Brighton, Solitude implementing new reservation system for parking

BRIGHTON, Salt Lake County — Brighton Ski Resort is rolling out it’s new reservation system for parking, starting now.

It hopes to reduce the number of cars coming up Big Cottonwood Canyon and to clear up some of the gridlock on the winding canyon roads. Solitude, that shares the canyon with Brighton, is also adopting the reservation system.

Some are worried the new system means more money but there are ways to avoid the extra cost.

While the full mountain isn’t open, Brighton’s Bone Zone is. Keenan Morrison and Mike Stafferi were there Thursday, hoping the coming season will at least resemble the last one.

“Even if we have half the season that we had last year, it’s still going to be remarkable,” Stafferi said. But one aspect that will be different is that parking system.

“It’s no secret last year parking was tough,” Jared Winkler, Director of Marketing at Brighton said.

He said the resort wants to make sure people can plan and know they will have a spot when they arrive. It’s also meant to encourage more carpooling.

“Hopefully the reservations will alleviate that stress of that,” he said.

Reservations on opening day will be $20 a car, but it’s free if you have three or more people in your car. It’s also free to season pass holders.

Just down the hill at Solitude, the reservations start Dec. 15 at $35 a car, free for cars with four or more people. Reservations are free after 1 p.m.

“A lot of times last year we would come up here, like, especially after fresh snow and a whole parking lot would just be completely packed,” Morrison said. He, along with Stafferi, said they hope it will work as intended.

“You know, it’s going to, it’s just really going to help the flows,” Morrison said.

Winkler said opening up the system today will allow people to reserve their big-priority days but there will also be other chances to reserve and there isn’t a need to plan the whole season right now.