Lehi, Utah sits snugly on the shores of Utah Lakes, providing sweeping views across the Wasatch Mountains. Less than an hour from Salt Lake city, Lehi is home to everything from Silicon slops to wondrous nature trails. From Spring through to Winter, there are countless experiences to catch. By planning your trip or relocation, you can guarantee that you don’t miss out on anything that Lehi has to offer.
With that in mind, here are some of the top things to discover from fun-filled play parks to amazing walks and much more.
Thanksgiving Point
Thanksgiving Point is 55 acres of manicured gardens that feel like stepping into a postcard. From scattered tulips in the spring to glowing lights throughout the winter. It’s the perfect spot to breathe, unwind, and relax after a busy day. If you visit this large, non-profit farm and museum complex, designed for both fun and education. It’s the perfect family destination with a variety of wonderful attractions that combine nature, science, history and even hands-on learning.
Founded in 1995, it was conceived as an expression of gratitude and a place where people of all ages could learn, explore, and enjoy the natural world.
Key attractions include Ashton Gardens. The 55 acre themed garden features more than a dozen garden rooms, waterfalls, lawns and even floral displays. This is also home to the Tulip Festival each spring.
Thanksgiving Point is also where you can discover the museum of ancient life. This is one of the largest dinosaur museums in the world. Families will discover numerous life-size skeletons including fossils and immersive exhibits to explore.
Or, you can discover a live butterfly biosphere conservatory and insectarium that features butterflies from countless international locations.
Thanksgiving Point is also home to a working farm as well as outdoor learning areas. You can interact with the animals, learn new facts about plans and witness agriculture in action.
Beyond the farm activities and experiences, there’s lots of other features and activities to explore as well. This includes different dining and shopping experiences, ideal for families, couples and solo travelers.
Ultimately, Thanksgiving Point aims to blend education with fun, popular with families, tourists, students and locals. It would take at least a full day to discover everything this location has to offer.
There’s lots of fantastic Lehi Rentals close by to Thanksgiving Point, meaning you can visit each and every weekend.
Ancient Life
Diving deeper into what makes Thanksgiving Point so special, let’s consider the incredible museum, Ancient Life. This large natural history museum is dedicated to prehistoric life including dinosaurs and countless other ancient animals. It houses the world’s largest collections of mounted dinosaur skeletons and fossils that exist on public display.
The museum opened in 2000 and is part of the locations’ mission to both inspire and educate.
You can see more than 60 complete skeletal displays of dinosaurs and various other prehistoric creatures. This includes large species like T.rex and long sauropods.
Beyond this, there’s also hands-on learning opportunities including interactive materials such as an erosion table, quarry dig and other science-focused displays that make learning fun.
There’s even a live paleontology lab where visitors can on occasion watch paleontologists at work, preparing real fossils. There are more recent additions too including rare specimens such as a juvenile mastodon, dating back thousands of years.
Tulip Festival
If you’re visiting Lehi, Utah in the Spring, then you must take a trip to Thanksgiving Point so that you can explore the Tulip Festival. The springtime garden festival transforms the 50-acre Ashton Gardens into a wonderful world of color and fragrance. More than a million blooming flowers including hundreds of thousands of tulips. There’s also daffodils, hyacinths, poppies and countless other flower species. Designed as a fully sensory experience, the Tulip festival is perfect for families, photographers, couples and anyone else who adores exploring gardens.
The festival typically runs from the start of April through to the middle of May. The displays are redesigned and replanted every year which means that no two festivals are completely the same. As such, you can discover something new each time you visit.
There are even VIP experiences including chauffeured golf cart tours as well as guided walking tours. You can also discover photo opportunities from professional portraits to casual instagrams.
Curiosity Farms
Another key element of Thanksgiving Point is Curiosity Farms. The 9-acre working farm and educational attraction replaced the older Farm Country area, reopening in 2024. With it, the new location brought expanded exhibits, interactive STEM-focused activities and modern farm demonstrations.
As the name of the attraction suggests, it is intended to inspire curiosity about where food comes from as well as how farming works. It provides visitors with real interactions with plants, animals, high-tech farming techniques and much more.
