might be easy to blame Vail Resorts for what could surely be construed a money grab, Park City is far from the first Utah resort to introduce some degree of a paid parking policy. Alta requires paid parking reservations across all of its lots on weekends and holidays (for non-season passholders), and Snowbird also maintains a hybrid paid/free parking policy across its lots. Solitude does not require reservations, but charges up to $20 to park at every lot. By offering to waive the parking fee—but not reservation mandate—for cars of four or more, Park City also follows in the footsteps of competing Utah resorts by providing carpooling incentives.

Luckily, Park City will still offer some free parking—several lots will be still be free next winter at the Canyons side, which is a much less urban location than the Park City side. However, getting from the Canyons side to the Park City side is a grueling endeavor, requiring at least four lifts and 45 minutes, making it impractical to access for those who park at Canyons. On top of that, parking on the Canyons side will be hard to justify for beginners, where very limited green terrain exists and there is no beginner route to get to the Park City side. We imagine the Canyons lots will fill up much faster next season as the only free options; we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cabriolet lot—which is the only lift-serviced free lot on the Canyons side—regularly filling up within the first hour of opening.

The reasons for paid parking listed in the leaked Park City memo make sense—on weekends, holidays, and peak vacation weeks. The town of Park City sees horrendous traffic in mornings and afternoons on these days, and it’s easy to understand a reservation policy to mitigate these crowds during these times. That being said, the town rarely sees the same traffic and off-peak weekdays, and the policy’s effectiveness in limiting traffic during less popular periods is questionable.

Considering a trip to Park City next season? Check out our comprehensive mountain review. Additionally, check out our full Utah and Rockies rankings.