What started as an idea to get more people to the annual Downhill & Grill community event evolved into Basin Recreation’s first bike race series for toddlers.

There are only two rules for the Tiny Tires Showdown: no riders over 4 years old and no pedals on the bikes.

Hanna Markel, events and outreach lead coordinator for Basin Recreation, said she was pleased with how the series has turned out so far.

“So far, it’s been awesome. Lots of big smiles,” she said.

The races have taken place at parks in the Snyderville Basin. Courses are set up with toddler-friendly obstacles like bubbles, pool noodles and speed bumps. Markel said the kids love exploring the track before the race just as much as the actual competition.

For parents, the races are a chance to explore the parks and get their kids outside in a safe environment. Markel said many have been to new parks and their kids are making new friends because of the races.

“The parents have been super into it, too,” Markel said. “Parents like that their kids are out racing, having fun, and it’s very controlled, low stakes.” 

While it is a low-stakes race, there is still a chance for the kids to get on a podium and receive a medal.

“It’s been very fun and very cute,” Markel said

Along with the Tiny Tire Showdown on Aug. 8, Basin Recreation is planning mountain bike clinics for older kids as part of their Downhill & Grill event. The clinics are for kids aged 6-12 and will be led by Basin Mountain Bike coaches.

The clinics will start at a beginner level, but the Trailside park is built for a wide range of ability and skill levels. 

The Downhill & Grill event started out as a way to thank the community after Basin Recreation built the Trailside Bike Park. Every year people bring bikes, eat barbeque and enjoy the community parks together.

“We are out there to have fun and get kids outside and on bikes,” Markel said. 

Markel said her favorite thing about these events particularly is getting to know a new part of the community. 

“We do a lot of really fun community events,” she said. “But I think this is one where we are reaching out to a bit of a younger crowd of kids, and it’s just fun to see how thankful everyone is for little things like this.” 

Registration is still open for each event on the Basin Recreation website and will be made available through race-day on Aug. 8.

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The Park City community has worked for decades to be an accessible destination for people with disabilities, but now it’s official: Park City has earned Accessibility Verification from Wheel the World, a non-profit organization that helps plan accessible travel.

The initiative was led by the Park City Chamber/Bureau in collaboration with local organizations including the Mountain Trails Foundation and the National Ability Center. Thirty  businesses and community organizations were recognized at an event Thursday at the National Ability Center. The Chamber/Bureau’s goal is to at least double this number by the beginning of next year.

Becca Gerber, senior director of government and community affairs for the Park City Chamber/Bureau, said this isn’t about asking the community to make big changes, but to highlight the work already being done.

“It’s really about taking the pulse of where we are right now in our business community and seeing what we already offer, and then doing a better job of informing people, both our community and visitors, about what’s already here or what the best ways to navigate our community are,” Gerber said.

At Thursday’s event, Matthew Heimburger and Anna Dance spoke of the importance of accessible travel and adventure to their family. Heimburger and Dance, who live in Midway, are parents of a daughter with a disability. 

Heimburger said it’s important to their family that their daughter feel included in an activity with others rather than separated because of her disability Through the Wheel the World verification and local organizations like the National Ability Center, families with varying disabilities will be able to experience accommodation and inclusion in the greater Park City community.

The efforts to make Park City even more accessible are inspired in part by preparing for the 2034 Olympics and Paralympics, but Gerber emphasized the importance of the local community too. They’re thinking about “how to make it a better place for everyone to navigate together,” she said.

All aspects of the Park City experience are represented in the verified destinations. Breweries and dining, lodging, history, arts, and of course outdoor activities. 

The National Ability Center has for decades promoted accessible outdoor recreation. This initiative is working with the center to highlight and continue its work. The main National Ability Center location and the McGrath Mountain Center are featured as Wheel the World verified locations. They continue to offer adaptive equipment and programs to make outdoor recreation more accessible. 

Gerber said Wheel the World was excited to work with the National Ability Center. 

“Once we talked about doing (the verification), we wanted to make sure we also pulled the NAC in right away, and they were really eager to participate and work with us too,” Gerber said.

Speaking of the importance of the National Ability Center  and accessible adventure, Dance said that being included in these activities gives their daughter courage and confidence that helps her navigate her disability and being a teenager.  

The Mountain Trails Foundation is expanding their trail maintenance work to increase the number of universally accessible trails, starting with the Round Valley area around the center. Trail width and grade must be considered, as well as trailhead features like parking options and restrooms. Grant funding has enabled the foundation to use new technology and experts in adaptive cycling to make these trails accessible to riders of all skill levels and all abilities. Several trail systems are already included in the verified list, with more to come in 2027. 

