Things to do / Travel Guide
When it comes to welcoming families with open arms, northern Utah is very kid-friendly. Just about every northern Utah activity you would enjoy also has been designed with the needs of your children in mind. Salt Lake City's outdoor plaza, Gallivan Center, is alone reason enough to bring your children to the region: free lunchtime concerts, arts and crafts activities for the entire family, an ice rink (in winter), and a giant chessboard are just a few of the things that demonstrate northern Utah's commitment to caring for the interests of young people. One of the 2002 Winter Olympics venues, Soldier Hollow, near Midway, features Utah's longest snow tubing track, where you and your family can speed down the hills for an adrenaline rush you'll never forget.
You can easily rent a child-size road bike or a mountain bike for fun family forays into northern Utah's back roads and biking trails, and small, manageable fishing rods are also easy to come by (Crystal Hot Springs in Honeyville has a fishing pond just for kids). Each of northern Utah's botanical gardens either offers a special children's discovery garden or is naturally child-appropriate, and even northern Utah's favorite theater troupes and musical and dance performances regularly offer family-friendly content.
Amazing Animal Attractions in Northern Utah
Bring a checklist of birds and mammals you hope to spot, wrap a pair of binoculars around your budding zoologist's neck, and head out into the northern Utah wild for a species scavenger hunt. You can personally introduce your children to a herd of antelope and buffalo (from a safe distance) at Great Salt Lake's Antelope Island. Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is a great place to scout out peregrine falcon, waterfowl, and shorebirds, and after a scenic drive along the Flaming Gorge-Uintas Scenic Byway your children will have crossed moose, elk, bighorn sheep, and mule deer off their lists. The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge near Brigham City is a great place to go birding - you'll add snowy egret, white pelicans, and tundra swans to your successful spottings.
But if you would rather a tamer viewing environment, head to Salt Lake City's Tracy Aviary on East 900 South Street. Tracy Aviary showcases 135 species of birds from all corners of the globe; the free-flight bird shows (birds fly unrestrained at these shows held twice daily in the summer) are always high on the pecking order of options. A zoo will put a little zip into your itinerary; try northern Utah's Hogle Zoo on Sunnyside Avenue in Salt Lake City, home to more than 1,400 species of animals from every part of the planet, and open year-round. At the Wheeler Historic Farm, also in Salt Lake City, your children will enjoy wagon rides that tour this preserved, dairy farm. If your children are up for it, stop to milk a cow and visit farm animals in their stalls, sties, and stables.
Dazzling Dinosaurs in Northern Utah
Perhaps a trip to see some of northern Utah's dazzling dinosaur exhibits will perk up the paleontologists in the family. At the Eccles Dinosaur Park on the Ogden River Parkway in Ogden, stroll among more than 100 exhibits and 60 life-size or near-life-size dinosaurs (complete with convincing sound effects). At this kid-friendly attraction, children can also touch real dinosaur eggs and fossils. Also in Ogden, the Historic Union Station displays a 120-million-year-old dinosaur egg discovered in China and later transferred to its current Ogden home.
The world's largest dinosaur museum, the North American Museum of Ancient Life, is at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. Fun, interactive exhibits and more than 60 mounted dinosaur skeletons, thousands of fossils, and an assortment of 3-D movies (shown on a six-story high screen) will certainly put your children in a dinosaur daze for days. But northern Utah's dinosaur dynasty doesn't stop here: Brigham Young University Earth Science Museum in Provo is known worldwide for its Jurassic dinosaur collections. Run your eyes over fossils from two of the world's largest dinosaurs and a 150-million year old dinosaur egg (an X-ray shows the embryo inside!). It is even possible to watch paleontologists at work in their lab. In Vernal, near the town of Jensen, go to the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument to see more than 2,000 bones exposed in a 200-foot long ancient river sandbar.
Indoor Attractions in Northern Utah
Northern Utah has several indoor attractions to brighten your family's day. To see the little ones' spirits soar, the Hill Aerospace Museum at the Hill Air Force Base may be the perfect pick-me-up vacation idea. The museum houses one of the largest collections of vintage aircraft in the U.S. (bombers, cargo planes, and helicopters, among other vessels). Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City will have your children starry-eyed in no time: the 3-D space-time-travel tour uses state-of-the-art technology projected onto a full-dome ceiling. The signs say, “Please do touch” at Salt Lake City's interactive and creative Children's Museum of Utah; children can dig for mammoth bones, draw with computers, and pilot a plane. An indoor, interactive intrigue for many youngsters, the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden features a wide range of exhibits focused on family literacy and the arts; children dress up and “live” as their favorite storybook heroes and heroines.
Family Vacation Ideas in Salt Lake City, Park City, Northern Utah
Family-Vacation-Ideas
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