Winter Kamas
What happens to the map when the plows stop at mile 14.6
The winter gate, and the town on the near side of it
From about December until the snowpack lets go, UDOT locks the gates at Soapstone and thirty four miles of State Route 150 stop being a road. The corridor is groomed rather than plowed, the lakes go behind a snowmobile ride, and the valley switches to the half of its economy that never depended on the highway. Here is what that actually looks like.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
Start here
Fifteen miles east of Main Street, the road ends in a padlock
The short answer
Yes, the Mirror Lake Highway closes for winter, and it does it about fifteen miles east of Kamas. Each year UDOT locks the gates at Soapstone, near milepost 14.6, and the thirty four miles of State Route 150 above that point stop being a road until the snow lets go in spring. The gates usually go on in December and the highway reopens in late spring, but the dates ride on the snowpack rather than the calendar, so check UDOT's seasonal roads page before you plan a trip.
The closure is not the same as the town being cut off. The lower fifteen miles between Kamas and the gate stay plowed all winter, and so do the roads west to Park City and south to Heber. What goes behind the padlock is the recreation country: the campgrounds, the trailheads and the lakes. The pavement itself is groomed rather than abandoned, so from December it becomes one of the better snowmobile corridors in the state, with room for skiing and snowshoeing if you know where the motorized boundary sits.
Getting to the gate: the winter closure and its parking sit at Soapstone, about fifteen miles east of Kamas up SR-150. Directions
Winter, by the numbers
14.6
the milepost where the gate goes on
34 mi
of highway inside the closure
97 in
of snow in an average Kamas winter
10,715 ft
the pass the closed road climbs to
What replaces the road
A groomed corridor and a set of basins above it
Once the gate goes on, the same pavement becomes the main line of one of the better developed snowmobile complexes in Utah, and Kamas is the town at the bottom of it.
The closed section of SR-150 is groomed rather than plowed, which turns a two lane highway into a wide, smooth, gently graded trail climbing steadily into the mountains. That grade is the thing that makes the area unusual: most winter riding in Utah involves getting somewhere difficult first, and here the difficult part has already been paved and is under four feet of snow.
The Soapstone Trail leaves from near the gate at about milepost 14.5 and climbs into the open basins above, which is where most of the play riding happens. The Nobletts trailhead is the other main access, with restrooms and a three mile spur connecting through to the Mirror Lake and Mill Hollow complexes. Between them they carry the bulk of the traffic on a February Saturday.
Grooming is done by the state with club involvement, and the schedule varies by trail and by season. The state publishes current conditions reports through its grooming program, and those are the only thing worth planning from, because a warm week changes the surface faster than any calendar can.
| Access point | Where | What it opens up |
|---|---|---|
| The Soapstone gate | About mile 14.6, roughly 15 miles east of Kamas | The main groomed line up the highway, and the basins above |
| Nobletts trailhead | Off SR-35 toward Woodland, south of the byway | Restrooms, parking, and a three mile spur to the Mirror Lake and Mill Hollow complexes |
| Yellow Pine | Lower canyon, below the gate | Set aside for non-motorized backcountry use, so no machines |
| The plowed miles | Kamas to the gate | Open road all winter, and the way in to every one of the above |
Trailhead facilities, grooming schedules and motorized boundaries are all set by the Forest Service and the state and they change. Check current conditions with the Heber-Kamas Ranger District office at 50 East Center Street before committing to a plan.
If you do not ride
There is quiet country here, and you have to choose it deliberately
A groomed snowmobile corridor is a wonderful thing if you have a machine and a mixed blessing if you do not. The honest position for Kamas is that the winter country immediately above town is primarily motorized, and anybody looking for silence needs to know where the boundaries are before setting off rather than after.
Yellow Pine, in the lower canyon below the gate, is the piece set aside for non-motorized backcountry use, and it is where skiers and snowshoers who want the Uintas without the engines go. Beyond that, snowshoeing on the groomed line is perfectly legal and perfectly pleasant early in the morning before the machines are out, which is what a good many locals actually do.
For a dedicated Nordic center with set track and rentals, the answer is not in Kamas. The nearest sit over the hill in other towns: the trail systems around Park City sixteen miles west, and the Olympic venue at Midway about half an hour south. Neither one is a Kamas amenity, so I would not count on it as one.
Behind the gate there is no plow, no signal and no quick way out. The closed corridor is a groomed trail through mountain terrain, not a road with help on it. Mobile coverage stopped a few miles out of Kamas, the nearest fuel is in town, and a machine that will not start at mile 25 in February is a serious situation rather than an inconvenience. Ride or walk with somebody, tell a third person the plan and the return time, carry more warmth than the forecast suggests, and treat the avalanche advisory for the Uintas as required reading rather than optional.
In the valley
The town runs on two different engines
From late May the byway economy runs Kamas: trailers on Main Street, the smokehouse two and a half miles up on summer hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the campgrounds full and the ranger office busy. It is the season the town is visible in, and it is the reason most people who have heard of Kamas have heard of it.
After Labor Day the same businesses cut back. The smokehouse drops to 10:00 to 4:00 and closes Wednesdays, adding Tuesdays once snow arrives. The campgrounds are under several feet of snow. What keeps moving is the part of the economy that never depended on the highway: the school district, the clinic, the telecom, the lumber yard, the cattle that still need feeding, and the commuter traffic west over SR-248 to a resort town having its busiest months.
