Things to Do in Utah With a Baby
At that place are so many exciting things to do with your kids in Utah that y'all could easily spend all your vacations in the Beehive State. However, your family might want to visit another state at some point, and so you volition accept to prioritize your time in Utah: do you want to visit the Big Five National Parks? See dinosaur bones? Become white water rafting? Soak in hot springs? Get salty in the Keen Salt Lake? Shimmy through a slot canyon? Buckle upwards (literally…this is an expansive state, and at that place will be long drives involved), and get set up for enough adventures to fill up a lifetime'due south worth of Instagram posts.
Visit the National Parks
Utah'southward Big Five are some of the jewels of the National Park Service: Arches , Bryce , Zion , Canyonlands , and Capitol Reef national parks. They are all in Southern Utah, only seeing them all in 1 trip would have v days and a existent commitment to driving over hiking. You can run into an itinerary like that hither if y'all're feeling crazy.
A more reasonable pick would be to choose but a couple of parks to visit (check out our favorite child-friendly hikes in Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.) This would give yous more time to explore side by side points of interest. For case, around Arches National Park, you lot'll notice Dead Horse Point Land Park too as the ancient Mill Canyon dinosaur tracks on BLM (Bureau of Country Management) land — y'all tin read more almost why we love those spots around Moab so much hither .
While you're hopping around southern Utah, don't forget nigh the lesser-known gems of our public lands, such as land parks and national monuments. (We are partial to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.)
Go Dinosaur Crazy
If yous have dinosaur lovers in your group, you've come to the right identify. Utah has options all over the state for you. In Common salt Lake Metropolis, visit the phenomenal Natural History Museum of Utah , located on the University of Utah campus. Merely southward of Salt Lake City, at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, there'south likewise the Museum of Ancient Life . If you find yourself around Moab, head to the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite , the dinosaur tracks establish off of Potash Route , and the more commercial dinosaur museum Moab Giants ,
Even after all this, it's worth making the expedition to Vernal, Utah, on the east side of the land. Vernal doesn't call itself " Dinosaurland " for nothing, and just entering the boondocks will please anyone who loves dinos, kitsch, or kitschy dinos. Information technology'due south the closest town to Dinosaur National Monument , which straddles the Utah/Colorado border. Hither, in the quarry exhibit hall, you tin come across dinosaur fossils notwithstanding embedded in stone. Vernal is also domicile to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum , which is a part of the Utah state park organization and some other dinosaur museum the whole family will love.
Take a Picture in a Slot Canyon
You've seen 127 Hours, and figured a) y'all'd never end upward in a slot canyon considering you don't plan on putting your toddler in a climbing harness and b) it'due south non worth risking losing a limb.
The truth is that slot canyons make for gorgeous photos and fun trivial hikes, and while you could rappel downwardly into some crazy canyons and apply for permits to backpack through miles and miles of wilderness, you lot could also just explore a mile or ii of some of the easier trails, take some nice photos, and hightail it out of there. Trust me, nothing screams "Utah vacation" like a family photo in a stunning slot coulee (okay, except maybe a family photo on envy-inducing slopes.) There are plenty of slot canyon options for beginners. Peek-A-Boo and Spooky slot canyons in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are popular, and not as well technical (although they yet require some scrambling). I got my easiest kid-in-a-slot-coulee picture in Leprechaun Canyon.
Dig Your Own Fossils
Utah's plethora of fossils ways you can actually just drive up to some dusty quarry and dig to your heart's content. This is the kind of action that thrills nerdy adults and kids akin, as well as anybody who likes to break rocks. The private quarries that allow you to exercise this have various types of fossils available. When we went fossil hunting , nosotros headed to a quarry that was technically in Wyoming for fish fossils, only in that location is a U-Dig Fossils just outside of Delta, Utah.
If you lot're lucky enough to exist over age 16, the Utah Field House of Natural History Land Park Museum in Vernal runs a paleontology program in the summers where y'all can actually acquire to look for fossils alongside their experts for a calendar week. You tin can also dig for fossils legally on BLM country if you know where to wait. The city of Vernal's website recommends you enquire at the local BLM office for where to become. This site has some other recommendations if you really feel like going information technology on your own.
