Lights, Camera, Action at Sundance Mountain Resort
Sundance Mountain Resort
Sundance, Utah
Western wilderness, $$ ($300)
In 1969, Robert Redford bought a swath of land at the base of 12,000-foot Mt. Timpanogos, an hour from Salt Lake City in Utah. Interested in both land conservation and artistic experimentation, he established an institute to reinforce independent storytelling and support its burgeoning artists and filmmakers.
Over the next several decades, an ecosystem balancing art and community, nature and adventure, and rusticity and sophistication developed in the area known as Sundance. Today, guests of the Sundance Mountain Resort can take advantage of the many gifts the wilderness offers (on many thousands of acres of protected land), including respite, relaxation, rehabilitation, and inspiration — in many forms, including, but not limited to, skiing and snowboarding, hiking, trekking, scenic zip-lining, fly-fishing, horseback riding, riding chair lifts during a full moon, stretching out during mountaintop yoga, and breathing in fresh air in silence.
As any filmmaker (or hospitality professional) will tell you, it's all about setting a scene and filling it with good characters. There's plenty to mine here. Ride a scenic lift to the only mountaintop lodge in Utah. Have a drink in a 1890s-era bar restored and moved from Wyoming, where it was once a hangout for Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall Gang. Catch an outdoor theater performance on a blanket of grass in the middle of summer. Hook and zip with a 2,100-foot vertical drop (the most of any zipline in the U.S.A.) for breathtaking views and a hit of adrenaline.
Then retreat to a cozy leather chair in front of the stone fireplace of your rustic mountain cabin — and call it a very good day.
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