The Park City Police Department last week received information about a possible hunter on the terrain at Park City Mountain, a case reported during the early days of one of the state’s hunting seasons.
Someone contacted the police at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 18. The person reported seeing a man “possibly hunting with a bow,” according to public police logs. The man was wearing camouflage, the police were told.
The person who contacted the police said the sighting was in the area of a biking trail called Keystone and a ski trail called Fool’s Gold. The location is in the vicinity of the Silverlode Express and Motherlode Express lifts.
The Police Department said officers were not able to access the location. The information about the possible hunter was forwarded to Park City Mountain, the police said.
The state’s general archery bull elk hunt is underway. It opened Aug. 16 and is scheduled to close Sept. 17. Elk are among the animals that are plentiful in the Park City area. There are sometimes wildlife sightings reported to the police within the Park City-side terrain at Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort.
There have long been worries about hunters inside Park City with there being so many recreation lovers on the same land. The terrain at the mountain resorts — and acreage elsewhere in Park City that provides wildlife habitat — is popular in the summer and fall with hikers and bicyclists. The concern centers on conflicts between the people using the land for recreation purposes and hunters, with the possibility of a hunting accident involving the hikers and bicyclists.
Park City Mountain provided a prepared statement in response to a Park Record inquiry about the report to the police. The resort said it “prohibits hunting all year.”
“This is for the general safety of our guests and employees and also aligns with Park City Municipal ordinances that apply across the property,” Park City Mountain officials said.
The statement did not address the case reported on Aug. 18.
The Police Department occasionally fields reports of hunting on the terrain at Park City Mountain. The acreage at the resort is easily accessible from various locations and stretches through wildlife habitats.
A case in October of 2023 involved a report of a camouflaged man with a bow in the area of a trail at Park City Mountain. In September of 2021, the police received information about a bow hunter in the midmountain area of Park City Mountain.
There have also been cases in popular recreation areas outside the terrain at the resort. The police in October of 2019 were informed of a bow hunter in the City Hall-owned Bonanza Flat open space in Wasatch County. There have been reports in a variety of other places in the city over the years.
The Police Department, meanwhile, received a series of recent reports of wildlife sightings. The police calls included a bull moose on Aug. 21 in a parking lot in Prospector, a deer in a Sidewinder Drive backyard on Aug. 23 and a young deer, reported to have suffered a broken leg, on the Rail Trail on Aug. 20.