That is the real shape of a Kamas year, and it is worth understanding before buying here. Roughly 97 inches of snow falls on the valley floor in an average season. Roads in town are plowed and life continues, but the calendar has a hard edge in it that most Utah towns do not have.
Half the country above Kamas is unreachable by car for a third of the year.
The other winter
Four lift bases, and Kamas owns none of them
Kamas is a snow town with no ski hill, which is an odd position and a genuinely good one. The lifts are 16 to 22 miles west and the address is a fraction of the price. Choosing between the mountains is Park City's subject and it is covered properly there.
Choosing a mountain
The Park City skiing page
Two very different resorts sixteen miles west, written from the town that has them. That is where the comparison belongs and where it lives.
Read the guideLiving near it
Ski country without the address
What it actually means to buy in a valley whose nearest lift base is about 16 miles away and whose taxes and rules are not the resort's.
The movers pageThe other range
What the gate is holding back
Ruth, Lofty, Wall and Bald Mountain, all of them behind the closure from December until the snowpack lets go.
The lakes pageThe road itself
Fees, mileposts and the season
What the corridor is for the other eight months, from the traffic light in town to the highest pavement in the state.
The byway page
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Kamas on The Local
Things to do
The top 7, ranked
A rodeo week running since 1938, a drugstore soda fountain, a smokehouse up the byway.
Read the guideThe byway
The Mirror Lake Highway
Fifty four miles of state road, topping out at 10,715 feet. Gated at mile 14.6.
Read the guideThe high country
The Uinta lakes
Ruth, Lofty, Wall and the Bald Mountain summit, all day walks from the valley.
Read the guideThe water
The Weber and the Provo
Two rivers, five creeks and a canal built to move one into the other.
Read the guideMoving here
The 84036 question
Five resort developments carry a Kamas address and sit in another county.
Read the guideThe overview
Kamas, the whole picture
The byway, the lakes, the winter gate, the rivers and the ZIP code, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
Winter, answered
At Soapstone, where the gates sit at milepost 14.6, and the closed section runs on to milepost 48.6 near the Wyoming end. That is thirty four miles of state highway out of service, and it accounts for every campground, trailhead and lake in the high country. Below the gate the fifteen miles back into Kamas are plowed and open all season, so the town keeps its road even though the mountain does not.
It varies with the snowpack rather than following a fixed date, and it generally falls in the second half of May. The gates usually go on in December, and the road reopens once the snowpack clears, which in a heavy year can slip into June. UDOT publishes a seasonal roads page each spring, and that is the only source worth planning a trip from.
Yes, and it is one of the better developed snowmobile areas in Utah. The closed section of SR-150 is groomed rather than plowed, which makes the highway itself a wide, smooth, gently climbing main line into the mountains. The Soapstone Trail leaves from near the gate at about milepost 14.5 and reaches the open basins above, and the Nobletts trailhead has restrooms, parking and a three mile spur into the Mirror Lake and Mill Hollow complexes.
Yellow Pine, in the lower canyon below the gate, is set aside for non-motorized backcountry use and is where skiers and snowshoers who want the Uintas without engines go. Snowshoeing on the groomed corridor early in the morning, before the machines are out, is the other common local answer. For a dedicated Nordic center with set track and rentals you have to leave the valley, and the nearest options belong to Park City and Midway.
About 97 inches in an average season on the NOAA station in town, at a valley floor elevation of roughly about 6,500 feet. That is roughly twice what a Wasatch Front valley floor sees, and it comes with January nights in the teens. Roads in town are plowed and ordinary life carries on, but the winter here is a committed four month affair rather than a few storms.
No. The closure is east of town on the mountain road, and Kamas keeps all three of its other directions: SR-248 west to Park City, SR-32 south to Francis and Heber City, and SR-32 north to Oakley and I-80 at Wanship. All of them are plowed and open through the winter. What the closure removes is the recreation country above mile 14.6, not the town's access to the rest of the state.
Not in the town. Kamas has no ski hill of its own, which is precisely why the address costs what it does. Four lift bases sit between roughly 16 and 22 miles west, with Park City Mountain and the Deer Valley East Village base the closest of them. Choosing between the mountains is Park City's subject and is covered on its own page, and what it means to live near them without a resort address is on the movers page here.
The ones that live off the byway cut back. The Samak Smoke House, two and a half miles up the highway, drops from summer hours of 9:00 to 5:00 to winter hours of 10:00 to 4:00, closes on Wednesdays, and closes Tuesdays as well once the snow arrives. The campgrounds shut with the road. What keeps running is the part of the economy that never depended on the corridor: the school district, the clinic, the telecom, the ranch work and the commute west.
It deserves respect. Behind the gate there is no plowing, no mobile coverage and no quick way out, and avalanche terrain exists above the basins. The sensible practice is the standard one: go with somebody, tell a third person your plan and your return time, carry more warmth than the forecast suggests, and read the current Uinta avalanche advisory before you leave town. The groomed main line is the safe part; what people get into trouble on is the ground above it.
Winter is the season that tells you what a lot is really worth
A driveway off the plowed grid, a well that has to keep working at fifteen degrees, a road that is a snowmobile trail from December: none of it shows up in an August listing photograph. If you are weighing a property in this valley, tell me what you are looking at and I will get a Summit County partner agent to look at it properly.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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