By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahHelper River Beach, where the walk starts
Ivy Street and 100 West · Free · Year round · Directions
The Helper Riverwalk begins at Helper River Beach, on the corner of Ivy Street and South 100 West, a few minutes on foot from Main Street. It is a real beach in the sense that matters: a graded bank with access down to the water, put there deliberately as part of the river work rather than worn in by use.
Starting here rather than halfway along is worth doing because the beach is where the point of the whole project is most obvious. This reach of the Price River was for a century something the town turned its back on, dammed, straightened and used industrially. Now there is somewhere to put a towel.
Several beaches and swimming holes, not just this one
The restoration put in a number of beaches and swimming holes along the reach, with access paths down to the waterside, and the same works created habitat for native fish. That combination is the interesting part: the recreational access and the ecological work were the same set of earthworks rather than two competing priorities. It is a small river and a modest budget, and the design had to do both jobs at once.
This is a neighborhood, so behave like it
The riverwalk runs behind and beside houses for a good part of its length. Park considerately on the residential streets, keep the noise reasonable, take everything out that you carried in, and treat the beach as a town amenity rather than a discovered secret. Helper built this for itself and visitors are welcome on that basis, which is a straightforward arrangement and worth honouring.
The details
Getting there
From Main Street head west and south toward the river. The beach and the start of the path are at the corner of Ivy Street and South 100 West, with street parking in the surrounding blocks.
Before you go
- Spring runoff is fast and cold. The swimming is a mid to late summer idea rather than a May one.
- Park on the street considerately. This is residential ground rather than a parking area.
- There is no lifeguard, no kiosk and no facilities block. Bring what you need.
- Carry everything out. The riverwalk has been rebuilt once and nobody wants to do it again.
- The walk runs north from here to the suspension bridge and the labyrinth.
The suspension bridge and the sandstone labyrinth
On the riverwalk · Free · Year round
Two pieces of furniture make this walk more than a footpath. Partway along, a suspension bridge crosses the river, which in a town of two thousand people is a genuinely unexpected piece of public work. At the north end of the walk there is a labyrinth laid out in sandstone, which is not a maze and not a puzzle but a single winding path you follow in and back out again.
Between them the path runs under shade trees with benches set along it, which in a valley where July days reach the high eighties is the difference between a route and a place people actually sit. Bird watching along the corridor is genuinely good, particularly early.
The trees were planted by the middle school
A volunteer group called River Helpers formed in the spring of 2018 and took on watering native and water friendly saplings that Helper Middle School students had planted along the restored reach. Cottonwood, aspen and shrubs went into the sunny stretches to rebuild habitat for deer and songbirds. In twenty years the shade along this walk will be substantially better than it is now, and that is because a school planted it.
The labyrinth is the part nobody mentions in advance
It sits at the north end and it is easy to walk past if you turn round early. Sandstone laid into a single circuit path is a quiet thing to find at the end of a river walk in a coal town, and it is the sort of detail that tells you this project was designed by people who intended to use it themselves rather than by a consultant meeting a grant condition. Walk to the end.
The details
Getting there
Follow the path north from Helper River Beach. The suspension bridge is on the route and the labyrinth is at the north end of the walk.
Before you go
- Walk all the way to the north end or you will miss the labyrinth entirely.
- Benches and shade trees are set along the corridor. It is a sitting walk, not a training route.
- Autumn is the best light and color of the year here, along the cottonwoods.
- Early morning is the productive time for birds along the corridor.
- The surface is suited to an easy walk rather than to serious running.
Fishing the reach the dams came out of
Through town · Utah license required · Warm months
The Price River holds brown trout, and the reach through Helper is now fishable in a way it was not a decade ago. The reason is structural: six dams were removed across the restoration effort and roughly six miles of river now run free, which changes the temperature, the sediment, the cover and the ability of fish to move at all.
It is a small river and a modest fishery rather than a destination one, and it should be approached in that spirit. What is genuinely notable is that this is town water: you can fish it and then walk back to Main Street for lunch, which very few Utah towns of this size can offer.
Read the current proclamation for this water
Utah fishing regulations change by water and by year, and a restored reach is exactly the kind of place where rules get revisited as the fishery responds. A current Utah license is required and the current proclamation for this stretch is the document to read rather than the statewide default. That is a five minute check and it is the difference between fishing legally and not.
The river's upper reaches have a native story too
The Price River system historically held Colorado River cutthroat trout in its upper reaches, and the restoration work through Helper was framed partly around habitat for native fish rather than solely around the introduced brown trout that anglers here mostly encounter. The cutthroat story belongs mostly to the water upstream of town; through Helper, brown trout are what most people catch.
The details
Getting there
Access is from the riverwalk and the beaches along it. Park on the residential streets near Ivy Street and South 100 West and walk in.
Before you go
- A current Utah fishing license is required. Read the current proclamation for this water.
- Spring runoff makes this unfishable for a stretch of the year. Wait for the level to drop.
- Brown trout are what most anglers encounter here.
