Canyon transit Cottonwood Heights
How the winter ski bus works from this bench, and which park and ride to actually use
The ski bus and the park and rides
UTA runs a seasonal ski bus up both Cottonwood canyons in winter, from park and rides in and near Cottonwood Heights. Living minutes from a lot is a genuine advantage, but the lot nearest the canyon is the wrong one to aim at, and the route numbers and schedules change every year. Here is what stays true from one season to the next, and where to pull the current details.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Yes, there is a ski bus. UTA runs seasonal winter service up both Cottonwood canyons from park and rides in and near Cottonwood Heights, and living five minutes from a lot is a real advantage on a powder morning. The catch that trips people up is which lot to use: the one nearest the canyon is the first to fill and among the last the up canyon bus reaches, so an early start begins further down the valley. Route numbers, schedules and season dates are reset every year, so pull the current season from UTA at rideuta.com before your first trip.
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How the ski bus works, and the part that stays true
UTA runs several winter ski routes up the two Cottonwood canyons, and they do not all do the same job. Some run all day at regular intervals, so you can ride up mid morning and come down mid afternoon; others run only at the ends of the day, mornings and evenings, which asks you to commit to a full day before you leave the house. The exact route numbers, stops and times are set fresh each season and are the one thing on this page you should never take as fixed. Pull the current map and timetable from UTA at rideuta.com before the first trip of the year.
For a household on this bench, that difference between an all day service and a commuter shaped one is the whole decision. An all day route means you can leave at two in the afternoon because the light went flat, which is exactly the kind of half day a five minute address makes possible and almost nobody visiting the state can pull off. So when you check the season, the first question is not the number, it is whether the route serving your canyon runs through the day or only at its ends.
The money is simpler than people expect, and it is the part they get wrong in the other direction. The fare is a few dollars each way, with a reduced fare for riders who qualify, and it is free with several ski passes, including an Alta, Snowbird, Solitude or Brighton season pass, an Ikon pass or the Salt Lake Ski Super Pass. If somebody in the household already holds one of those, the bus can cost nothing and the car stays on the driveway. Confirm the current fare with UTA, since that changes too.
The canyon ski bus, in four durable facts
Both
canyons served, from lots in and near the city
Winter
the only season the bus runs at all
Free
with many resort season passes and Ikon
Early
when the lots nearest the canyons fill up
The lots
The one nearest the canyon is the wrong one to aim at
This is the single most useful thing on the page and it is counterintuitive. The park and ride lots closest to the canyons fill early, often by mid morning on a good winter day. The lots further down the valley are the ones with capacity, and they are also where the earliest buses actually start their run.
| The lot | Where it is | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| Big Cottonwood Canyon Park and Ride | At the Big Cottonwood canyon mouth, inside the city | Closest to most of this city, and the first to fill |
| 6200 South and Wasatch Boulevard | On the bench road at the city's north end | The practical alternative when the mouth lot is gone |
| Midvale Fort Union Station | 7250 South, down the boulevard | Where the earliest Big Cottonwood departures begin their day |
| Historic Sandy Station | 9000 South, toward the south end of the bench | A starting point for the Little Cottonwood service |
| Lot near the Little Cottonwood gate | Around 9400 South, near the canyon mouth | Handy for Little Cottonwood; confirm the current stop each season |
Which lot serves which canyon can shift between seasons, so before a first trip take the current route map from UTA at rideuta.com and the current lot list from UDOT's Cottonwood Canyons pages. A lot that served a route last winter may not serve it this one.
The lot nearest the canyon is both the first to fill and among the last to be served. That is the trap for anybody who assumes the nearest lot is the earliest option. The up canyon bus works its way up from lots further down the valley, so it can reach the mouth lot well into the morning, after the lot itself is already full. If the plan is a first chair morning, the plan starts further down the valley, not at the canyon mouth.
The resident version
The bus is not a fallback here. For a lot of households it is the default
A visitor rides the ski bus because parking is difficult. Somebody who lives on this bench rides it for a different reason: it removes the vehicle from the equation entirely, and with it the winter tires, the reservation, the lot, the walk from the lot and the drive home in the dark at the end of a long day. When the fare is already covered by a pass that the household holds anyway, the bus stops being a compromise and becomes the obvious way to get up the hill.
The other thing proximity buys is the drop off. A household with two adults and one skier in it can put somebody on a bus at a lot five minutes from the house and go back to the morning, which is a completely different operation from parking a car at a resort for eight hours. It is also the only version of a ski morning that works when there is a second child with a Saturday game in the valley.
The timing rewards the same midweek thinking the resorts do. The canyons are quietest on weekday middays, which is precisely the shape an all day service supports and a morning only one does not. A half day that starts late morning and finishes mid afternoon is a real thing to do from here, and almost nobody visiting the state can do it.
