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 mindset business owner Myle Walsh takes toward running her Heber City boutique, Water from the Moon, is the same one she had when she got lost on the most active volcano in Indonesia 43 years ago: Dive in headfirst, fly by the seat of your pants and trust the process.

She was on a seven-month backpacking trip through Asia with her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Mark, in 1983 when they decided to climb Mount Merapi.

About three hours into the roughly four-hour climb, Walsh decided she’d had enough and would sit and read a book while Mark, insistent on reaching the summit, completed the climb. They agreed she would start heading back down the volcano at 4 p.m. if Mark hadn’t returned. 

That time came with no sign of Mark. So, Walsh began slowly making her way down.

It had been cloudy on the climb up, but the early sunset made visibility even worse. 

“All of a sudden, I can’t even see my hand in front of my face,” Walsh recalled. “I knew that I shouldn’t keep going because I remember there were a couple of dangerous places that, if it was dark, and I couldn’t see, I maybe could have fallen to my death.”

She called Mark’s name several times to no avail. So, she unpacked her backpack. She didn’t have a flashlight, but she did have a sweatshirt and towel, which she laid out on the trail. Trying to ignore the anxieties in the back of her mind, she stargazed, eventually drifting off to sleep.

When she woke, she made her way down the volcano back to the village where she and Mark had started their journey. She’d spent about an hour sipping tea in a tea house, unsure of what to do, when her boyfriend sauntered in.

“I had held it together pretty well. But when I saw him, I started crying,” Walsh said. 

Mark had made it to the top of Mount Merapi the previous evening and had begun climbing down. He expected to find Walsh on the way down, but she had taken a wrong turn somewhere on the trail.

“When he got to the bottom, I think he was like, ‘Oh, man. This could be over,’” Walsh laughed.

As she had been stargazing on Mount Merapi, Walsh had to keep reminding herself that she had already trekked 300 miles in the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal, a three-week journey with no toilet or shower. If she had made it through that, she could survive a night on a volcano.

That seventh-month backpacking trip through Asia shaped Walsh, who turned 70 on Tuesday, in a way no other experience could have. When she opened her boutique, Water from the Moon, 10 years after her trip, the trials and tribulations of small business ownership seemed like small potatoes. 

Walsh grew up in Newport Beach, California, before moving to Park City when she was 13. Her mother had purchased the Blue Church Lodge inn for $20,000, which still stands today but is no longer owned by Walsh’s family.

Since she was 10, Walsh had worked as a buyer in several surf and ski shops, including those owned by her mother. So, when she stumbled across sweaters, gloves and hats handknit by a Tibetan seller during her backpacking trip, she knew she could resell them to the Park City crowd. 

Sure enough, the apparel sold like hot cakes. Within a year, she’d returned to the Indonesian island of Bali, which she’d fallen in love with on her trip, to buy more souvenirs. 

Walsh estimated that she’s spent about a month in Bali annually for at least the past two decades. 

“Probably the first thing I fell in love with was the people. … They’re super creative. Everyone’s an artist,” she said. “It’s a place that’s connected to culture, art and nature, and that just has always fed my soul.”

After her first visit 43 years ago, Walsh kept going back, accumulating a store’s worth of jewelry and clothing.

“I remember the first couple of times I went, I thought, ‘Oh God, I wonder if I’m ever going to run out of things to buy?’” she said. “The only thing I ever ran out of was money. And then, I’d make a list for the next time. That’s still going on.”

She began hosting “Bali parties” in Utah, California and Colorado to sell the souvenirs she’d accumulated. She describes the parties as pop-ups before pop-ups, transforming friends’ homes into mini-versions of her future boutique, Water from the Moon.

Walsh’s first permanent location was a small space in the Avon Theater available to rent for $300 per month, which she began doing in 1993.

“I was kind of thinking, ‘Well, you know, if it doesn’t work, it won’t break the bank.’ But then, within a year, I’d bought this,” she said, gesturing to the building that now serves as Water from the Moon’s current base of operations. 

The historic home is one of the oldest in Heber City. It was originally a log cabin built by Scottish-American shepherd and Latter-day Saint settler and polygamist John Murray Murdoch. Some of the original logs can still be seen behind a glass display installed on the wall of the building.

The home has since been expanded from the original log cabin and become very colorfully decorated thanks to Walsh’s influence. 

“All these millennials, they want everything gray,” she said. “It’s like taking all the color out of your life. It’s kind of sad to me. I want to be happy with life.”

Like that of any great boutique, Water from the Moon’s stock is truly a hodge-podge of products: books, coffee mugs, cutlery, books, soaps, jewelry and lots of clothes. The only common denominators are floral patterns and popping colors. It’s truly a reflection of Walsh’s taste.

“I have a lot of people come in and say, ‘Oh my God, are you the buyer? I love everything in here,’” she said. “I like things that are fun and colorful and happy, not gimmicky, not ‘I’m not going to like this next year.’”

Unlike the Bali parties of yore, Water from the Moon now sells mostly domestic products, with some products from Bali, particularly sterling silver jewelry, thrown in.

Walsh still visits Bali every year, along with Morocco and Oaxaca, Mexico, as a travel guide, which she has been doing for 23 years. Now, the focus of her Bali trips is more so keeping up the energy than gathering products for her shop. 

“In doing this, I have learned so much about myself, about people, about boundaries, about how to bring people together, and a lot of it is communication and enthusiasm and just saying, ‘This is what we’re doing. Come on, let’s do it,’” Walsh said.

Her energy must be effective, because she’s almost always booked months in advance. She doesn’t feel the need to have a website, relying on word of mouth and repeat customers to fill each trip’s roster of eight to 12 people. She travels with about 50 to 60 people annually.

“And a lot of times, people go on a trip with me, and then, right away, they’re like, ‘OK, where are we going next year?’ So, one trip kind of leads to another,” she said.

Despite being so well-traveled, Walsh has no intention of moving from her home in Midway or shifting Water from the Moon to another location, despite the fact that Heber City hasn’t been the easiest market. 

“It’s been a challenge. The only consistent thing about Heber is how inconsistent it is. And I’ve done everything to make it. Everything. Events, home parties. I haven’t just had the store,” she said.

While Water from the Moon does well with tourists, Myle hopes to see local shoppers more often.

“Once they come, they love it,” she said. “I’ve had this store for 33 years. They’ll walk in and go, ‘Oh, my God, this is so cute. I had no idea.’ I go, ‘Oh, do you live down the street?’ (They’ll say), ‘Yeah, I’ve been driving by here for 12 years.’”

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The Park City High School marching band has been rehearsing for their upcoming trip to and concert in Hawai’i on Dec. 7, 2016, in honor of the 75th Pearl Harbor commemoration. The band has been practicing “USS Utah” and “God Bless America.” (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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