Category: Cabin Life

Which is Better? Living In the Mountains or a View of the Mountains?

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

Some of us dream of living with that million dollar view of the mountains from our front porch. Others dream of the solitude of living in the deep in the mountains. Either way, the mountains provide something different to each one of us. Getting the opportunity to live anywhere near a mountain would be a dream come true. In the almost 6 years I’ve been in Utah, I’ve lived in the Salt Lake city with a view of the jagged Wasatch Front, lived in Park City with views of the lush WasatchBack, and currently live on top of a mountain. …

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Cabin Life: Snowiest Year in Utah History (600+ inches of Snow) What Was It Like?

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

600+ inches of snow in a single winter. Even after living through all 90+ days with snowfall, I still can’t believe it. That’s 50 feet of total snowfall that we’ve received at the cabin since it started accumulating in October and it never stopped. To show for it, our driveway is lined with 12+ foot snowbanks and mounds of snow around the house climb up to our second story, covering the windows. We can walk directly off our second story deck right onto the snow. We could even walk (ski) right off our roof.  Our neighborhood plow truck quickly became …

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Cabin Life: Summer up in Tollgate Canyon

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

Living in Tollgate Canyon during the summer months is truly a dream! After such a harsh, seemingly endless, snowy winter, followed by a long, muddy spring, the summer weather was a saving grace. And with those warm summer days, comes endless opportunities to explore the mountain’s dirt roads, enjoy viewing the wildlife, and to live that true mountain lifestyle! My favorite part of living in Tollgate during the summer is the endless opportunities for mountain biking, gravel biking, and trail running. At the end of the day, the neighborhood is on the side (and top) of a mountain that has …

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Cabin Life: Tools, Gear, & Snow Recommendations

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

We’ve lived in our log cabin for a year now, and have learned so much. As a little background, we live in a place called Tollgate Canyon which sits just above Park City, Utah at 8,000 feet in elevation. Our winters are very harsh, averaging about 300-600 inches of snow a year. This means you really do need the right tools for the job to not only get you through the long winters, but also to utilize the summer months to get all your projects done. Here are just few of the tools that I’d recommend having if you want …

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Cabin Life: Year in Tollgate Canyon

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

One whole year, 365 days in the books living up on the mountain. My wife and I have experienced and grown so much since moving into our dream log cabin in August 2021. But now is a time to recap on all the highs and lows that we’ve gone though living in Tollgate Canyon just outside of Park City, UT. The Wildlife First thing that comes to mind is the wildlife! Before moving up here, I’d seen maybe 3 Moose in total in Utah. Within our first month, we had seen a moose on our property 4-5 times a week! And …

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Cabin Life | What’s Winter Like in Tollgate

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

It didn’t take long, after we moved into Tollgate Canyon, for our neighbors to consistently ask if we were prepared for winter. “How bad could it really be?!” I remember thinking to ourselves. Well, very quickly, we found out how real winter gets up here. I mean, we got a foot of snow in October, and the snow machine really didn’t turn off until the dry-spell we hit in January. See, the neighborhood sits at around 8,000ft, which is the equivalent elevation of the Mid-Mountain weather reports for our local Park City Ski Resort. With that being said, the town’s …

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Cabin Life | Winter Driving Conditions in Tollgate

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

What is it like to live in a mountain community where the roads are snow-covered from November to May? A place where the entrance has a big sign stating 4×4 and chains are required to climb the hill. A sign that is regularly ignored, resulting in vehicles being left immobilized or stuck alongside of the steep canyon road. Well, we’ve been dealing with this for a few months now, and I will tell you first hand, every single day is an adventure. Plowing Routes First off, which roads get plowed and which do not? Shown in the photo below, is …

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Cabin Life: Living Among Wildlife

Zachary Kenney0 Comments

“Go get your camera, we have a big moose in the yard!” A phrase that was yelled through our house multiple times per week during the fall… and it never got old. I thought seeing the occasional deer, or elk, from two football fields away was an incredible sight. But after moving up into the mountains, viewing wildlife has taken on an entirely new meaning. We don’t just see animals anymore, we are living among them! It didn’t take long after moving into the cabin to get our first taste of wildlife. At first, it was just the casual deer …

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Cabin Life: Gathering and Cutting Firewood Uinta National Forest

Zachary Kenney2 Comments

Whether you heat your home with firewood, just burn a few logs here and there when friends are over, or are looking to have tons of firewood for your nights at camp, did you know that you can cut down your own firewood in the Uintas. To be honest, I was shocked how easy the process was. From getting the permits to coming home with over a cord of wood. Each district is slightly different, but overall here is the overview on how to cut your own firewood for less than $8 per cord of wood. Starting off, a cord …

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Cabin Life: We Bought a Cabin in the Mountains of Tollgate Canyon

Zachary Kenney1 Comment

To be honest, saying this is the house I’ve always wanted just isn’t true. That’s because I didn’t know cabins like this actually existed outside of movies or book covers. Once I moved up to New England after college, I was immediately hooked on the romanticism of an A-Frame cabin, hoping one day to be the owner of one. Realistically, I thought it would be a really small cabin that we’d only use on the weekends far off in the mountains of Wyoming or Idaho. As luck would have it, and it really was all luck, we were actually able …

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