Citing impacts from overuse and the need to protect adjacent property including Camp Cloud Rim from trespassers, Murphy has stepped up efforts to eliminate motorized recreation from United Park City Mines land in recent years. Barricades have been erected and resurrected around the meadows in Bonanza Flats and on the ridgelines above Deer Valley, among other spots. During winter, Murphy has hired security guards to occasionally patrol Bonanza Flats for trespassing snowmobilers. I m not talking about the majority of snowmobilers, he explains. But the increased snowmobile presence increases vandalism, crime and confrontation between disparate user groups.
Murphy claims to have no personal preference for motorized or non-motorized use.
Yet he believes that non-motorized use is more compatible with the area s population. People come here for the wilderness, getting outdoors on snowshoes and skis as opposed to snowmobile. It s more the type of person who lives in Park City. At least one local snowmobile enthusiast regrets being banned from private property because of indiscretions that may span all user groups. While stressing that UPCM has the right to do as it pleases with its property, Kyle Hooker, manager of High Country Snowmobile Tours, notes that most snowmobilers do obey the laws.