¿Qué es Brian Head desde Duck Creek?
Brian Head funciona como el compañero aventurero de Duck Creek Village.
Guía de Duck Creek
Brian Head, Utah
Utah’s highest town, built around a ski hill — skiing, snow tubing, and summer chairlift days, 23.5 miles from Duck Creek Village Inn in summer and 61 miles once the Cedar Breaks road closes
De un vistazo
- Drive from Duck Creek
- 23.5 mi / 41 min in summer; in winter about 1 hr 15 by Mammoth Creek Road when it is passable, or 61.2 mi / 1 hr 35 min by Cedar City and Parowan
- Elevation
- Lifts 9,600 to 10,920 ft, town 9,800 ft, Brian Head Peak 11,307 ft
- Resort size
- 8 chairlifts, 72 runs, 650+ acres across Giant Steps and Navajo
- 2026-27 opening day
- Friday, November 6, 2026 (resort announcement, earliest in Utah)
- Snow tubing
- Giant Steps base, 1.5-hour sessions from about $25, ages 4+, tube included
- Typical deep-snow window
- 24 in or more on the ground from about December 18 to May 2 (median of 15 seasons)
Brian Head is a ski town wrapped around a ski hill at the top of Parowan Canyon, and it is the nearest place to Duck Creek Village where you can buy a lift ticket, rent skis, or put a kid on a snow tube and let gravity do the rest. It opens earlier than any other resort in Utah, it is the only one in the south, and in summer the same chairlift keeps turning for mountain bikers and sightseers.
This page is the overview. Each part of a Brian Head day has its own page below: what the snow is doing right now, the mountain itself, tubing and the rink, the drive and the road, and summer. Everything is measured or sourced rather than repeated: routing engines and USGS elevation data for the drive, mapped lift geometry for the chairs, and the federal snow-telemetry station on the mountain for the snow. Resort dates, hours and prices are the one part that changes every season, and those are flagged as patterns rather than promises.
Plan your Brian Head day
One page for each part of the trip, so you can read the part you need and skip the rest.
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Stay across the street from the lift
The two-bedroom, ground-floor condo we co-host with Suzie: about 630 ft from Giant Steps Lodge, sleeps 4, wood-burning fireplace, hot tub and sauna, dogs welcome. Books direct, no resort markup.
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Snow Report & Weather
Live snow depth from the SNOTEL station on the mountain, the NWS forecast for Brian Head, and fifteen seasons of data on when the snow is actually deep
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Where to Stay
The two-bedroom condo we co-host across the street from the Giant Steps lift, plus the honest trade-offs of sleeping in Brian Head, Duck Creek, Parowan or Cedar City
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Skiing & Snowboarding
Eight chairlifts, 72 runs and nothing below 9,600 ft: terrain by lift, opening day, kids ski free, lift ticket patterns, night skiing and rentals
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Snow Tubing & Ice Skating
Tubing sessions at the Giant Steps base with the tube included, ages 4 and up, hours and holiday blocks, sledding, and the outdoor rink in town
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Getting There & Road Conditions
Drive times from Duck Creek, Cedar City, St. George, Las Vegas, Zion and Bryce, the winter route once Highway 148 closes, Parowan Canyon traction law, live SR-143 cams
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Summer at Brian Head
Lift-served mountain biking, scenic chairlift rides, the Vista Trail, the Adventure Zone, and the drive to the CCC shelter on Brian Head Peak
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Live SR-143 road cams
Five UDOT cameras from Parowan Canyon over the top to the Panguitch Lake side, with a 24-hour rewind, plus UDOT surface conditions and chain restrictions.
Where to stay for Brian Head
Two honest options from the people who run both. The condo across the street from Giant Steps is the one to book if the trip is about first chair; Duck Creek Village Inn is the one if the trip is about the whole mountain, with Brian Head as one day of it. Every other kind of Brian Head lodging, and how to choose, is on the where-to-stay page.
This winter on the mountain
The number that matters is not the resort’s 360-inch average, it is how much is on the ground this week. The federal snow station on the mountain reports it every day, and the National Weather Service forecasts the grid cell it sits in.
On the mountain right now
Typical values for this date from fifteen winters of station data; live readings load in a moment.
Snow depth at 10,040 ft
…cm
NRCS SNOTEL Brian Head, on the mountain above the Giant Steps base
Temperature at the sensor
…°C
Hourly reading, always shown with its time
Typical depth for today
…cm
Median of 15 seasons, with the middle-half range
NWS forecast for Brian Head (grid point at about 10,200 ft)
The four elevations, because the internet cannot agree
Four numbers get quoted for how high Brian Head is and they all mean different things. Nothing at the resort is at 11,300 feet, and nothing on the mountain is below 9,600.
- 9,600 ft Lowest lift base Navajo Express. Resort publishes 9,600; mapped terminal reads 9,629.
- 9,800 ft Brian Head Town The highest incorporated town in Utah. Where you park, eat and sleep.
- 10,920 ft Highest lift The Dunes. Three chairs top out above 10,800 ft, which is why April still skis.
- 11,307 ft Brian Head Peak The bare summit above town, with the 1935 CCC shelter. Drive most of the way up in summer.
The drive, in one picture
In summer it is a short, spectacular hop over the Cedar Breaks rim: 23.5 miles and about 41 minutes. Around mid November the National Park Service gates Highway 148 for winter and the drive becomes 61.2 miles and about 1 hr 35 min, down to Cedar City, up the interstate to Parowan, and back up Parowan Canyon. The winter line on the map is the whole shape of the problem, and it is why Duck Creek guests treat Brian Head as a full day rather than an afternoon. There is a shorter way we usually take, Mammoth Creek Road north to Highway 143 and over the top, about 35 miles and an hour and a quarter, but that county road is plowed without guarantees and drifts shut after storms, so the drive page explains when to trust it.
