Photo credit: Nicola Pritchett
Being surrounded by beauty and adventure, Utah County offers the opportunity to take a memorable weekend road trip with friends and family inside and many destinations outside of the state.
Utah offers many destinations for students to make the most of free weekend time. “Students have a pretty good list of places to visit for weekend getaways,” said Greg Wyatt of Recreation Outlet in American Fork. “Utah has many beautiful places that are only a few hours’ drive. Moab, Lake Powell and Capitol Reef to list just a few.”
According to the UVU Outdoor Adventure Center, there are many places around Utah County that make for the ideal adventurist weekend trip. A popular destination is the Mount Timpanogos Wilderness area, where people can hike, fish, boat and camp.
Many people visit the wilderness area because of its beauty and obvious outdoor recreation that it offers. Another popular destination for students is the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With its 1,376 square miles of wilderness bliss, people take to this vast national forest for its many animals and popular camping and hiking grounds.
Several students take advantage of the opportunity to travel out of state to nearby places like Colorado, Las Vegas and Idaho. Senior Scott Erickson recently took a weekend trip to Disneyland only having to drive 9 hours to California. “It was incredibly easy to get there,” said Erickson. “We left on a Friday morning, arrived the same day, and came back that Sunday night.”
Erickson isn’t the only one to take advantage of a road trip for the weekend that’s outside of Utah. Junior Miranda De La Paz took advantage of traveling to Las Vegas with its close proximity for her birthday. “Honestly it wasn’t hard. I got there in only 5 hours. The only hard part was leaving because I had so much fun and didn’t feel like coming back to school,” said De La Paz.
For students who feel that going out of state is too expensive and do not wish to participate in the many outdoor recreational activities in the surrounding area, Utah County provides a variety of restaurants, entertainment and shopping.
Many students recently have been retreating to The Living Planet Aquarium located in Draper. With its vast collection of sea animals and activities, The Living Planet Aquarium has become very popular within the area.
Thanksgiving Point in Lehi is another popular destination for students on a budget. With its Megaplex Movie Theater, various restaurants and dinosaur museum, Thanksgiving Point offers a great day trip for friends and family.
Whatever may be your vacation destination in the coming weekend or months, remember to have fun and to plan ahead. If you are stumped on what to do, the UVU Outdoor Adventure Club offers great ideas and tips for your next weekend getaway.
