Utah Ski Resorts, A trip to Brighton

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Skiing and snowboarding can be dangerous activities, please ride within your ability levels and respect others around you

Ever considered taking a ski or snowboard trip to Utah? Known to be one of the best places in the world to ride, on a good week the snow can stack up quick giving one a taste of the “champagne powder.” A coined term of light fluffy powder that you can experience if good snow rolls through. There are some amazing ski resorts to ski or snowboard at in Utah, but one of my favorites is Brighton. It’s close to Salt Lake and also not far from Park City.

Established in 1936, the resort still has that old school feel to it. Parking at the base of the resort, an old A Frame Tavern, and the Brighton Lodge all give it that mom and pop feel that seems to be disappearing from the ski industry. Lift tickets are still under $100 for the day and you’ll notice a brown bagged section in the lodge, designated for those who packed a lunch, but want to eat inside. Although the mountain itself offers a number of groomed trails for beginner to intermediate riders, there is plenty of terrain for the more experienced rider. Chutes, trees, and what I’d like to think of as a natural terrain park are all things you’ll find inbounds at Brighton.

In this post I’ll be going over where to stay, how to get to Brighton, where to buy/rent gear, and what to know ahead of time. Let’s get into it!

Where is Brighton

Located at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Brighton Ski resort is about 35-40 minutes from downtown Salt Lake city, without traffic. You’ll drive up a road with a series of switchbacks until you pass the Brighton General store on your left and arrive at the parking lot. It can be sunny and warm in downtown Salt Lake and snowing up at Brighton, which is what makes Utah unique. However if it’s snowing or raining in the city, typically you know it’s going to be a deep day up at Brighton! I listed times and distances from a few major areas below.

Park City: 60 min/44 miles

Salt Lake: 45 min/31.5 miles

Ogden: 1 hour and 20 min/67 miles

Where to stay

There’s a number of different places to stay in Downtown Salt Lake that will be close to the canyon. I’ve stayed in Park City before when riding Brighton, but the thing I like about Salt Lake is the close proximity to the Canyon. But if city life isn’t your thing you can stay in Park City and even up by the resort. There’s a number of rentals and a couple lodges close to Brighton. I listed places to stay below.

Salt Lake- I stayed in this tiny home as well as this 1 bedroom through VRBO. They were both really nice and not too expensive, yet close to Brighton. There’s also a number of hotels with free breakfast on hotels.com

Park City- Park city is a ski town, so you’ll be able to find anything from 1 bedrooms all the way up to townhomes and private homes

Brighton Resort- Look on VRBO for places to stay in Big Cottonwood Canyon or check out Silver Fork Lodge along with the Brighton Lodge.

Where to eat

One thing I love about staying in Salt Lake, is being in the city, there are some great restaurants. With a lot to choose from, below are the breakfast, dinner, and coffee shops I tried during my time in Utah!

Breakfast

Hub & Spoke Diner- A classic diner spot with a modern take on some of the menu options. What I loved about this restaurant is the '“from scratch” kitchen including all of the sauces. Great place to go before you get to the mountain, just make sure you get there early if Brighton has a pow day so that you can get up the Canyon and grab a parking spot!

Eggsburgh- Located right in the downtown area, I would say what stands out about this breakfast spot is the creativity behind the menu. Grab a booth right by one of the big windows and enjoy the city like feel of this restaurant.

Coffee

When I was looking up coffee shops, Cupla popped up and I decided to try the location in downtown Salt Lake. Cupla means Twin in Irish, as the business was started by two twins. The Latte I tried was one of the best I’ve had. There’s also going to be a breakfast and lunch menu that focuses on low carb and low sugar. Swing through even after your day on the mountain as they are open until 7:00 pm.

Dinner

Both places I went to for dinner (The Copper Onion and Pago) were honestly really good. I did some reserarch on these and was pretty impressed with the service, food, and just overall ambience. The Copper Onion has this 1930’s vibe going on inside. Very classy and a great place to, grab a meal and a drink (s) with friends. They source ingredients that are local and sustainable. I would say the food is classic American comfort, but with the upscale touch.

Pago is a true farm to table restaurant with a number of their menu items coming from local farms. Located in a nice area of Salt Lake with other shops, small businesses, and restaurants around, Pago is part of this little slice of Salt Lake. Known especially for their wines, I would make sure to at least try a glass if you are looking to grab a drink. Make sure to book a reservation in advance and enjoy a nice meal in this unique spot.