Get River Rafting
If you similar white water rafting, Utah's got you covered. Information technology has some of the most heady whitewater in the W. Multi-day rafting trips out of Moab are always popular, some of which get clear downwardly to the Grand Coulee. People likewise raft the department of Light-green River below Flaming Gorge Dam near Vernal. There are lots of professional outfitters in both places. If y'all want to raft sections yourself, you will need a permit.
Winter Sportsapalooza: Skiing, Sledding, Snowshoeing, and Apres-it-all
Utah doesn't claim "the greatest snow on earth" for nothing. Depending on where you are staying in Salt Lake City, yous could be at a ski resort in under 30 minutes. SkiUtah.com has a complete listing of ski options besides equally snow reports.
If there'due south snowfall in the city, selection up a sled at the nearest store and observe a colina. Sugar Firm Park in Salt Lake City is a popular spot to sled. More serious tubing hills can be plant at Soldier's Hollow and in a few other locations around the valley.
Snowshoes and cross-land skis tin can exist rented at the sporting appurtenances store REI; if you know anyone who attends or works at the University of Utah, they rent equipement there, likewise. There's a cracking online listing of all the snowshoe trails on in the Wasatch Front here .
Pretend You're an Olympian: Endeavor a Bobsled
Utah Olympic Park in Park City is i of our favorite mean solar day trips to take with the kids from Common salt Lake City. Among other attractions, they have a little Olympics-themed museum, a bobsled for photo ops, a training pool for ski jumpers, ropes courses, goose egg lines, and tubing hills. It's a great place to visit for free, with some of the more extreme activities costing money. But in the winter, you can actually ride in a existent life bobsled . Frankly, information technology looks terrifying to me, only if you lot attempt information technology out, I'd love a full report!
Soak in All the Hot Springs
Utah's geology is ripe for mineral hot springs. This is the state in which y'all can soak your cares away. Or it would be, if you lot weren't traveling with noisy children. Kids love warm water to swim in, though, then a tour of the magical hot waters the state has to offer may be in lodge.
The Homestead Crater in Midway is semi-famous as the but place in the continental U.S. where you lot tin scuba dive in warm water; you can read about our visit here . If you lot don't want to swim in the actual crater, the hot spring water is piped in to the lovely hot tub at the Homestead Resort. Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe was indeed mystical and my kids had a great fourth dimension there. Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville is also a popular spot for families. These are all privately managed and involve entrance fees.
At that place are other hot springs plant on public lands, many of which require a hike, and all of which would exist at your own adventure. The closest to the metropolis is Inlet Hot Springs near Utah Lake.
Visit Locations from Your Favorite Movies
Utah has long been a pop place to film movies, so if your kids e'er watched the onetime version of Footloose or went through a High Schoolhouse Musical phase, grab a camera and hop in the automobile. Take this list of places to visit along with you:
Goblin Valley : My personal claim to fame is being really nowadays in Goblin Valley during the filming of Galaxy Quest! Completely coincidentally, of course.
Bonneville Table salt Flats : This wide open space west of Salt Lake City has been featured in many movies, including scenes from Independence Mean solar day and Pirates of the Caribbean area: At World's End.
Lehi : Lehi Roller Mills, well-nigh thirty minutes due south of Salt Lake City, was the filming location for the original Footloose .
Monument Valley : This stunning area of Southern Utah has been the properties for many films, including Billy the Kid, 2001: A Infinite Odyssey, Back to the Futurity Office III, Forrest Gump, Mission Impossible Ii, The Lone Ranger, and Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Arches National Park : Kids may recognize familiar scenery from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Blob.
Lake Powell : Tin be seen in Gravity, Medico Who: The Impossible Astronaut, Planet of the Apes, and Bohemian.
East High School in Salt Lake City : The location of Loftier School Musical.
Upwardly Firm : No, the cartoon Upwards wasn't filmed in Utah. Just at that place is a replica of the Upward firm in Herriman, a suburb of Salt Lake Urban center, and kids and adults alike volition get a kick of out of posing in front of information technology.
4 in 1: See the Four Corners Monument
Sure, you'll exist driving a long ways to the eye of nowhere substantially for a photo op, merely where else tin can you stand in iv states at in one case?! If you lot happen to be in southeast Utah anyhow, swing by for the opportunity to be in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona ALL AT THE Aforementioned Time. Nerdy kids (like mine) go a kick out of this. There's a small company center here, along with a few booths selling nutrient and Native American crafts and souvenirs. Four Corners Monument is managed by the Navajo Nation Department of Parks and Recreation and there is an entrance fee.
Explore All the Family unit-Friendly Museums Salt Lake City has to Offer
Salt Lake Metropolis has a plethora of kid-friendly locations to keep you busy. There are children'due south museums, natural history museums, pioneer museums, aquariums, zoos, planetariums, and working farms to visit. Our absolute favorite will probably always be This Is The Place Heritage Park , but we too love Thanksgiving Point, and y'all tin can read virtually all the others you shouldn't miss in our circular upward of things to do with kids in Salt Lake Urban center.
Bladder in the Great Salt Lake
What'southward a visit to Utah without seeing the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere? If you fly in to Salt Lake City, you lot can view the transcendent colors of the salt flats and the salty lake from above. When visiting from the ground, things go a lilliputian murkier. The levels of the lake ascension and fall, making the shoreline a moving target. If you want to run across the lake upwardly close, Peachy Salt Lake State Park is only about 15 minutes west of the city, and a adept spot if you just want to view the lake up shut. Antelope Isle State Park is a more popular place for families to visit; although it's farther from the city, on Antelope Island you can hike, bicycle, view lots of wildlife, and take the kids down to the edge of the h2o to dip in as well.
For a unique, off-the-browbeaten-path place to float in the Great Salt Lake, visit the Spiral Jetty outside of Corinne, Utah. This piece of land art tin either be visible or submerged, depending on the levels of the lake, and you lot may accept to hike past it on the salt crust to get to the lake. The colors of the water at this location are gorgeous, especially at dusk. It's 1 of our favorite day trips from Salt Lake City, and y'all can read here nigh how to get there and why I dearest it so much.
Collect Jewels from the World
Bulldoze effectually much, and you'll notice Utah'southward got a lot of rocks. Guess what? Some of those are on public state, and could be your rocks! Topaz Mountain, for example, is on BLM land and hides within it topaz and other semi-precious gems. Information technology's another of our favorite solar day trips from Salt Lake City, as it'southward a couple hours away, but well worth the drive. You can search for topaz on your own, but you may not be very successful on your commencement attempt (nosotros certainly weren't…). For a improve hazard at taking home true gems, become with an outfit like Topaz Mount Adventures. Even if you don't find annihilation valuable, kids who honey to hit rocks with hammers (like my monsters) will love this stuff.
See Gilt Spike National Celebrated Site
If you choose to see the Spiral Jetty, on the way there you'll pass Gilded Spike National Celebrated Site. Don't miss it! In 1869, the Union and Fundamental Pacific Railroads coming from the e and west met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. This spot is now in the centre of nowhere, northeast of Salt Lake City, but absolutely worth the bulldoze for train or history buffs. In add-on to the indoor visitor center, there's an array of celebrated locomotives, pioneer-era handcarts, and a plaque on the ground at the exact spot where the final spike was driven.
Explore Native Cultures and Petroglyphs
Utah has some incredible history, and at that place are lots of places where yous can encounter pictographs and petroglyphs left behind by the ancient cultures that chosen this identify home. Fremont Indian Country Park and Museum is a peachy place to explore the history of the Fremont Indians. For piece of cake viewing of astonishing petroglyphs, take a drive through Capitol Reef National Park . For i of the largest collections of petroglyphs in the country, only one that will take a little longer to get to, visit Newspaper Rock State Celebrated Monument in Bears Ears National Monument. You'll find petroglyphs and pictographs at multiple other spots throughout southern Utah, too, then brand sure to look for some wherever yous wind up!
Play on Sand Dunes
If your kids can't handle the summer snow-less flavor, and really need to bring those sleds and snowboards out of storage, head south to Coral Pinkish Sand Dunes State Park . Sand dunes are popular places for ATV riders, only y'all can besides sled and snowboard on them, or but let the littles play in the sand. Little Sahara Recreation Area and White Wash Sand Dunes , both on BLM country, are other great places to play in nature'due south sand in this landlocked state.
Are yous exhausted yet? Is this enough? I mean, yous could also hike the Uinta Mountains , waterski Bear Lake (and while you're there make sure to have a raspberry shake) , go line-fishing , explore Mormon history at Temple Square and the Beehive Business firm , or stay on a houseboat on Lake Powell. In that location'southward and then much Utah to see, and so lilliputian time!
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Source: https://travelwithmonsters.com/2019/02/things-to-do-in-utah-with-kids-a-really-long-list/
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