Over the next few decades, Brian Head — which is just east of Cedar City — will open up more than 850 acres of new skiing terrain and up to seven new high-speed lifts.
When complete, it will be the seventh largest resort in Utah, putting it ahead of Big Cottonwood Canyon destinations Solitude and Brighton. Though hours south of the Wasatch Mountains, Brian Head has some serious elevation; at 9600’ its base is the highest of any resort in Utah.
Brian Head’s resort map says its tallest peak, Brian Head Peak, is 11,307’ above sea level. That’s more than 1,000 feet higher than Jupiter, the highest peak in Park City.
As part of that master plan, a new ski-in ski-out residential neighborhood called Aspen Meadows will be constructed alongside the resort.
Flint Decker is the president of Aspen Meadows Group.
“We’ll have up to 1,467 density units in the future, but that’s over 30 years," said Flint Decker, president of Aspen Meadows Group.
"We’ll have two ski villages, we’ll have the art village — which will be the main village in the future. And we’ll also have the upper Alpine village which will very much be that Silver Lake-type feel, a very boutique feel.”
The development has already broken ground. When complete it’s expected to include single-family homes, hotels, condos, and workforce housing.
The town’s population is currently 155 residents.
Decker said work with the city's planning commission has been smooth so far. The full development is subject to approvals from the U.S. Forest Service, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), and the town of Brian Head.
The lift upgrades are scheduled to be ready for the 2024-25 winter season.
Amid Park City’s massive growth in recent years, Decker said many locals have reached out to learn about Brian Head’s expansion.
“When we first set up our website, we didn’t tell anyone about it, well over a year ago," he said.
"And in the first six months, over 50% of the people who clicked in, who found it somehow, were from the greater Park City area.”
Factors driving national migration to Utah include remote work and a desire to get outside during the pandemic. But that’s not the only trend factoring into state population shifts.
“There’s also this internal state migration from northern Utah to southern Utah that we discovered in that process," Decker said. "It’s been fascinating."
He said roughly 30% of their total registered leads are from northern Utah.
Nearby St. George — next to the Arizona border — is in Washington County, which was ranked the fastest growing metropolitan area in the U.S. last year, by the Census Bureau.
To learn more about the Brian Head project, visit aspenmeadowsclub.com
