Park City shines with the nation’s largest alpine resort and a hopping after-slopes scene written by James Sinks When life sends clouds—as Pacific Northwest winters are known to do—seek silver linings. Try looking eastward. An abundance of escapist luster awaits in the craggy, silver-laden Wasatch Back Range in Utah, and in its centerpiece nineteenth century mine town of Park City. Navigate silver (and gold) Olympic medalists’ terrain. Celebrate the silver screen. Admire local-fashioned sterling jewelry. Lunch at the Silver Star Café. And happily embrace the truism that not all that glitters need be gold. Long a hunting territory of Indigenous Ute tribes, the Wasatch region of the Rocky Mountains wasn’t initially enticing to westward-bound settlers in the 1860s, especially when compared to the fast-growing religious enclave founded by Brigham Young at nearby Great Salt Lake. But then prospectors struck silver. For the following century, mines churned out precious ore and…

Celebrate the centennial of Idaho’s dusty lava wonderland at Craters of the Moon—and then clean up your act afterward written by James Sinks As he zigzagged an otherworldly expanse of lava flows, blackened buttes and craggy caves in central Idaho—and on rocks so jagged underfoot it left his Airedale terrier’s paws bloodied—Boise explorer Robert Limbert remarked that the more than 600 volcanic square miles looked like a desolate moonscape. And yet at the same time, also strikingly beautiful, he wrote in National Geographic in 1924, as part of a bid to secure federal protection. “It is a place of color and silence,” he wrote in dispatches from the Craters of the Moon. “It is the play of light at sunset across this lava that charms the spectator.” The name stuck. The same year, President Calvin Coolidge formally designated the Craters of the Moon National Monument, he said, to conserve its…

Find a world-class experience in a small mountain town written by Kevin Maxphotography by Whitney Whitehouse Whitefish, Montana, may be known as the host for skiers at Whitefish Resort in the winter or as the gateway to Glacier National Park in the summer, but it’s the Whitefish culture of creativity itself that pervades all seasons. No more than 10,000 people live in this small town surrounded by the Salish Mountains to the west and Flathead National Forest to the east, but it nonetheless ticks many boxes for world-class cuisine, hospitality and recreation. In its earliest civilizations, Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreilles tribes inhabited the area, fishing the banks of the Whitefish Lake and Whitefish River as it winds through what is now downtown Whitefish. The outdoors and recreation are still the draw for many Whitefish residents and visitors. For hikers and runners, there are scores of trails in the surrounding…

Big outdoors and a small Basque community make this Idaho locale worth a springtime getaway written by James Sinksphotography by Visit Idaho Wednesdays and Fridays on Grove Street in downtown Boise, a line of hungry noontime patrons forms outside the Basque Market, as a giant pan of steaming saffron-seasoned paella simmers on an outdoor stove. The biweekly culinary pilgrimage celebrates the city’s Basque heritage, which traces to the influx of immigrants that began arriving in the 1800s from near the France-Spain border. Initially searching for gold in the West, Basques were sought to tend the huge flocks of hungry sheep that once chomped their way through the surrounding high country and range. Today, the Idaho state capital is home to the continent’s biggest Basque community and, while many cities have Chinatowns, Boise boasts the Basque Block. Roam between former boarding houses and shops, experience authentic Iberian fare like pintxos (think…

Compete your holiday shopping—and find beer and deer—in the PNW’s premier Christmastown written by James Sinks Pretty much anywhere, you can open your wallet and browse for holiday gifts. Yet few places—at least, on this continent—can approach the kitschy yuletide charm of Leavenworth, the Pacific Northwest Christmastown filled with Bavarian-styled buildings, beers, bratwurst, and boutiques in Washington’s north Cascades. Festive holiday shopping is only the beginning. Surrounded by snowy and showy 8,000-foot peaks, Leavenworth offers a wonderland of winter outdoor pursuits you won’t find at any strip malls or retail websites. Fly down powdery slopes at Mission Ridge Ski Area; try nordic trails, tubing runs and ski jumping at Leavenworth Winter Sports Club; navigate sledding hills pretty much everywhere; and—once things really cool down—strap on crampons for ice climbing. If that’s not enough to convince you to start making travel plans, there also are horse-drawn sleigh rides with cocoa and…