Some of the main experiences include the livestock learning lab. The hands-on space where visitors learn about animal science, genetics, farm economics and breeding. You can milk a cow, find a live chicken egg incubator and explore other interactive exhibits.
You can also look at lots of different high-tech farming methods such as drone pollinators, robot helpers and GPS controlled tractors.
For the younger kits, there’s a play patch playground. The farm-themed playground is packed full of sensory activities, slides, and climbing frames.
Curiosity Farms is designed for families, school groups, little ones and visitors of all ages. It is perfect for anyone who loves animals, tech, plants or hands-on learning.
Jurassic Jungle
There are lots of other activities and elements worth checking out if you have kids and you’re visiting or moving to Lehi, Utah like Jurassic Jungle. Another place worth checking out is Jurassic Jungle. This is Utah’s largest indoor prehistoric playground. The giant dinosaur-themed space provides children with the opportunity to climb, slide, and solve challenges inspired by numerous ancient worlds. It’s intended to feel as though kids are stepping back in time into a prehistoric jungle filled with dinosaurs and adventures. The hands-on features make it a totally unique experience and the animatronic creatures guarantee that it is a trip worth taking.
With five different levels of play Jurassic Jungle spans multiple stories and is filled with tunnels, structures, bridges, nets, and slides. It even has a 5-story volcano slide.
There’s also interactive dino missions. Using a wearable “data wristband” app kids can scan checkpoints to complete different missions from feeding a T. rex, fixing dinosaur teeth and helping lost dinos. They can even dig up dinosaur bones.
Ashton Gardens
As well as being home to the Tulip Festival each spring, Ashton Gardens is by far the most beautiful place for botany with layered, scenic landscapes. It is a must-see for nature lovers and photographers.
There are more than fifteen themed gardens. These include:
- The Italian Garden – This is a formal, symmetrical garden inspired by the European Renaissance design, complete with fountains as well as the largest man-made waterfall in the western US.
- The Secret Garden – Just like the film it is likely inspired by, the garden is tucked-away, a peaceful retreat that is perfect for quiet reflection and total serenity.
- The Japanese Garden – This garden features some traditional elements such as bridges, water features and beautifully sculpted plantings.
- The Rose Garden – This garden showcases dozens and dozens of rose varieties throughout the summer season.
- The Children’s Garden – There’s also a garden specifically designed for children. It’s interactive, it’s playful and it is designed to engage younger visitors.
The best part about Ashton Gardens? It has something each single season of the year. In spring there’s the Tulip Festival, in Summer you have Roses & Concerts. Roses reach peak bloom and there are outdoor performances held in the garden amphitheater. Through Fall there’s Harvest Beauty with autumn colors and ornamental grasses for quieter, relaxing experiences. Finally, through Winter there’s Luminaria when in December the garden transforms with thousands of lights, music and glowing pathways.
Historic Downtown & Main Street
Whether you’re stepping away from the office for the afternoon or keen to explore the urban life of Lehi, Utah through the weekend, there’s Historic Downtown & Main Street.
Here both 19th and 20th century brick buildings reflect the pioneer roots of the city. It’s a compact area, perfectly walkable with a wonderful level of shops, eateries, and several beautiful landmarks. It’s the perfect spot to explore over a long afternoon.
Some of the features include Lehi City Hall. Built in 1915, the building has a MIssion, Spanish Revival style, with beautiful civic building anchors. There’s also the People’s Co-op Building. It provides a stunning example of the early Mormon pioneering commerce and community life.
Or, you can explore Thomas R. Cutler Mansion. The beautifully preserved Victorian mansion showcases the beauty of early industrial architecture that is present throughout the city.
Finally, you might want to finish at Hutchings Museum. This is home to thousands of artifacts, fossils, and specimens. The collection became public in 1955. While compact, the museum holds a fascinating group of exhibits that will appeal to kids, families and anyone interested in history, local heritage or science.
Learn More
As you can see, there is a wonderful list of places to discover and explore throughout Lehi, Utah and we hope you have found this article interesting. Whether you are moving to a new location or taking a trip there this spring, it’s an enchanting destination, ideal for young professionals and growing families. If you are interested in learning more, make sure that you search rental listings online to find your new dream home.
