Dawns Trail
Hiking Trail
Hard
2.07 mi
639 ft
Hiker-only trail with views over Park City
Park City Mountain is a top winter destination in Utah, but it's also popular in summer, when aspens leaf out and wildflowers paint the slopes. As snow melts off the ski slopes, an entirely new set of trails appear, and the mountain stays open for hiking and mountain biking. Most of the summer trails are made with mountain bikes in mind. Bikers pedal or ride lifts uphill, then bomb downhill trails with terrific speed. All trails are open to hiking as well, but fast and frequent bike traffic can make walking on certain trails a bit stressful.
Luckily there is Dawns Trail, open only to foot traffic. It leads up the mountain beneath Silver Star Chair. No lift ticket or any kind of fee is required to hike it, except maybe for a parking spot in town.
Get to Dawns from the main Park City base area by taking an easy walk on Silver Spur to Armstrong Trail, or from the Armstrong Trailhead on Silver Star Drive (mapped). Note that Silver Spur and Armstrong both allow bikes, but you’ll only be on these trails for a short distance.
Once on Dawns Trail, you’ll begin to switchback rather steeply up a brushy, open slope beneath a chairlift. Bring water and sun protection because this section can be very hot in summer. Soon the trail finds shade in an aspen grove, then crosses a few ski lifts before entering the stillness of a pine glade. All along the trail you can watch for birds, deer, and other wildlife, and look carefully for all the different wildflowers that can be found throughout spring and summer.
As you near the offload area at the top of the chairlift, the hiker-only portion of Dawns Trail ends, and becomes a downhill mountain bike trail. You can continue hiking uphill, but watch out for bikers coming down. This upper portion of Dawns leads to Armstrong Trail, which you can use to loop back to where you started. Other options are to hike back the way you came, or connect with Spiro Trail (another bike trail) and loop back down.
Sources:
Written by Jesse Weber
Park City Mountain is a top winter destination in Utah, but it's also popular in summer, when aspens leaf out and wildflowers paint the slopes. As snow melts off the ski slopes, an entirely new set of trails appear, and the mountain stays open for hiking and mountain biking. Most of the summer trails are made with mountain bikes in mind. Bikers pedal or ride lifts uphill, then bomb downhill trails with terrific speed. All trails are open to hiking as well, but fast and frequent bike traffic can make walking on certain trails a bit stressful.
Luckily there is Dawns Trail, open only to foot traffic. It leads up the mountain beneath Silver Star Chair. No lift ticket or any kind of fee is required to hike it, except maybe for a parking spot in town.
Get to Dawns from the main Park City base area by taking an easy walk on Silver Spur to Armstrong Trail, or from the Armstrong Trailhead on Silver Star Drive (mapped). Note that Silver Spur and Armstrong both allow bikes, but you’ll only be on these trails for a short distance.
Once on Dawns Trail, you’ll begin to switchback rather steeply up a brushy, open slope beneath a chairlift. Bring water and sun protection because this section can be very hot in summer. Soon the trail finds shade in an aspen grove, then crosses a few ski lifts before entering the stillness of a pine glade. All along the trail you can watch for birds, deer, and other wildlife, and look carefully for all the different wildflowers that can be found throughout spring and summer.
As you near the offload area at the top of the chairlift, the hiker-only portion of Dawns Trail ends, and becomes a downhill mountain bike trail. You can continue hiking uphill, but watch out for bikers coming down. This upper portion of Dawns leads to Armstrong Trail, which you can use to loop back to where you started. Other options are to hike back the way you came, or connect with Spiro Trail (another bike trail) and loop back down.
Sources:
Written by Jesse Weber
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