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

State Parks with a Junior Ranger Program

According to the state park's website: (if it's red that means I have done it)

Coral Pink

Dead Horse Point

Deer Creek

Goblin Valley

Goosenecks

Great Salt Lake

Starvation

Utah Field Museum

Wasatch Mountain

State Park Palooza

Over the next 3 weeks I will visit the following parks after work:

Frontier Homestead (formerly known as Iron Mission?)
Territorial State House
Flight Park
(Yuba) (already been this year)
Palisade
Fremont Indian
Piute
Otter Creek
Millsite
Huntington
Kodachrome Basin (went as a child)
Escalante
Anasazi
Edge of the Cedars
Goosenecks
(Dead Horse Point) (already been this year)

in that order.

Jordan River OHV

“Visited”: March 2018

I don’t have an OHV. I never will, probably. And if I did, I would just ride it up mountain roads I was afraid to try in a full size car. Not do jumps near a polluted SMELLY river along I 15. But to each their own.

This park is not covered by the state parks pass and I didn’t intend to go. I was going to skip this one, the flight park (I don’t have a hangglider), and This is the Place (also not covered by the pass). But I was incrementally running the Jordan River Parkway after work, since I kept teaching at elementary schools close to the trail. And this particular stretch backed up to the OHV Park, so I figured I would at least catch a glimpse of it. I could say I’ve SEEN each state park... I’ve hiked above the other two I just mentioned.

So I’m running along and I see the jumps and piles of dirt and such on the other side of the river. There’s random wooden bridges across the river saying “no trespassing”. Then a couple miles in there’s a big sturdy concrete one that mentions nothing of the sort. It would spit me right out into one of the tracks of the park.

No one around, nothing telling me not to, I traipsed across the bridge, snapped a quick pic as proof, and scurried back across the bridge. There were some beaver footprints in the mud next to the bridge. Nature...!

Did I trespass? Idk. But I didn’t hurt anyone or anything, I don’t think the park is even open yet. So I don’t feel bad. Other people were clearly using that bridge and dumping trash everywhere and god knows what else  sooooo I feel pretty harmless.

The bridge... no signs or barriers

Overgrown track

Go Big or Go Home

I found a way to go to the OHV Park without having an OHV.

I found out there’s an info kiosk for random visitors such as myself at the Flight Park so I’m not afraid to go there anymore.

This is the Place is only $6.95 per adult on Sundays.

We goin to alllllll the state parks yo. All 43 of them.

I’m knocking out 14-15 in the next 3 weeks. All on the job. Stay tuned.

Utah Field House

Visited: March 2018

I'm a geologists. I've been to lots of geology and dinosaur museums. But this one is so well done. You should really go here.

You start with a video learning about local palentology and some geology. It's ever so slightly dated and I love the look of the palentologists. So old school. So socks with sandals. Big glasses. Mustaches.

The museum takes a journey through geologic time and highlights local specimens and methods for extracting, preserving, and learning about fossils. There are exhibits geared towards children and adults. Any age group will have something at their level.

Here are some of my favorite things in the museum:

There is a flyer with a cross section of the local geology that I LOVE LOVE LOVE and will be so helpful as I travel through this area more in the future.

There is also a small section on Native American history in the area, and they are building a small section just for geology, separate from any fossils as well.

Even if you don't want to pay for the dinosaur museum, this is also the welcome center for Vernal, and there is this incredible room showcasing what you can do and see in the Vernal area that you should visit if you are in the area.

The dinosaur garden is super fun too. In true Holly fashion, I pulled a piece of trash out of the pond, so I can say I have cleaned up trash in every state park I've been in so far!

Here's a fun throwback to my brothers here back in the day and me: