Palisade

Visited: April 2018

This state park surprisingly had a little lakeshore trail. It's a fairly small lake, but on the far side from the entrance station, you can park at a little playground and walk from one end to the other on a dirt trail. If you use the roads, you could also loop all the way around. I just went out and back, it was about a mile long.

I don't think I would have swam in this lake, personally. It kinda smelled like fish. Kinda as in very strongly. And there was lots of litter, I cleaned up 2 pounds and saw a fisherman using his net to fish some out of the water. It seemed like more of a lake for non-motorized watercraft.

Pretty lake color though

The trail cut through some rock at one point

The Gunnison Valley from the trail

Frontier Homestead

Visited: March 2018

I thought this park would be a quick in-and-out looking at some of the artifacts in the museum. Turns out this is one of the most fun state parks and I want to come back and spend another 5 hours. I only left because the park closed at 5. One hour was not enough.

The inside museum was a bit of what I expected, artifacts from pioneer days, showing horse drawn carriages, travel routes, covered wagons, artifacts from pioneer life (including an impressive gun collection).

Outside though, was a surprise. I thought it would be just a few scattered old cabins and some plaques. While there was some of that, there were also tons of activities you could actually DO instead of just read about. Mine and smelter iron! Crush limestone bricks the old fashioned way! Go into a Native American structure! Pan for gold! Wear a dunce hat in the school! Go to jail! Lasso a cow! Play horseshoes! There was just so much to do. I was running around frantically trying to see it all. I hope I can come back and play soon. And I was an adult there by myself. I can't imagine how fun it would be as a kid, or with friends.

This park used to be called "Iron Mission" state park, because it was based on the Iron Mission overland route. But it has received so much more since then and has expanded.

Flight Park

Visited: March 2018

Good luck finding this place. An app won't help you. It'll just send you down various dead end streets in a nearby neighborhood, thinking a giant cliff is a road. You gotta look at a map or read the directions on their website.

Even if you don't have a hangglider, the view of Utah Valley and the Wasatch is pretty cool. There is also a sign explaining the air currents for the "always read the plaque" types. And you could watch people hangglide which is cool.

Territorial Statehouse

Visited: March 2018

This is just a little detour off I15 and worth the $2 imo. The bottom floor is a little weird with all the framed portraits, but the middle floor is pretty cool. And the top floor had a really weird video playing when I went, but there were some funny Utah politics stories on the walls. There are some odd stories about Utah's history here that I had never heard. If you are the type of person that likes to read the plaque, you'll like this museum