What is the average annual snowfall

Brighton’s avg annual snowfall is 500 inches a year! That is one of the amazing things about Utah, they seem to get a lot of snow through out the winter. Track a storm and try to plan a trip is the name of the game if you can.

Where can I buy or rent ski/snowboard gear

Being close to a big city in the mountains means there will be a lot of choices for where to rent or buy ski and snowboard equipment. My favorite retail shop is Evo, they have a pretty large selection for ski’s, snowboards, jackets, pants, goggles, etc. The best core snowboard shop will be Milo and for ski’s only I would check out the Lifthouse, for retail along with rentals. Other rental shops include Ski n’ See as well as Brighton Mountain Sports, right at the base of the mountain!

I also recommend checking out WNDR (Wonder Alpine), a small locally owned shop in Salt Lake. Their ski’s and boards are all made without Petroleum, a company that puts sustainability at the forefront.

If you plan on renting, just make sure to book a reservation ahead of time. Shops will offer rental packages based on your ability level. Depending on where you rent ski’s or snowboards from, the shop will have a try before you buy program which is called, Demo. This allows someone to try different ski’s or snowboards out before purchasing them.

Where to park

Parking can be tricky at Brighton because there really isn’t that much parking space overall. The first thing to note is that you have to make a parking reservation for Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays on Brighton’s website. They have a list of guidelines I would recommend checking out. There’s been talks of a gondola from the base of the canyon to the resort, but I’m not sure when that will start to happen. With that being said, if you’re able to park in the main lot, you are right at the base of the resort, which is pretty amazing.

There is also a little bit of overflow parking at the Brighton General Store if needed.

There’s also a very limited amount of parking at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon with a free shuttle that can take you up to the resort. They have two lots a smaller one and an overflow lot. Just arrive very early on good powder days or weekends. Below I have links to these parking lots.

East Big Cottonwood Park and Ride

Overflow Big Cottonwood Park and Ride

PLEASE NOTE: Since you are in a City don’t leave anything valuable in your car when parking in these lots

What pass is Brighton on and how much are lift tickets

Other then the Brighton Season Pass, you get 5-7 days on the Ikon, depending on which Ikon pass you purchased. Lift tickets are only $79 for the day and $89 dollars if you plan on night riding at all.

Does it snow a lot

Utah in general receives these snow storms that seem to just stack up on one another, with winter of 2023, resorts were having record numbers of over 800 inches! That’s what I’ve noticed when I go to Utah to snowboard is when it snows, it snows.

What makes Brighton special

The mom and pop feel you get when you park at the base of the resort. There’s cliff drops, easy greens and blues, and then side/back country access right off the resort. You can also cover most of the resort in 3 days and lift tickets are still under $100/day. Plus night riding 6 nights a week makes this place hard to beat.

Photo by Kevin McAvey

Where to ride

The mountain is split into 3 sections with Crest Express, Western Express, and Milly being the starting lifts to access the runs on those parts of the mountain.

Crest Express and Snake Creek

The runs off of these lifts is where you’ll find the majority of the green’s and blues, perfect for just cruising, warming up, or progressing! If you plan on dropping into some of the tree areas right off of Crest, be prepared for a short hike out. I think it’s worth it to ride through those areas even with the hike out. Not many people do, so you get some untracked lines when there’s fresh snow. For people looking step up from the bunny hill, hop on the majestic lift!

Photo by Kevin McAvey

At the end of the day I’ll Take Pacific Highway and catch a good view on the way down and ride through some of the trees on Wren Hollow. If you have kids, the runs off of Crest are great because they aren’t too steep and everyone can kind of stay together as a family. The base area of Crest can get cluttered, but with the lift being a 6 person chair, the line moves quick.

Snake Creek will also have some beginner to intermediate runs if you were to take a left off of the chairlift. However! they also have some amazing trees and steeper lines if you go right off of the lift, terrain such as Snake Bowl and Doyles Dive is awesome to ride on a powder day. You’ll be cruising through some trees and then all of sudden it opens up with natural terrain to jump off of and areas to slash a few good turns.

Milly

My favorite area of Brighton will be the runs off of Milly. It has just about everything from little drops to cliffs, trees, and even some blues and greens. If the snow isn’t deep or great I’ll usually stick to the groomed terrain, but if it’s a powder day as in the photos below, take a left off the lift and traverse as far as you’d like and then drop in! FYI, make sure you know where you are when riding through terrain off of Milly to avoid getting cliffed out. Cliffed out means the only way down is to jump off the cliff.

