Park City Shoulder Season Events: Your October–November 2026 Guide

On Oct. 1, more than 30 Park City restaurants switched to prix fixe menus that run through the end of the month. Lunch is two courses at $15, $20 or $25. Dinner is three courses at $30, $45 or $65. The Park City Area Restaurant Association lists the 2026 dates as Oct. 1 through 31.

The size of that promotion is the clearest sign of how this part of the year has changed. In 2021, Dine About opened with 15 member restaurants. In 2022 it was a nine-day event, Oct. 1 to 9. It now runs for the whole month at roughly twice the number of restaurants. Through 2026, the stretch between summer's last chairlift ride and opening day has picked up its own sequence. Food and Main Street events fill October. Ski films take over in November, and the November films lead straight into the lifts.

October runs on Dine About

Dine About works best as a way into restaurants you haven't tried yet. The organizer's fall page shows each restaurant setting its own price tier and dates. Some of this year's listings:

• Squatters Roadhouse Grill & Bar: a $15 two-course lunch, Oct. 1 to 31
• LOMA: a $45 three-course dinner, Oct. 2 to 31
• Handle: a $20 après special, Oct. 1 to 30
• Red Rock Brewery and Le Depot Brasserie, both named among this year's participants

The end dates differ, and Handle's offer ends a day before the others. Check a restaurant's listing before you build an evening around it. The Park Record described the promotion as "nearly two dozen" restaurants, but the association and TownLift both put it above 30. Use the live participant list on the association's site.

One more October date matters if you ski. Park City Mountain's website says pass prices go up Oct. 7, two days from now.

The weekends fill in around the restaurants

Dine About gives October a baseline, and the weekends add events on top of it. Below is the dated schedule through Halloween, using organizer and Park Record listings.

The second weekend of October is the busiest. The Shot Ski, the last Utah Olympic Park chair rides and Swaner's Sunday Craft all fall on Oct. 10 and 11. Visit Park City also expects high-elevation fall color to peak around the second week of October, with lower-elevation color mostly gone by mid-month. If you're planning a Swaner visit this week, the EcoCenter normally opens Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but it is closed Wednesday, Oct. 7, and Thursday, Oct. 8.

At the Kimball, Between the Lines runs through Jan. 3, 2027, so it will still be up well into ski season.

Halloween on Main Street has more logistics than anything else in the table. Main Street closes to cars at 2 p.m., and China Bridge charges a $15 flat rate. The Richardson Flat Park-and-Ride offers free parking and free transit, with buses every 10 minutes starting at 2:15 p.m. The last bus from Old Town Transit Center back to Richardson Flat leaves at 7:45 p.m. Travel and Leisure has named it one of the top Halloween celebrations in the country, and both two- and four-legged costumes are welcome.

A new festival brings film back to the Santy in October

The newest date in that table is the inaugural Park City Film Festival, Oct. 23 to 25. It shows a curated selection of films from the current festival circuit, with post-screening Q&As. Screenings are at the Jim Santy Auditorium, and panel discussions are at Distrikt F on Iron Horse Drive. The organizers point out that the Santy served as The Library Theatre during the Sundance Film Festival for 30 years and hosted the premieres of "Meru," "Get Out" and "Boyhood."

The Santy stays busy after the festival, and in November its schedule shifts to ski films. Park City Film's posted schedule includes:

1. Warren Miller's Days Off, Nov. 8
2. Matchstick Productions Presents: The Way Out, Nov. 13 to 15
3. Girl Winter Film Tour 2026, Nov. 19
4. Everest: The Other Side, starting Nov. 20

The Girl Winter Film Tour screens the night before Park City Mountain's target opening day. Standard Santy tickets are $8 general admission, $7 for students and seniors, and $6 for members, though specialty films can cost more. Earlier in the fall, The Weight screens free Oct. 9 to 11.

The Park City Library adds smaller events across both months. These include Pumpkin Craft Day on Oct. 15, a Haunted House on Oct. 28 and a Toy Swap on Nov. 13 at 9 a.m. Shared Light, a photography exhibition by members of the Park City Photography Community, is up through Nov. 30.

The trails change too

The trail system follows its own fall rules. The city closed Bonanza Loop Trail and Tall T on Oct. 1 for the season. This is an annual closure that runs from Oct. 1 to July 1. Lupine Loop, Lackawaxen, Bloods Lake Trail and Little Quakies remain open.

There's also something new to hike this fall. The Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History put together a 7-mile hike and mountain bike route with an audio tour that links 20 preserved mining structures. It starts and ends at the Park City Museum on Main Street and climbs into the hills around Old Town. Since it begins on Main Street, you can pair it with a Dine About lunch on the same afternoon.

For evenings outside, TownLift lists the Draconid meteor shower peaking Oct. 9 and the Orionids overnight Oct. 21 to 22. The Hunter's Moon reaches peak illumination at about 10:13 p.m. on Oct. 25.

Opening day has new parking rules at Canyons

Park City Mountain is targeting Friday, Nov. 20, for opening day, depending on weather and conditions. The biggest change for locals this season is at Canyons Village. A new parking structure connects directly to the Canyons Village Forum through the new 10-person Canyons Village Skyway, which has a mid-station inside the village.

The Canyons structure and the Mountain Village lots have similar pricing:

The 22-foot Eagle Superpipe also returns this winter. Over the summer, the resort installed its first remote avalanche-control system, in Limelight Bowl. Vail Resorts announced Sept. 28 that the Silverlode replacement, the Eagle and Eaglet replacement and the Crescent retrofit are targeted for 2027/28, so those three projects are a year away while the new Skyway opens this season.

Deer Valley lists Saturday, Dec. 5, as opening day. The new Hail Peak Express opens 200 acres and seven runs from the East Village side, bringing the resort to 4,500 skiable acres. One of the new runs, "Hill Yeah," is named for Hill Air Force Base. The East Village Lodge and Park Peak Lodge are both slated to open in the 2027-28 winter season, not this one. For now, Deer Valley's hours page lists most of its restaurants as closed for the season, including Fireside Dining, The Brass Tag and Silver Lake Restaurant. Deer Valley Café stays open daily, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

A few business changes will show up as winter starts. Rennstall, the ski-tuning shop, has moved to 1790 Bonanza Dr. next to White Pine Touring and plans to open seven days a week once the lifts are running. In Kimball Junction, Treehouse, a planned indoor play space and café, has leased about 7,500 square feet in the former Best Buy building and expects to open this winter.

How a household uses these fall weeks can matter as much as the ski months, whether you're here full time or thinking about a second home in Park City. If you'd like to talk through how the season plays out in a particular part of town, from Old Town to Canyons Village, Adam Frenza is happy to share what he knows. Let's connect.