The seven best things to do in Mona

Mona Reservoir spreads across the flats about three miles north of town, a broad shallow sheet of water with Mount Nebo standing over it. It is first of all a fishing lake, and a generous one: for 2026 the state sets limits for all species at double the statewide limits, so anglers pull bass, wiper (a hybrid striped bass) and carp under looser caps. There is no developed boat ramp, and boats go in when the water is up.

It is also one of the quieter places in the valley to paddle or watch birds. The open water and the marshy edges draw waterfowl, and an early morning on the shore is mostly you, the reeds and the mountain. It is an irrigation reservoir, which means the level rises and falls through the season and can drop noticeably by late summer, so check conditions before you haul a boat out.

A Utah fishing license is required for anyone old enough to need one. The fuller guide to the water, the fish and the access is on the sibling Mona Reservoir page.

A couple of miles south of Mona, spring water fills a cluster of ponds that locals have called the Mona rope swings for generations. Burraston Ponds are fed from below, cold and clear, ringed by cottonwoods, and on a hot afternoon they are the closest thing the town has to a swimming hole. Two rope swings hang on the west side, one small and friendly for a first try, one with a platform up to about thirty feet for people who know what they are doing.

The ponds are open and free, with room to swim, paddle a canoe, drop a line or dive from the trees. Fishing is a state community fishery with a two fish limit, and fishing from a boat with any kind of motor is not allowed. The ground has real history: the springs were a landmark long before the town, and the state bought it from R.J. Burraston in 1901, its first land purchase, and his name is still on it. A short dirt path from the parking area gets you to the water.

Mount Nebo is the highest peak in its range, and it stands directly over Mona to the east, close enough to fill the whole eastern sky from Main Street. You do not have to do anything to enjoy it; it is simply the view, snow-capped into early summer, that frames every errand in town. For the ambitious, the Willow Creek Canyon trail starts about four miles east of Mona, under I-15 and up the Willow Creek road, and joins the Nebo Peak trail after 3.5 miles.

The famous drive, the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway that curls over the shoulder of the mountain, is reached and managed from the Nephi and Payson sides rather than from Mona, so this list keeps Nebo as the backdrop and the Willow Creek trailhead. When you want the full byway, the summit and Salt Creek Canyon, the Mount Nebo and Salt Creek page from neighboring Nephi walks the whole route.

Even if you never lace up boots, plan one stop where you just look east. Late afternoon light on the Nebo face is the picture people carry home from Mona.

Mona is a farm town of about 1,960 people, and a slow drive through it is its own small pleasure. Main Street follows the old highway, wide and unhurried, past a handful of century-old brick houses, the city park, irrigation ditches running full in summer, and horse pasture that starts almost at the sidewalk. There is no strip of shops to work through; the whole appeal is the pace.

Turn off onto the side lanes and the lots open up fast into an acre or more, with barns, gardens and animals, the pattern of a place that never stopped being agricultural even as Utah County filled in to the north. If you are weighing Mona as a place to live rather than visit, this drive is the honest tour: it shows you the rural, large-lot character that is the whole point of the town.

There are no ticket booths and no hours to keep. It costs nothing, it works in any season, and it pairs naturally with a stop at the reservoir or a coffee run down to Nephi.

Mona sits about nine miles up the freeway from Nephi, and for anything the small town does not carry, the one full grocery store, the county offices, a wider choice of food, Nephi is the answer, about twelve minutes south on I-15. It is worth a trip in its own right, not only an errand run.

The marquee draw is the Ute Stampede, a PRCA rodeo that Nephi has thrown since 1935 and that now fills a mid-July week with a rodeo, two big parades and a fairgrounds full of the county. Any time of year, Pioneer Park and the historic Main Street give you a walkable half day, and Nephi is also the closest town to the Nebo Loop and Salt Creek Canyon.

The drive over the mountain is covered on Nephi's Mount Nebo and Salt Creek page, and the practical side of the town, homes, schools and services, is on the Nephi city guide.

When the small ponds and the reservoir are not enough water, Yuba State Park is the big-water day trip from Mona. It is about forty to forty-five minutes south, an easy run down I-15 to exit 202 and a few miles east to the Oasis area, where the Sevier River backs up into a reservoir with warm water and genuine sandy beaches. In 2026 low water closed both boat ramps, so check the park's conditions page before you plan a boating day.

Yuba is built for a summer day on the water: swimming, boating, kayaking and paddleboarding, with developed campgrounds if you want to stay over. A second area, Painted Rocks, sits across the reservoir and is reached through Levan on Highway 28, and Yuba is one of the few Utah parks with boat-in camping for people who want a shoreline to themselves.

The park is a shared regional draw, so The Local writes it once, in full, on the Yuba State Park page. From Mona it is the natural warm-weather escape when you want a real beach day.