My favorite run through Milly is Scree Slope because it’s a steeper wide open bowl that fills in nicely after a snow storm. The turns through these areas are amazing after a storm, especially if you get first chair! For more advanced and experienced skiers or snowboarders, there’s an inbounds hike right off the lift that drops into Milly Bowl. Make sure to be aware of your surroundings and what terrain is in-bounds or out-of-bounds when doing the hike.

Photo by Kevin McAvey

Not experienced enough to ride some of the steeper terrain off Milly? Take a right off the lift and there will blues and greens, such as backdoor and backbone

Great Western

To access the Great Western Lift, you’ll need to take the Snake River lift and go left off the lift, follow the trail signs for Great Western. There’s a lot of terrain to cover on this part of the resort and I honestly haven’t spent too much time on this side of the mountain. A couple of my favorite places to ride are the Aspen trees off of Golden Needle and I also like to ride down Western Trail, it’s kind of like a cat walk and then you can drop in wherever looks good. Western Trail is a blue so if you don’t feel like riding steeper terrain, just take this run all the way until it connects to another Blue run.

Below you can see some of the runs on Great Western off in the distance.

Is there a terrain park

The parks at Brighton are pretty sick with beginner, intermediate, and advanced rails, jumps, and features. These can be easily accessed off the Crest Express and Majestic Lifts. Even if you are just starting out in the park, there’s going to be some very small boxes and jump at Brighton, great for learning the fundamentals while keeping it fun.

The other cool thing is the terrain park off Majestic is open during night riding! Take a few laps under the lights and don’t forget to bring a clear lens for your goggles.

NZ snowboarder Josh lapping through the Jump line

Any back country access from the resort

There will be back country gates right off the resort as well as some side country zones. You’ll notice out-of-bounds signage for these areas, which I mostly noticed off the Milly Lift. I would highly recommend having the proper equipment, partner, and knowledge if you were to access any of these areas!

Best Apres’

The best place for Apres’ will be right at the base of the resort at Molly Greens Tavern. Awesome vibe inside and great place for a drink or some appetizers. Depending on where you sit, you’ll also get some views of resort and Wasatach mountains

On mountain Dining

Other then Molly Greens, Brighton has a number of restaurants on mountain for those seeking to take a break and eat a good meal on the mountain. If you just want a quick snack, swing by the Brighton Store before getting on the mountain. For coffee, breakfast, or just a hot drink mid-day check out the Blind Miner in the Brighton Center.

Also in the Brighton Center will be a Brown Bag section for those who pack their own lunch (Name another ski resort that has that!??) along with a main cafeteria style dining area called Alpine Rose. If you’re into a sit down restaurant, that has more of a fine dining menu, check out the Milly Chalet at the base of the Milly Lift. On the side of this restaurant will also be Doyles Dawgs with beers, chips, brats, and hot dogs.

Last, is my favorite place to grab a quick meal and that is Sidewinder located in the Snake Creek Lodge. It’s got an awesome seating area with large windows that lookout to the resort and mountains. The food is pretty much Burgers and tater tots, but it’s honestly pretty good and not overly priced in my opinion.

Tree Riding

There’s going to be a lot of good tree riding off of Crest, Snake River, and the Western Express. I honestly like riding through a lot of the trees on the Green runs and also the aspen trees off of Great Western.

Are lessons available

Yep, Brighton offers Private and Group lessons along with night lessons. Night lessons will be more affordable! They also offer an intro package which includes equipment for ski’s or snowboards as well as a two hour lesson.

There will be a beginner chair, Explorer, along with magic carpets (not a chairlift) to get you up the hill so you can ride down and learn the fundamentals on easy runs. The instructor will help you with things such as stopping, linking turns, getting off and on the lift, and how to use your equipment.

Does the canyon road ever close

It can if there needs to be avalanche mitigation done, but this only happens if there is a lot of snow. Typically Littlewood Cotton is the canyon that closes after a snow storm, which is the road up to Snowbird.

Is there Night Riding

One of the best parts is night riding Monday-Saturday from 4-9 pm. There’s going to be a number of runs open off the Crest and Snake Creek lifts at night. And if you’re wondering if there is any beginner terrain for night riding, there is, off of the Snake Creek lift. There’s even a terrain park that’s open for night riding! It started dumping the second night of my stay in Utah, and riding powder at night is pretty incredible experience. You may even see people with headlamps riding through the trees.

That’s it for a trip to Brighton! If you have any questions or comments, drop them down below. I plan on covering more Utah ski resorts in the future so stay tuned.

Looking for another place to take a ski or snowboard trip to? Check out Steamboat in Colorado, it’s one of coolest places you can ski or snowboard at in Colorado, definitely worth checking out.