Who needs Sundance? Summer shows off another side to Park City

PARK CITY — Natural beauty and serenity won't let hip Park City get too glitzy. The supercool home of the Sundance Film Festival flashes like a neon marquee for 10 days in January when 45,000 cinema fans come during an already busy ski season. Celebrities mix with a chic ski crowd at this premier showcase for independent filmmakers.

Our visit in June showed another side.

Wildflowers carpet fresh-green slopes. Breezy, sunny days prove perfect for hiking, mountain biking and sightseeing. The seductive beauty of the outdoors creates a fabulous vacation, particularly when matched with excellent restaurants, fascinating people and wonderful places to stay.

Park City sits in a small valley on the backside of the Wasatch Range 30 miles east of Salt Lake City. Beginning in the late 1860s, the mountains' mineral wealth turned enterprising prospectors into millionaires. Once the mines petered out, business leaders groomed the mountains for skiing. Park City grabbed the limelight in 2002 when the Winter Olympics stretched beyond Salt Lake City. The world heard about Park City's powdery snow and challenging ski slopes. Posh resorts and new condominium villages now speckle hillsides in this city of 7,000 residents.

Historic Main Street continues to be the heart and soul of the city. Pedestrians amble along the gently sloping street as soon as the coffeehouses open.

The historic district is especially remarkable because 64 buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, says Clarence Wells, a docent guide with the Park City Museum. Wells directs a walking tour to connect historic events to places. A hundred years ago, pleasure-seekers from pious Salt Lake City made a beeline to the notorious Park City red-light district. We see several saloons that echo the mining-camp heritage.

A fire in 1898 cleared out several blocks of businesses and rows of scruffy miners' shacks. The brick-and-masonry structures built in the early 1900s show evidence of prosperity. The Golden Rule Mercantile building once held a department store opened by a fledging entrepreneur, J.C. Penney. It served patrons from 1909 to the 1930s. The Egyptian Theater reflects the Egyptian Revival style that was popular in the 1920s. A bell tower identifies Washington School, a limestone structure with pitched rooflines. Converted to an inn in 1985, the building now holds a veritable trove of antique furniture and decorative objects in its former classrooms.