Walk south on Thaynes Canyon Drive today and the ground under your feet is different than it was a year ago. A twelve-foot ribbon of asphalt runs along the golf course side of the road, past the driving range, down to the light at State Route 224. Cross the highway on foot and you pick it up again on Snow Creek Drive, all the way to the McLeod Creek trailhead. For a neighborhood that had no sidewalks on its main road for decades, that is not a small edit.
The interesting part is not the ribbon cutting. It is what Park City decided to do next, and what that decision says about the kind of neighborhood the people who already live here want to keep.
What Phase I Actually Delivered
Park City Municipal cut the ribbon on a new 12-foot wide pathway on Thaynes Canyon Drive, bringing pedestrian access to a neighborhood road that previously had no sidewalk. The opening was September 23, 2025, after breaking ground in May. The alignment is precise and worth knowing if you live here: Phase I will prioritize the section of Thaynes Canyon Drive, from Three Kings Drive to SR-224, and Snow Creek Drive, from SR-224 to the McLeod Trailhead.
That routing is what makes the path useful rather than ornamental. The project created a new pathway along Thaynes Canyon Drive and added sidewalk connections along Snow Creek Drive to McLeod Creek Trail, giving pedestrians and cyclists safer, more convenient access through the area and direct connections to both the Farm Trail and McLeod Trail.
Funding came almost entirely from outside city coffers. Rubell thanked the Utah Department of Transportation and Summit County for grants that funded 80% of the project, referring to Councilmember Jeremy Rubell, who lives in the area.
Why The "Sidewalk To Nowhere" Isn't
When crews were still pouring concrete last summer, the joke around town was that Phase I looked like a path that ended at a highway. The city engineer answered that in advance. Park City engineer John Robertson said the first phase includes a path on the south side of Thaynes Canyon Drive along the municipal golf course's driving range between Three Kings Drive to state Route 224 and across the highway to Snow Creek Drive which connects with the McLeod trailhead.
Once you actually walk it, the geography clicks. Rubell put it plainly at the opening: "It's been amazing the adoption of this path already," Rubell said. "It connects all the way across [state Route] 224, into Snow Creek plaza and the McLeod Creek trail."
That is the piece the map does not show. From a front door on Thaynes Canyon Drive, the new segment turns everyday errands into a walk or a short bike ride: Snow Creek Plaza for coffee and groceries on one side, the McLeod Creek Trail heading north, the McPolin (Farm) Trail beyond that, and the Park City Municipal Golf Course a hundred yards away.
The June 2026 Decision That Actually Matters
Here is where the story turns. The original plan for Phase II was to extend the same wide shared-use path along Three Kings Drive toward Park City Mountain Resort. That is not what is going to happen.
At the June 25, 2026 city council meeting, staff recommended a six-foot sidewalk be installed instead. Transportation Planning Manager Julia Collins said that's because resident feedback favored a narrow, lower-impact path. The proposal also includes traffic calming: Staff recommends installing a sidewalk along the east side of the road as well as narrowing Three Kings in certain locations to minimize impacts to adjacent properties.
| Phase I (Thaynes Canyon Dr.) | Phase II (Three Kings Dr., proposed) | |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 12 ft. multi-use path | 6 ft. sidewalk |
| Users | Walking + cycling combined | Pedestrians separated, cyclists in road with signage |
| Roadway | No change | Targeted narrowing, traffic calming |
| Design year | 2019–2024 | Alternatives analysis spring 2026 |
| Construction | Spring–Fall 2025 | Targeted spring 2027 |
Read that table twice. Phase I was designed to a regional bike-network standard, funded by a UDOT grant awarded back in 2019. Phase II is being designed to a neighborhood standard by the people who live on the street. The city is not shrinking the project to save money. It is shrinking it because the households on Three Kings said they preferred quieter over wider.
That is the thesis of this post. The pathway did not just add a place to walk. It gave the neighborhood a decision to make about how much resort-adjacent bike traffic to invite through its middle, and Thaynes Canyon answered.
A Late-Summer Loop Worth Doing
If you have not yet strung the new segments together, August is the month to do it. A rough two-hour resident loop from a Thaynes Canyon Drive front door:
- South on the new twelve-foot pathway, past the driving range at the Park City Golf Club at 1541 Thaynes Canyon Drive
- Cross SR-224 at the light, pick up the Snow Creek Drive sidewalk, drop into the McLeod Creek Trailhead
- North on McLeod Creek Trail toward the McPolin Farm barn
- Back through Snow Creek Plaza for a stop before you turn home
Two dates to pin to that loop. The Kimball Arts Festival August 7–9 is reachable by bike from the pathway if you continue past McLeod toward Old Town. Later in the fall, the McPolin Farm Scarecrow Festival on Saturday, October 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. lets you build your own scarecrow, which will be displayed along the trail through October 27. If you have grandkids visiting, the trail-side scarecrow display is a legitimate reason to walk the McLeod route twice a week in October.
Small Changes Worth Knowing About
A few consequences of Phase I that did not make the ribbon-cutting speeches:
The dirt overflow lot at the golf course is gone. The city engineer was direct about it: this will eliminate all overflow parking at the golf course. "It does remove that parking that has been not really a formal parking area because it was just dirt," Robertson said. "And our parking areas should be paved, so that will be no longer accessible by folks." If you have been in the habit of leaving a car on that shoulder during peak tee times, plan differently.
A new protective net is coming for the driving range. Later this year, Park City Municipal will install a new protective net along Thaynes Canyon Drive, a shield for the nearby driving range. The pathway put walkers closer to the range line than the old road did.
Tee time behavior at the muni is unchanged, but competitive. The Park City Golf Club runs 18 holes at par 72, with rates that a favorite among locals, this scenic municipal golf course offers leagues, lessons, and a pro shop. Tee times can be reserved 9 days in advance online at parkcitygolfclub.org and up to 7 days in advance by phone. Multi-day passes are available. Parking is limited summarize accurately. Rates for 2026 Park City Golf Club 1541 Thaynes Canyon Drive 435-615-5800 18 holes | Par 72 Rates: $36–$122. The nine-day online window is the residents' edge over visitors, who typically discover the seven-day phone rule too late.
What The Path Signals About Values Here
Zoom out. In 2019, Park City accepted UDOT funding for biking and pedestrian improvements in the Thaynes Canyon/Three Kings area. In 2025, Phase I delivered a wide, resort-connector-grade path along the golf course. In 2026, when the same project reached the residential heart of the neighborhood, the community asked the city to build something quieter. The council is honoring that.
A neighborhood that has now been given the choice between a bike highway and a sidewalk, and chose the sidewalk, has told you something about itself. It wants pedestrian connection without becoming a corridor. The pathway is not a resort amenity that got dropped on Thaynes Canyon. It is an infrastructure decision that Thaynes Canyon is actively shaping in real time, one council meeting at a time.
For homeowners already in the neighborhood, the practical takeaway is small and specific: your walk to McLeod Creek is safer now, your walk to Snow Creek Plaza is real, and the Three Kings connection to the resort will exist in 2027 but as a sidewalk, not a bike route. If you have friends who ride hard, they will still be in the road with signage and calming, which is exactly what the households along that street asked for.
Talk To Someone Who Lives This Market
If you own in Thaynes Canyon and want to understand how infrastructure decisions like this one interact with long-term value on your specific block, or if you are thinking about how the neighborhood is likely to feel once Phase II is in the ground, that is a conversation worth having with someone who tracks it week to week. Reach out to Bill Morton and the team at Alpine Luxe Properties for a candid read on the street you actually live on.
