PARK CITY, UT
Time to get your adrenaline rush on!
Utah Olympic Park is a winter sports park that was built in Park City for the 2002 Winter Olympics and is now used as a training site for athletes. Check out this video of a guy practicing his ski jump. I always wondered how they learned without hurting themselves badly!
The park is now also used as a Disneyland for adrenaline junkies. Shout out to Danny B for suggesting it!
I went online to buy tickets, but it was a little confusing on which package to purchase, so I just called the park. So glad I did! He said the Jumpside Pass is the comprehensive ticket package and, even though the park doesn't officially open until Memorial Day weekend, they were doing a soft opening this weekend at a reduced rate. The best part? NO LINES!!!
The ticket included unlimited access to the following activities:
Extreme Tubing
Fly down either a 60' or 90' ski jump hill in an innertube. They make you do the 60' hill first to see if you can handle the 90' hill. Haha, of course we were able to handle it!
Here are the ski jumps in the photo below. The one all the way to the left is the 60' drop. The second one from the right is the 90' drop. And they won't let you do the one all the way to the right.
But the 90' hill is no joke. When they push your tube down the hill, there's a point where the hill drops so steeply, you can't see where you are going and your tube hits speeds of up to 50 mph in that short distance. It was awesome.
Here's a picture of the 90' drop. Notice how you can't see over the curve of the hill because it drops off so steeply. This was my favorite thing to do at Olympic Park!
Freestyle Zipline
This is the required warm-up before the Extreme Zipline. It is a bit shorter and less steep.
Extreme Zipline
This zipline is 1,434' long and apparently one of the steepest in the world with a drop of 157 ft. You start at the edge of the K120 jump and accelerate up to 50 mph, which is about the speed of world class ski jumpers.
Fun fact: they weigh you first to make sure you're not too light or too heavy. I haven't weighed myself since March. One scale told me I lost 15 lbs - woohoo! The other said I gained 5. Womp womp.
Here is a selfie of Karen and me on the ski lift to the zipline. Not the greatest picture, until we later realized it was the ONLY picture we got of the two of us ... well, other than the silly pics at Bonneville Salt Flats. So that makes it the best picture, I guess!
Alpine Slide
You ride a little scooter down a slide with straightaways, drops, and 11 banked curves. You can control your speed with a lever, pushing forward to speed up or pulling back to slow down. The first time, I braked before the curves as the signs instructed me to do. The second time, I didn't use the brake at all. :)
Discovery Course
I read after the fact that this course is designed to challenge young kids. No wonder it was so boring, haha.
After the park, we had lunch in Park City and then spent the afternoon wandering in and out of the little shops and art galleries. It was a great day!