There's Still a Month of Skiing Left in Utah's Surprisingly Gay-Friendly Ski Country

Although it's one of the reddest of the red states, Utah does have one large city - Salt Lake - and a handful of nearby ski resort communities that are quite welcoming of gay and lesbian visitors. In fact, the gay Salt Lake City scene is quite vibrant, which comes as a surprise to many visitors. I think it's one of the nation's most underrated gay destinations, with a somewhat left-of-center city government and a generally tolerant population of outdoorsy types, artists, and others with a liberal bent. Less than an hour from downtown, skiers can revel in some of the best powder in the world at such stellar resorts as Deer Valley, Park City Mountain, and the Canyons in the swank resort town of Park City, home to the annual (and very gay-popular) Sundance Film Festival each January as well as an increasingly popular Utah Gay & Lesbian Ski Week. The Park City resorts offer plenty of great skiing through at least April 15, as do nearby Alta, Solitude, and a few other fine ski areas. So get to Utah soon, before all that powder has vanished!