What the bus does not do is exempt anybody from the road. When the canyon is closed for control work the bus is closed with it, and the requirements that apply to a private vehicle on those two roads are a separate subject with its own reader. All of that sits on the canyon winter access page, which is the one to read in November rather than in January.
When the fare is already inside a pass the household holds, the bus is not the cheap option. It is the easy one.
Being honest about it
Four things the bus does not fix
It does not run all year. These are winter services with published season dates, and outside them there is no scheduled transit up either canyon at all. Every summer trailhead, every wildflower morning and every autumn drive over the ridge is a private vehicle proposition, which is why the trailhead parking question in this city is a summer problem and the queue is a winter one.
It does not serve every resort from every lot. The Little Cottonwood service and the Big Cottonwood service start from different places, and the lot that is closest to your house may only serve the canyon you are not going to that day. That is worth working out once, in October, rather than discovering it at dawn on a Saturday with skis in the trunk.
It does not make the road open. A closure for avalanche control closes the canyon to everything, and a bus in a queue is still in the queue. The advantage on a heavy morning is not speed; it is that somebody else is driving, the vehicle is rated for the conditions, and there is no parking problem at the far end.
And it does not help with a dog, because a dog cannot go up either of these canyons at all. That rule is the watershed ordinance rather than a transit rule, and the alternative on this side of the ridge is Ferguson Canyon, which is walkable from a good part of the city and allows a leashed dog.
There is no scheduled transit up either canyon outside the winter season. Summer is a car and a parking space.
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The city's own canyon, where a leashed dog is legal and the street parking is not.
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Two canyon gates, a boulevard, a bus route, the city's own canyon and the homework, together.
Read the pageQuick answers
The bus, answered
Yes. UTA runs a seasonal ski bus up both Cottonwood canyons in winter, from park and rides in and near Cottonwood Heights. Some routes run all day at regular intervals and some run only mornings and evenings, and the route numbers, stops and schedules are reset every season. Take the current version from UTA at rideuta.com, since any printed schedule goes stale each year.
A few dollars each way, with a reduced fare for riders who qualify, and it is free with several ski passes, including an Alta, Snowbird, Solitude or Brighton season pass, an Ikon pass or the Salt Lake Ski Super Pass. That last point is the one people miss: if somebody in the household already holds one of those passes, the bus can cost them nothing and the car can stay on the driveway all season. Confirm the current fare with UTA.
Not the one at the canyon mouth, if you want a space and an early start. The park and ride lots closest to the canyons fill early, often by mid morning on a good day, and the up canyon bus does not reach the mouth lot until later in its run. The earliest departures start further down the valley, at lots such as Midvale Fort Union Station on 7250 South, so that is where an early plan should begin.
The earliest buses leave in the pre dawn hours on a winter morning, but the exact first departure and the interval between buses change every season and differ between the all day routes and the morning and evening ones. Rather than trust a fixed time, pull the current timetable from UTA at rideuta.com before the first trip of the year.
Roughly early December through the middle of April, tied to the ski season, and the exact start and end dates are set each year and are not the same across every route. Take the current season from UTA. Outside the winter season there is no scheduled transit up either Cottonwood canyon at all, which is why every summer trailhead trip from this city is a private vehicle proposition.
Near the base area at the top of Little Cottonwood, which is the practical drop for Alta and, with the connection between the two, for Snowbird as well. The canyon buses terminate there rather than circulating through the resort. Because these are winter services on a road that closes for avalanche control, the return timing on a heavy day is a function of the road rather than the timetable, so note the last departure before you go up.
For most households on this bench it is the easy option rather than the cheap one. It removes the vehicle from the day entirely, which means no winter tires, no reservation, no lot and no drive home in the dark, and if a pass in the household already covers the fare it costs nothing. It also allows a drop off five minutes from the house, which is a different operation from parking a car at a resort for eight hours.
It would not help if you could, because dogs are prohibited in both Cottonwood canyons entirely under the watershed ordinance that protects the valley's drinking water, including a dog that never leaves a vehicle. That is a canyon rule rather than a transit rule. For a walk with a leashed dog from a Cottonwood Heights address, Ferguson Canyon on this side of the ridge is the answer, and it has its own page on this companion.
No. When a Cottonwood canyon road closes for avalanche control it closes to everything, buses included, and a bus sitting in a queue is still in the queue. What the bus removes is the parking problem, the winter tire requirement and the drive, not the road. The requirements that govern those roads in winter, and what a closure actually involves, are covered on the canyon winter access page for the county.
A bus at the end of the street is one honest detail. A move turns on a dozen more
Which canyon gate you sit behind, how close you are to a lot that still has space on a powder morning, and which side of the bench an address sits on are the kind of things worth knowing before an offer, not after. Tell me the streets you are weighing and I will connect you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who knows this bench, while I stay on the file for the research and the lending side, at no cost to you.
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