Solitude Boundary Map
When the following Solitude Ski Resort boundary line map was presented at the September 17, 2025 Planning Commission meeting, there were a few puzzled looks in the audience, I don’t think many people had ever thought of this as the shape of Solitude:
Hidden Canyon/Guardsman Pass Property
The large disconnected island of land on the right side is not the Old Stage Road property. It is a 287.53-acre parcel of land Solitude owns up in the Hidden Canyon/Guardsman Pass area. The address is 7778 S Guardsman Pass Rd.
Here’s a bit more context on this parcel of land as well as the adjacent parcels owned by Brighton Resort. This land was referenced in the July 2015 Mountain Accord Charter. If you’re not familiar with the Mountain Accord, the Central Wasatch Commission (the agency tasked with carrying out projects initiated during the Accord) has a detailed description on its website.
Section 3.6, “Solitude Land Exchange,” of the Mountain Accord Charter included the following provision:
3.6.1. Solitude Resort (referred to as ‘Solitude’ and owned by Deer Valley Resort) agrees to proceed with the exchange of the following lands and actions (shown on Attachments 3 and 4): approximately 240 acres of Deer Valley’s land located in the upper Big Cottonwood watershed in the Hidden Canyon/Guardsman Road area for approximately 50 acres of federal lands around the Solitude base area and an approximate 15-acre expansion of Solitude’s special use permit to allow for relocation of the Honeycomb chair lift in lower Honeycomb Canyon.
In exchange for the Hidden Canyon/Guardsman Pass land, Solitude would receive roughly 50 acres of federal land around its base area, plus a 15-acre expansion of its Special Use Permit to allow for the realignment of the Honeycomb chairlift in lower Honeycomb Canyon. Additionally, Salt Lake City agreed to provide more snowmaking water, and together with Salt Lake County, agreed to offer flexibility in where Solitude could place its remaining 120 hotel rooms and where sewer and water units could be used within the resort’s base area.
I believe the Honeycomb lift realignment would have allowed Solitude to relocate the Honeycomb Return chairlift loading area deeper into Silver Fork Canyon, somewhere above the trailhead at the east end of Church Road. I’m not sure if this was intended to support a new lift servicing Honeycomb Canyon or to allow skiers to drop further before loading the Honeycomb Return chair (avoiding the long runout back to Eagle Express).
Given the Mountain Accord Charter, you might be wondering why Solitude still owns the Hidden Canyon / Guardsman Road property. The reason is that the Accord could not carry out land exchanges with the U.S. Forest Service without federal legislation (PDF 168KB), and Congress never passed the necessary laws.
Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT-3) gave it a shot when he introduced H.R. 5718 in the 114th Congress on July 11, 2016. The bill called the “Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act” aimed to establish a new federal designation encompassing approximately 79,109 acres of public land in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, spanning parts of Salt Lake and Utah counties in Utah. The bill also included provisions for land exchanges involving specified National Forest System land and private ski areas in Utah.
H.R. 5718 was referred by the House to the Committee on Natural Resources. A subcommittee hearing was held on November 15, 2016. However, the bill did not pass out of committee and did not become law. After Congressman Chaffetz abruptly resigned six months into his two-year term to become a Fox News contributor, the bill went nowhere without a sponsor.
Now in 2025, Solitude considers this property, land which they once agreed to trade with the Forest Service, within the boundaries of the ski resort. My guess is they’re holding it for a future land swap, a Deer Valley connector hub to BCC, development of ski resort support facilities, or just because it’s fun to own land in the mountains.
Old Stage Road Property
An important question raised by Solitude’s map is whether it includes the Old Stage Road parcels where the proposed parking lots would be built. The answer appears to be yes. The bump on the top-right section of the main resort boundary seems to include Solitude’s Old Stage Road property. Below is Solitude’s map with a GIS overlay (with Solitude’s red boundary line layered on top). While the borders are approximate, the map suggests that Solitude’s boundary includes the land targeted for the proposed parking lots.
Here’s the blue GIS area zoomed in: The light-blue parcels are Solitude properties on Old Stage Road:
12202 E. Old Stage Rd. (the larger parcel on the right)
7080 S. Old Stage Rd. (the smaller parcel on the left)
