Deer Valley or Mammoth Lakes?

Neither place is for swimming, and the difference is one of kind. Deer Valley's nearest water is Jordanelle Reservoir, just below the resort. It has a state park with a sandy shoreline, but it is mainly a boating lake that is pleasant on a hot August afternoon.

Mammoth Lakes has colder, prettier water: a quick dip in Horseshoe Lake among the granite of the Lakes Basin, or the slightly warmer Crowley Lake further down. Hot Creek is closed to bathers. In both places the swimming season is short, and the water is usually for paddling rather than swimming.

Deer Valley eats better. Park City's Main Street has more steakhouses, sushi and modern American bistros than a town its size would normally support, and the lodges on the mountain serve polished resort food. Mammoth Lakes serves plainer ski-town fare: big breakfasts, burgers, tacos and pizza, plus a handful of more ambitious dinner kitchens around the Village.

Neither has a cuisine of its own or markets worth seeking out. For drink, Park City has its small distilleries and breweries and Mammoth brews its own craft beer, and some of Mammoth's kitchens cut back in the quiet spring and autumn months.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Deer Valley has the edge thanks to its neighbour. Park City's restored silver-mining Main Street, the mine headframes on the slopes, the museum in the old city hall and the Olympic Park's ski-jump towers fill a decent afternoon.

Mammoth Lakes is a modern town of lodges and condominiums, with just one small history museum in a log cabin. The region's real heritage, such as the ghost town of Bodie, lies an hour or more away.

Deer Valley itself is quiet after dark, but Park City's Main Street is only minutes away, so it has the livelier evenings. Its saloons, cocktail bars and après-ski spots fill up on ski-season weekends, within Utah's liquor rules. Mammoth's nights are mostly après-ski in the Village and a few pubs and brewery taprooms, and outside the ski season the town is quiet well before midnight. Neither has real clubs, and in both the early start for the lifts or trails sets the pace.

Deer Valley gives you polished, well-connected skiing. Its own runs are immaculately groomed, Park City Mountain is next door, and the light powder of Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude lies about an hour over the ridge in the Cottonwood Canyons. In summer the ski runs turn into linked biking and hiking trails through aspen and fir, with fly-fishing on the Provo River and the high Uinta lakes within reach.

Mammoth Lakes has the wilder, more volcanic setting. One huge mountain often holds its snow into early summer. After the thaw come granite-ringed lakes, routes into the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses, the basalt columns of Devils Postpile and the tufa towers of Mono Lake. At about 2,400m, compared with roughly 2,000m at Deer Valley's base, the air is noticeably thinner and the sun harsher.

Deer Valley has a city on its doorstep. Salt Lake City, about forty minutes away, has Temple Square, the State Capitol and good museums, and Midway, the steam railway and Sundance are closer still.

Mammoth Lakes has no city within reach but stronger history. Bodie's ghost town and the sobering Manzanar camp are each a little over an hour away. From both, the grandest outings are into the landscape rather than to towns, and winter pass closures cut Mammoth's choices further.

Both suit families who spend their days outdoors, but they lean on different strengths. Deer Valley is built for smooth ski days: children's ski schools, wide beginner runs with no snowboarders and lodging you can often ski to. The Olympic Park adds tubing, a coaster and ziplines, and Salt Lake City's zoo and museums are there for a bad-weather day.

Mammoth Lakes is simpler and more hands-on, with rowing boats, trout fishing and picnics in the Lakes Basin and condominiums with kitchens. It has nothing indoors for children when snow or rain sets in, and its greater height can tire small children a little more.

Deer Valley is the easier of the two to manage without a car. Fare-free buses link its base areas with Main Street and Park City Mountain, Main Street itself is compact enough to walk, and Salt Lake City airport is about forty minutes away.

Mammoth also runs free winter shuttles and a gondola from the Village, and in summer a trolley and the Reds Meadow shuttle. But the town is spread out along its roads, there is no train, and the sights of the Eastern Sierra are long drives apart.

Deer Valley is better for shopping, thanks to Park City's Main Street. Its old mining-town fronts hold galleries, western boots and hats and upmarket boutiques, and there is an outlet centre at Kimball Junction. Mammoth Lakes is strictly practical, with good ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, galleries of landscape photography and souvenirs around the Village. Both cover mountain gear well, but only Deer Valley offers more, and Salt Lake City is close by for anything else.

Neither is cheap, but Mammoth Lakes is far less punishing. Deer Valley sits at the very top of the ski market. Its slopeside lodging is almost all luxury and lift access is priced to match, so many visitors save money by staying in the Heber Valley or Salt Lake City.

Mammoth is still costly in the peak ski weeks. However, condominiums with kitchens are common, rooms get cheaper in spring and autumn, and a summer of hiking and lakes costs little beyond a park pass.

Deer Valley gives you more for an evening out. In summer, the Utah Symphony's outdoor festival at the Snow Park amphitheatre brings picnics on the grass and visiting headliners. The restored 1920s Egyptian Theatre on Main Street stages plays, comedy and concerts all year.

Mammoth's stage is smaller and home-grown: a community theatre on the college campus, plus a summer jazz festival and chamber concerts in meadows and parks. Neither is worth the journey for performances alone.

In Deer Valley, relaxing means hotel spas. Some of the most polished in the mountain West are here, along with hot tubs on snowy terraces, fireside lounges and massages for tired legs. For something less ordinary, the warm spring pool inside the limestone dome of Homestead Crater in Midway is about half an hour away.

Mammoth Lakes offers the rougher version. Its volcanic ground feeds primitive hot springs out in the sagebrush, reached by dirt road and with no facilities at all, where people soak at sunset with the Sierra across the valley. The large hotels in town have spas and massage too, but the springs are what set it apart.