The Big Water Yurt in Millcreek Canyon

It’s always been a little strange to me that people are often slow to utilize the resources found in their own town. Or maybe it’s just me? For example, I’d visited the Louvre in Paris as well as half a dozen London museums, including the National Gallery, long before I ever bothered to drag myself through the Museum of Art situated a mere few miles down the road from where I then lived. Housing over 43,000 works of art from around the world, the local museum wasn’t passing time as some dinky little outfit.

In the same vein, I never visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, despite watching out-of-towners flock to the location in droves. But I’ve put the effort in to watch a variety of concerts in enough states that I’ve lost count. What gives? Why avoid local attractions? I’m not sure.

Trying to put an end to such follies, it took about two seconds to agree to join in on an overnight stay at Salt Lake City’s closest backcountry getaway, Millcreek Canyon’s Big Water Yurt. Unlike my frequent form, in which I often don’t do a lot of research prior to an adventure, I spent a few minutes looking into the yurt before I headed up to meet the gang. As it turns out, the details are fairly straightforward.

Returning to the Big Water yurt and adjacent facilities in between ski laps is easy; it's surrounded on all sides by skiable terrain.

Overnight visitors are requested to park at the lot West of the gate that’s locked in winter (about halfway up the paved road of Millcreek canyon). From there, users (presumably skiers, but anyone is welcome) head up the groomed road for 4.5 miles, gaining around 1,500 vertical feet in the process. The temporary winter yurt is located on the skier’s left, in the parking lot that marks the termination of the summer road. For those familiar with the Wasatch range’s layout, there are multiple routes to access the yurt from other canyons. Virtually all of these are a bit more fun than simply skinning up Millcreek Canyon, although that’s probably the easiest and most direct route – especially if there is any threat of avalanches.

Frequent users of Millcreek will remember that there are permanent bathrooms in this spot – these are immediately adjacent to the yurt. Literally five seconds of walking separates the yurt from two available toilets.

This is not a spacious hotel, so someone from your group has got to get the go-ahead, since overnight lodgings are parsed out on a lottery system. Call 1.801.483.5473 to get info or make a reservation. Once you’ve ‘won the lottery,’ a group member places the $200 deposit and simultaneously picks up the yurt key. This is available for retrieval at the Salt Lake County Parks and Rec office at 3383 South, 300 East, Salt Lake City. Maximum reservation is for two nights in a row. Return the key and retrieve the deposit at the same location.

Presently, for $75 per night, the yurt provides basic amenities to make your stay comfortable. Chief among these is not only a wood burning stove, but a stocked supply of wood as well. It’s kept inside the yurt, so no worries about digging firewood out of a drift and then drying it before starting up a fire. Very nice. Clothesline is strung above the stove, allowing for ample gear drying space.

The yurt provides basic amenities: door, chair, bunk beds, table, and benches.. You bring the rest.

Two bunk beds provide enough sleeping space for 8 people, doubled up per bed. The beds are basically plywood covered in carpet, with foam camping mats in place on top of that. You’ll want to bring your own sleeping pad and sleeping bag, simply because you never know if these items will be removed by anyone along the way. (Better prepared than uncomfortable.) I used a summer bag rather than a heavy duty winter sleeping bag, and was cosy all night.

Get hardcore and skip out on cooking, or even bringing a stove. Jason Borro demonstrates the bread and peanut sandwich. Not peanut butter, mind you. Straight up nut goodness. The only thing missing here is a squirrel.

There’s a picnic style table complete with benches, roomy enough to accommodate a full house of 8. A propane fired lamp holds court over the table, casting enough light – in addition to the fireplace – by which to socialize over a deck of cards until it’s bedtime. There’s also a small table sandwiched between the two bunk beds, upon which past visitors have left offerings of excess food, hot chocolate, etc. A small two-seater bench is situated near the (only) door, and a chair stands next to the fireplace.

Pot-bellied stove hard at work in Uncle Tom's cabin. There is ample room to dry boots and other gear as needed.

A Plexiglas dome allows one to experience natural light in the morning, assuming a two-foot dump of snow hasn’t stuck to the roof overnight.

The view out the roof dome.

Although by the end of your stay it’ll seem comparable to a cosy hotel, there’s no wait staff. The yurt still operates with a backcountry mentality at play: pack your stuff in, pack your trash out.

From the yurt, there is plenty of skiing to be done in the surrounding mountains. That’s why you thought about coming up in the first place, right? When the time comes to end your stay, the pull of gravity will aid slightly: it’s almost entirely downhill back to the vehicle.

The long and not very steep exit. Fortunately, it's almost all downhill.

Get your reservation happening early: the short Big Water Yurt season lasts from December 1 to April 30. Since the yurt is a temporary structure, don’t expect to see it during the other months of the year..