02 Mar Snowmobiling through the Mountains of Utah

Another winter activity that I have neglected since I was young was snowmobiling. It has always been an adventure I enjoyed, but for some reason it stayed off my to do list until we made our way to Utah this winter.

Snowmobiling through the mountains of Utah made the itinerary, and we were super excited to hop on a sled again. There wasn’t much snow on the ground in Park City, but we were heading a bit farther into the mountains toward a small town about 20-30 minutes away. After signing some paperwork and getting sized up for helmets and goggles, we had a quick introduction to the ins and outs of the snowmobiles and then made our way out to the starting point. We were on this adventure with a couple others from the Best Western video project and we had three snowmobiles between the four of us–Micah and I went on the double and they each took out singles. It was nice to just rent the snowmobiles, rather than joining a tour–we liked having the freedom to go at our own pace.

At the starting point, the snow conditions still looked weak, but the rental company assured us that there was more snow up in the mountains. After a few more pointers and trail tips, we were off and heading up into the mountains!

Sure enough, the guides were right and the further we drove the more snow we encountered. The trails wound between tree lined paths and wide open fields, and the scenery started to get more and more dramatic around each and every corner. Also, the further we drove the more windy the conditions got–snow started blowing everywhere at one point, and it looked like we were almost stuck in a blizzard! It was just fog mixed with wind though, so all was well.

I was actually surprised at how much snow was up in the mountains. The trails had just received a fresh coat of snow, and when we got off the snowmobiles for a break, we couldn’t believe how far we would sink into the snow. It was up past our knees in some places, but you would never know it when riding the sleds!

The snowmobiles went pretty fast, but almost a bit too fast for me as most of the time I was hanging on the back with one hand because I was trying to get video footage while we were riding. Thankfully, I didn’t end up falling off, and Micah didn’t end up pushing me off…I may have kept bugging him to slow down because I was having trouble hanging on one handed…but I digress.

When we were on our way back to the starting point, we happened to come across a few locals snowboarding behind a snowmobile. It looked pretty awesome, so we asked if they could get some footage with our GoPro. They graciously agreed and even suggested we stay and watch them snowkite through the snow after they got set up! We couldn’t turn that down, so we stayed, cold toes and all. It was quite a sight to see–the wind was really blowing and they caught some amazing air.

If we didn’t have to get the snowmobiles back so soon, we probably would have stayed to watch them quite a bit longer. But, unfortunately we had to keep making our way back to the cars. We made it back in time and our adventure ended when they loaded the snowmobiles back onto the trailer.

I would have to say that snowmobiling through the mountains of Utah was one of my favorite adventures from the trip–the scenery was gorgeous, the weather was great, and it was so much fun flying around the tight corners and through the open fields. We definitely need to make snowmobiling a higher priority going forward!

 

We went on this adventure while working on our video project with Best Western–if you would like to see the entire video we produced, check it out here!