The Cabriolet's last day came in March. The resort and the Canyons Village Management Association marked it with donuts at the top terminal from 8 to 10 a.m. and a Cash Cab Giveaway for gift cards. The lift ran its usual 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. one more time, and construction started the next day.
Coverage since then has focused on the replacement, the Canyons Village Skyway, a free gondola with enclosed 10-person cabins and floor-to-ceiling windows. For anyone who drives to the Canyons base, the bigger change this winter is parking. The free surface lots that local skiers have used for years are on a short schedule. They stay open until the new garage opens, and the plan calls for them to close after that.
One Season, Two Ways to Arrive
Park City Mountain is aiming to open Friday, Nov. 20, 2026, weather and conditions permitting. KPCW reported in August that the target includes the Skyway. As of early October, no newer construction update had confirmed that the gondola will be running on that date. Treat it as the resort's target, not a promise.
The garage runs on a later schedule. The resort's parking page lists it as opening in "early December," and its parking-pass FAQ says "early to mid-December 2026." That leaves about two to four weeks at the start of the season on an interim plan, and the rules change partway through December.
| From opening day until the garage opens | After the garage opens | |
|---|---|---|
| Main day parking | Surface Lots 2, 3 and 4, free | Canyons Village Parking Structure, $29 a day |
| Free options | All three surface lots | Garage after 12 p.m.; carpools of four or more, space permitting; limited first-come, first-served spaces in the surface lot next to the garage |
| Getting to the upper village | Shuttle or walking routes from the lots | Skyway from the garage to the Canyons Village Forum |
| Status of Lots 2, 3 and 4 | Open, with signs and attendants | Closed |
During the interim, the resort says attendants will direct drivers to the marked lots, and shuttle or walking routes will connect the lots to the upper village. The resort hasn't named the shuttle's operator, boarding points or frequency. CVMA already runs Canyons Village Connect, a free on-demand service inside the village that operates daily from 7 a.m. to midnight in winter, but it hasn't said that Connect will be the lot shuttle.
Why the Free Lots Close Instead of Coming Back
The closing date for the surface lots is tied to the garage, and that comes from a land-use decision more than a parking policy. The upper lots at Canyons have charged for parking in the past. KPCW reported in April that the base-area developer plans to move parking into the new garage so it can develop the upper lots. TCFC, the master developer for Canyons Village, built the garage. The first two levels opened for the 2025-26 season, and work on the last three levels resumed in March.
Read together, those facts explain this winter's schedule. The free lots in November exist because the garage isn't finished. Once it is, those lots stop being parking and become sites waiting for development. The resort says it based the new pricing on Mountain Village, where paid parking and reservations were credited with easing car traffic during the 2022-23 winter. At Mountain Village this year, the surface lots stay on paid reservations with free parking for carpools, the same as last season.
The Garage, Once It Opens
The garage pricing has a few details that matter for residents who ski on a regular schedule:
- $29 a day, with free parking after 12 p.m. That makes an afternoon session on the mountain free to park.
- Free carpool parking for vehicles with four or more people, when space is available.
- A season pass for $825, sold for the Canyons Village garage. A separate pass covers the Mountain Village garage at the top of the First Time lot. Passes went on sale Sept. 1. The Canyons pass requires an active 2026-27 Epic Pass with Park City access, and you still need a free daily reservation. Owning the pass doesn't guarantee a space on a given day. KPCW corrected its August story to reflect that reservation requirement.
- Limited free day parking stays in the surface lot next to the garage, first come, first served.
The Skyway connects the garage to the base. It follows the Cabriolet's old route from the garage to the Red Pine gondola area and adds a mid-station near Silverado Lodge. The resort says the mid-station is meant to improve access for homeowners, lodging properties and guests along the route. For owners in that middle part of the village, that's a lift stop that didn't exist before.
The Bus Routes Don't Change When the Garage Opens
Buses are the one way to reach Canyons that works the same before and after the garage opens. High Valley Transit's current route pages list three routes that serve the Canyons Village Transit Hub:
- Route 105, Canyons Village Shuttle. Starts and ends at the Transit Hub and Cabriolet Lot, runs every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 11:55 p.m. CVMA's transportation page still lists this route at every 15 minutes, which is out of date. HVT's own page is the one to trust.
- Route 101, Spiro/224 Local. Runs every 20 minutes between the Jeremy Ranch Park & Ride and the Old Town Transit Center, with stops at the Canyons Village Transit Hub and Park City Mountain, from 5:27 a.m. to 11:58 p.m.
- 10X High Line. An express between Kimball Junction and the Old Town Transit Center that stops at the Canyons Village Transit Hub, every 20 minutes until 8 p.m.
HVT's pages don't give a winter start date, so check them again before opening day. Park City Transit hasn't posted its 2026-27 winter timetable. Its routes page still showed the summer schedule when checked. An Oct. 1 staff report to City Council proposes winter schedules based on how long routes actually take in traffic, instead of fixed clock times. The report says that could mean more frequent buses off-peak and slightly less frequent buses at the busiest times.
On the road, KPCW reported Sept. 21 that UDOT and High Valley Transit expected to finish their SR-224 construction and restore normal conditions by the end of October. The bus rapid transit project behind that work isn't expected to start service until 2028.
What Stays the Same on the Mountain This Winter
The Skyway is this season's new lift at Canyons. The Sunrise Gondola opened during the 2025-26 season, so it isn't new this year. The Silverlode replacement, a combined Eagle and Eaglet replacement, and a Crescent retrofit are all planned for the 2027-28 season. Vail Resorts says it will share construction and opening details later. Apart from arrival, the Canyons lift network will look the same as last season.
The Village Calendar and the Parking Change
Several of the village's regular events fall on one side or the other of the garage opening:
- Fridays in October: Pendry's Lunar Libations runs 8 p.m. to midnight on Oct. 9, 16, 23 and 30, with the last night on Oct. 30. The CVMA calendar also lists a Full Moon Rooftop Experience on Oct. 25 from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.
- Nov. 27: The Canyons Village Tree Lighting is scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving, during the interim weeks when the surface lots are still free.
- Dec. 20 and Dec. 24: Santa's Town Lift ride and the Canyons Village Torchlight Parade. If the garage opens on its early-to-mid-December schedule, both events will run under the new parking rules.
- This winter: A Build-A-Bear Workshop is opening in the village, with no specific date announced. Weekly live music and fireside gatherings at the Airstream are back, along with daily Orange Bubble Bites at 3 p.m. and Silver Sky Nights on select evenings that haven't been announced yet.
- Jan. 21 to 23, 2027: Shaun White's The Snow League comes to Park City Mountain with halfpipe snowboarding, freeskiing, live music and fan events. Ticketing details are still to come.
The developer plans to build on the upper lots once parking moves into the garage. For a homeowner or prospective buyer, that means the walk, the lift stop and the parking costs tied to a specific address may change over the next few seasons. If you'd like to talk through how the Skyway mid-station or upcoming development on the upper lots could affect a particular property, the team at Stein Eriksen Realty Group is glad to help. Contact Us.