The interactive map needs JavaScript. In summer the route is SR-14 west, SR-148 north through Cedar Breaks, then SR-143 into Brian Head. In winter the usual way is Mammoth Creek Road north to SR-143 and west over the top when that county road is passable; the guaranteed way is SR-14 down to Cedar City, I-15 north to Parowan, then SR-143 up Parowan Canyon.
- Summer route, over Cedar Breaks
- Winter when passable, Mammoth Creek Road (county road, not guaranteed)
- Winter guaranteed, around by Parowan
- Resort base area
- Where the summer road closes
Winter beyond the lifts
Snowmobiling is the big one, and it is the activity that connects Brian Head back to Duck Creek: the Cedar Mountain snowmobile complex covers the plateau between the two towns. Our snowmobile guide covers the groomed trails from our side, grooming, rentals in the village, and the rules on Dixie National Forest land.
Cedar Breaks National Monument becomes a winter destination in its own right once Highway 148 closes. Rangers lead free guided snowshoe tours on Fridays and Saturdays from the first weekend of January, snowshoes and poles included, meeting at the North View visitor contact station on the Brian Head side; the $25 vehicle fee still applies and tours depend on snowpack. From Duck Creek the plowed lot at the Highway 14 junction puts Point Supreme 3.5 miles away on skis or snowshoes. Our Cedar Breaks guide has the detail.
In town, Brian Head Ice runs an outdoor rink with rentals through the heart of winter, and the resort lists ice skating, snowshoeing and spa days among its storm-day options. The tubing and skating page has what we know about hours.
A short history, because the dates surprise people
The stone shelter on the summit went up in 1935, and it was built by Camp F-16, the Civilian Conservation Corps camp stationed at Duck Creek. The hut people photograph at 11,307 feet was, in a real sense, built by our neighbours.
The ski area itself is much younger than the shelter. Brian Head opened in December 1964, at a place the Forest Service paperwork called Bear Flat, southwest of the peak. The photo below was taken that October, with the sign already up and the lift not yet running.
Brian Head Town did not incorporate until 1975, nine years after the first season, and at the 2020 census it had 151 permanent residents. It is a town built entirely around a chairlift, which is worth remembering when you are deciding where to sleep.
Staying in Duck Creek instead of on the mountain
We will be straight about the trade-off. If your whole trip is skiing and you want to walk to the lift in ski boots, stay in Brian Head. Nothing we can offer beats ski-in convenience on a powder morning, and a 61-mile winter drive each way is a real cost.
What Duck Creek Village Inn offers instead is a quieter, less expensive base with more to do when you are not on the hill. You are 41 minutes away in summer and between an hour and a quarter and 1 hr 35 min in winter depending on whether Mammoth Creek Road is open, in a village with restaurants, a snowmobile trail network out the door, and no resort-village bustle in the evening. For a trip that mixes one ski or tubing day with snowmobiling, Cedar Breaks and slow mornings, that balance works better than paying resort rates for nights you spend asleep.
Compare our rooms and cabins, or start from the 3-day winter itinerary if you want the whole week sketched out before you book.
October 2026
Por qué confiar en esta guía
We write this page for guests driving up from Duck Creek Village Inn, so the parts we spend the most effort on are the drive, the seasonal road closure, and what the snow actually does. Routes and elevation profiles are OSRM routing lines sampled against USGS 3DEP; the lift table is OpenStreetMap lift geometry with USGS terminal elevations; the snow data is fifteen water years of NRCS SNOTEL readings from the station on the mountain, refreshed live. Resort dates, hours and prices change every season, so cross-check those against the official sources before you go.
Planning a Brian Head day
The questions trip planners usually ask next.
¿A qué distancia está Brian Head de Duck Creek Village Inn?
Brian Head está a A ~35 min en verano; ~1 h 15 min en invierno de Duck Creek Village Inn según los datos actuales de la guía.
¿Cuándo debería planificar Brian Head?
El invierno es la temporada clásica de Brian Head, mientras que las operaciones de verano dependen de cuándo se derrite la nieve y abren las actividades de montaña.
Guías relacionadas
Sideways links to the nearby destinations and guide pages guests usually compare.
Cedar Breaks National Monument
Anfiteatro alpino, miradores al atardecer y un Parque Internacional de Cielo Oscuro, a 20 minutos del inn
Ver guía
Actividades de invierno
Deer Hollow Winter Recreation Area, motos de nieve, esquí de fondo y paisajes invernales alrededor de Duck Creek Village
See winter activities Snowmobile
Winter riding and groomed trails
See snowmobile Brian Head Road Conditions & Cameras
Live SR-143 cameras from both sides of the mountain, traction requirements, and honest winter route advice.
Ver páginaSiguientes pasos
Use these pages to move from a guide idea into a concrete itinerary or comparison.
Itinerario de invierno de 3 días
Nieve, esquí, motos de nieve y tiempo de cabaña en la zona alta
Ver itinerarioSnow Report
Live snow depth and the 48-year record for Duck Creek Village, from two SNOTEL stations minutes away.
Ver páginaWinter Driving & Access
The climb up Highway 14, chains and 4WD, snow depths, daylight, and storm-day calls
PlanificarDónde alojarse
Choose the stay type that matches the trip you are building.
Stay Here, Ski Brian Head Tomorrow
Book your room or cabin at Duck Creek Village Inn, a quieter, cheaper winter base with snowmobile trails at the door and Brian Head an easy day away.