Lodges at Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort are also featured. Although the details aren’t featured on Wheel the World’s site, Park City Mountain’s lifts are accessible, too. The lift team is trained to assist adaptive skiers and riders in loading and unloading lifts, and summer chairs are fitted to carry adaptive bikes.

“Our community really does care a lot and does put a lot of effort into making things accessible. We’re just excited that now we have a better way to share all the things we’re doing,” Gerber said.

To see Park City’s Wheel the World page, click here: wheeltheworld.com

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The Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District is working on a redesign for the Fieldhouse’s locker rooms to bring the facility into compliance with a new state law.

“The general purpose of the project is to redesign the Fieldhouse locker rooms in a way that is a little bit more inclusive,” explained district Superintendent Matt Wagoner during a board meeting last week. “We have a multi-purpose goal of increasing privacy, accessibility, and then a portion of that, as we’ve discussed before, is compliance with the H.B. 257 state legislation.”

H.B. 257 aims to increase privacy in restrooms by creating more unisex facilities and restricting access to male- and female-designated bathrooms. The bill was widely criticized by LGBTQ+ rights activists during the last legislative session for preventing transgender people from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.

The bill’s sponsors, however, maintained it’s meant to bolster laws against voyeurism and lewdness.

According to Wagoner, the Fieldhouse currently has gender-neutral bathrooms, but there is no gender-neutral access to the pool, as visitors are required to walk through a designated male or female locker room to reach the area.

The redesign is still in its early stages, so there are no preliminary plans as of now, but Wagoner emphasized that his goals are privacy and accessibility and that compliance with H.B. 257 is only a tertiary factor.

“We’re confident that we can accomplish this goal of meeting compliance with the legislation and also just updating and improving locker rooms overall,” he said.

The Basin Recreation board overwhelmingly supported the proposed gender-neutral pool access, with board member Ryan Bruce pointing out it would be helpful for families with children of different genders taking swim lessons. 

Under H.B. 257, a male parent cannot bring his female child into the male locker room, but he also is not allowed to enter the female locker room.

“All right, you’re 6, 5, 4 [years old]. Go ahead and just walk through that other room and please come out the other side,” Bruce said as an example. “From that standpoint, too, I think this is a really critical project.”

Board Chair Brandi Connolly agreed, adding that there could be a similar situation for people with disabilities who might need assistance but have a caretaker of the opposite sex.

“Thank you for doing this, not only from the family aspect [but] from the people with disabled relatives to people who are transgender,” Connolly said. “Everybody deserves a place to be able to go to the bathroom and change their clothes and feel comfortable.”

The board unanimously voted to approve an agreement with AJC Architects to redesign the Fieldhouse’s locker rooms and pool access, with a stipulation that the costs should not exceed $65,600.

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Run-A-Muk, the beloved Summit County dog park, is nicer than ever after a grand opening celebration Thursday officially opened the latest expansion to the public.

“There’s 88 acres, so it’s a very large parcel,” said Phares Gines, Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District’s trails and open space manager. “There’s some other areas that are closed off right now, watersheds and things like that, but there’s plenty of room for the dogs to tire themselves out.”

The expansion, which took two and a half years to complete, added amenities for human guests, including a larger parking lot and restrooms. The pups weren’t left out, though. Run-A-Muk now has a third, lower trailhead that connects to the rest of the park.

“We’ve always talked about expanding the trail system here,” Gines said. “It’s actually road-based, so it’s a little easier to negotiate, a little flatter, a little more accessible. It’s not necessarily ADA accessible, but it is more accessible. I think you could take a wheelchair on it or a mobility device without much issue. We just added some trails in there, some shorter loops, for people who come on their lunch break and want to give their dog a little exercise and get a little bit themselves.”

The Summit County Engineering Department helped Basin Recreation with the project, saving taxpayers an estimated $17,000, according to Gines. Funding came from the Recreation Arts and Parks (RAP) tax, a 0.1% sales tax within Summit County for cultural and recreation opportunities, as well as impact fees, which are paid by new businesses to mitigate their impact on residents.

“A portion of that fee comes to us, and we use those fees for anything new that brings tourism and/or residents somewhere to be, so this was a perfect fit for that,” Gines explained, adding that visitors come to the park from Summit, Wasatch and Salt Lake counties.

