The Park City Council approved a new management plan for Bonanza Flat Thursday. It has grown in popularity in recent years for its scenic beauty and high-altitude trails.
Park City Trails and Open Space Coordinator Billy Kurek told the council that parking enforcement wrote more than 100 tickets on peak leaf-peeping days during fall 2024.
“We also continue to deal with vandalism and trespass issues,” he said. “While we’re off chasing down cars in the roadway, we see cut locks, fences moved, motorized-use violations and other trespass issues in the property that impact wildlife and user experience.”
Parking in a Bonanza Flat no-parking zone will cost offenders $200. Illegally parking in an ADA spot carries a $300 fine.
Bonanza Flat user data collected over the summer of 2023 found Park City residents account for 7% of the visitors. Salt Lake City locals made up the largest portion at 25%. The data also shows most visitors stay in Bonanza Flat for less than 45 minutes.
The new plan approved by the council aims to better manage that congestion through paid parking and enhanced public transit to Bonanza Flat.
Starting this summer, paid parking kiosks will charge hourly rates at the Bloods Lake, Bonanza Flat and Empire Pass trailheads. The initial price proposal is $5 per hour, however the city plans to use dynamic pricing, where parking rates increase at peak times.
Parking will be free for residents in the 84060 zip code who register their license plates with the city.
Park City voters approved a $25 million bond in 2017 to purchase Bonanza Flat and protect it from development. A golf course and hundreds of ski-in ski-out condos were once proposed for the property nestled between upper Deer Valley, Brighton and Wasatch Mountain State Park.
Kurek, the trails coordinator for Park City, also said the U.S. Forest Service is beginning to roll out paid parking at trailheads in nearby Big Cottonwood Canyon, which could potentially leave Bonanza Flat exposed to a flood of traffic if parking fees aren’t implemented.
Along with paid parking, the city plans to expand public transit to Bonanza Flat. From July 3 to Oct. 30, Park City Transit’s purple bus would service the area’s trailheads. The shuttle will run Friday to Monday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., every 15 minutes.
The purple bus normally travels between Old Town and the Montage hotel. The proposed move is seen as an enhancement to the existing Transit 2 Trails program that provides free rides to Bonanza Flat.
City officials said revenue from the new paid parking will fund the enhanced transit service.
Park City also plans to construct a new trailhead with 15 paid parking stalls, including ADA access, at the intersection of Guardsman Pass Road and Pine Canyon Drive.