One of those visitors includes Nina Bennett, who lives in the Basin area and tries to bring her Schnauzer, Crystal, to Run-A-Muk at least twice a week.

“I like it because she gets to run around free and I don’t have to worry about her going out in the street,” Bennett said. “It’s safe. It’s reassuring. As you can see, she really likes to run and jump.”

Bennett was grateful for the additional parking lot, saying that she’s struggled to find parking during her weekly visits in the past. Mostly, though, she’s grateful for the time she gets to spend with Crystal.

“My grandkids named her because somebody was selling dogs, and they kept trying to get me to get a dog because my husband passed away not too long ago and they didn’t want me to be lonely,” Bennett said. “Somebody was selling some Schnauzer puppies, and Crystal came up to me, and it was like she found me. I just felt like she was the perfect dog for me because she was so sweet.”

Crystal is now almost a year old and loves to play in the snow — running amok at Run-A-Muk with Bennett and all of her puppy friends.

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Summit Bike Share increased its ridership by 20% this year with a total of 17,000 rides, according to Transportation Planning Director Carl Miller, who attributes the program’s success to a full season of operations, marketing campaigns and new stations.

“Last year was the first year that we ran the program as the county,” Miller said. “Previously, we had a service provider who ran it, so that was our first year running the program. We learned a lot, and this year has been even more successful.”

Bike share programs are becoming more popular throughout the country, especially in tourist destinations like ski resort towns, according to Miller. The programs allow people to rent and return bicycles or e-bikes at approved stations in a specific geographical area, such as Summit County.

To use the program in Summit County, riders need to download the official Summit Bike Share app. Then they can purchase a pass, which will let the rider check out an e-bike from one of the stations in Summit County. There are multiple passes available depending on the riders’ needs, including an individual pass, monthly pass, four-day pass and season pass.

“We’re continuing to constantly try to improve the user application because if the system is frustrating and complicated to use, folks aren’t going to give it that much time and they’re going to walk away,” said county active transportation planner Senta Beyer. “Our hope is to continue to educate our users on how to use the app, how to use the bikes and to help them better understand the system.”

In addition to maintaining and updating the mobile app, part of the county’s success with the bike share includes new stations at the Park City Hospital and the Lincoln Station apartments, as well as the reopening of the Park Avenue station after it was shut down by a construction project.

“We’re considering a program to let locals have the first 10 minutes for free on the bikes during the shoulder season, so before the peak in July, Pioneer Day, the 4th of July, those kinds of events,” Miller said. “But for the first and last month of the season, we want to enable locals to really enjoy the bikes, to get out and recreate, run errands between their office and their home and a restaurant, those kinds of things.”

Miller said operating Summit Bike Share in-house instead of contracting with a third-party company has helped the program financially. Beyer manages the program and employs one full-time and one part-time bike mechanic, as well as two seasonal bike mechanics during the summer.

“We really try to keep the ratio of bikes to mechanics fairly streamlined, especially compared to some larger systems, and at the same time make sure that we’re repairing the bikes and providing good customer service to our community,” Miller explained. “As we grow the program, we may need to add more staff down the road in correlation with additional revenues that we expect from adding new bikes and new stations into the system.”

The bike share program broke even financially last season, which Miller said isn’t typical for bike share programs. Typically, bike shares need government subsidiaries to stay afloat, but the Summit Bike Share hasn’t needed to tap into those resources yet because of its three sponsors: the Park City Chamber/Bureau, Intermountain Healthcare and Deer Valley Resort.

“We’re hoping to continue to tap into our business community to see how we can broaden our sponsorship and get the bikes more into the fabric of the community,” Beyer said.

Right now, residents who have feedback on the bike share, including suggestions for new stations, can take the Summit Bike Share’s end-of-season survey. Miller said he also hopes to gauge interest in the proposed locals-focused programs.

“It’s the most sustainable and enjoyable way to get around in the community,” he said about the bike share. “That’s really why we’re asking the community for participation in this survey, to get their feedback, to find out how we can better serve the local residents in the county and in Park City, to find out how they would want to use this system.”

The survey, which is open until Dec. 13, is available at summitbikeshare.com.

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Each Saturday throughout the winter, the Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter take locals and visitors onto the preserve for snowshoe tours. New Year’s Eve’s attendance brought in a family from the California Bay Area. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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Each Wednesday, locally gathered recreation teams gather at the Park City Sports Complex to face off against each other in kickball. Teams bring their own matching t-shirts, beverages and enjoy the time to get some physical activity in their day. (Photos by Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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