- It is a small river. Approach it as town water rather than a destination fishery.
- Respect private frontage. Not every bank along the corridor is public.
Tubing, paddling and the summer water
Through town · Free · Mid to late summer
With the dams out and about six miles of the river running free, the reach through and below Helper carries tubing, kayaking and paddle boarding in the warm months, with put ins along the parkway. This is float water rather than whitewater and it is a modest run rather than an outfitted one, so bring your own kit and your own judgement.
The window matters more than the equipment. Spring runoff is fast, cold and not the time to learn anything, and by late summer in a dry year there may not be enough water to float on at all. Mid to late summer, in a normal year, is the stretch that works.
Nobody is renting you a tube here
There is no outfitter, no shuttle, no rental counter and no safety briefing on this river. That is not a complaint, it is the honest inventory. Everything you float on you bring, everything you leave with you carry out, and the shuttle back to the car is your own problem. In a town of two thousand people that is normal, and it is worth knowing before you drive here with a family and an expectation.
Check the level before you commit a day to it
This is a small desert river and its level swings with the season and between years. A reach that floats comfortably in late June may be a wade in September, and a dry stretch of summers can leave too little water to float at all. Ask locally or check the current flow before loading boats, because the difference between a good afternoon and a scrape down a gravel bar here is entirely about how much water is in it.
The details
Getting there
Put ins are along the parkway and the riverwalk corridor. There is no formal boat ramp and no outfitter, so scout the access on foot first.
Before you go
- No rentals, no shuttle and no outfitter. Everything you use, you bring.
- Runoff in spring is fast and cold. This is a mid summer activity.
- Late summer in a dry year can leave too little water to float. Check before you load boats.
- Wear something on your feet. There is gravel, old iron and an unknown bottom in places.
- Take everything out with you, including anything you find.
Price Canyon Recreation Area, upstream in the pines
Northwest on US-6 · 15 dollars a night · May to November · Directions
Follow the water and the highway northwest and the country changes completely. The BLM's Price Canyon Recreation Area sits in ponderosa pine well above the valley floor, roughly twelve miles north of Price and then about three miles up a steep access road off the highway. Twelve large, well spaced first come campsites go at fifteen dollars a site a night, with picnic tables, fire rings, vault toilets and parking.
In August, when the valley is in the high eighties and the canyon bottom is doing nothing pleasant, this is the nearest cool air and shade to Helper. It is also the least known of the town's outdoor assets, largely because it is signed off a busy freight highway that most people are driving through rather than stopping on.
There is a bristlecone pine trail up there
A nature trail from the recreation area runs to a stand of bristlecone pine and then follows an old road out toward the Ford Ridge communication towers. Bristlecone twenty minutes above a coal town is not what most visitors expect, and it is the clearest possible illustration of how much elevation this canyon gains in a very short distance. Three group picnic areas can be booked for a fee on 435-636-3600; the individual campsites cannot be reserved.
The gate season is decided by the access road
The BLM gives a typical operating season of May through November and closes the site outside it for snow and road conditions. That is not a formality. The access road climbs steeply off the highway, and the site sits high enough to hold snow well after the valley floor has cleared. Ring the Price Field Office on 435-636-3600 before driving up at either end of the season rather than assuming that a warm day below means an open gate above.
The details
Getting there
Northwest out of Helper on US-6 through Price Canyon. The signed turn is roughly twelve miles north of Price, and the access road climbs about three miles from the highway to the site.
Before you go
- Twelve first come campsites with tables, fire rings and vault toilets. No hookups and no reservations.
- Confirm the season and the road with the BLM Price Field Office on 435-636-3600.
- Group picnic areas are reservable for a fee; the individual sites are not.
- The nature trail runs to bristlecone pine and then follows the old road to the Ford Ridge towers.
- US-6 through this canyon is a working freight corridor. Use the signed turn rather than the shoulder.
Buying near the river
River adjacency is a flood map question first
If you are weighing a house near the water, the flood map and the insurance quote come before the walk and the cottonwoods, because the cover is part of the price.
Properties near the restored reach get the best of Helper: the walk, the water, the cottonwood color and a genuinely rebuilt public corridor a few doors away. They also get the homework that comes with living beside a desert river that runs full on snowmelt every spring. Pull the FEMA flood map for the exact parcel and get an insurance quote during due diligence rather than after closing, because the price of the cover is part of the price of the house.
Restoration work changes the channel, and a rebuilt channel does not necessarily behave the way the old one did or the way an older map assumed. That cuts both ways and neither direction should be guessed at. Ask the city what has changed on this reach, ask the insurer what the current mapping says about the specific address, and treat any published flood statement older than the restoration with suspicion.
None of that is an argument against a river address. It is an argument for pricing it properly. The people who are happiest with a house near this water are the ones who priced the insurance, understood the runoff season and bought anyway, rather than the ones who found out in April.
The river is a mid to late summer proposition. Almost everything along the corridor, the swimming holes, the tubing, the paddling and most of the fishing, works once spring runoff drops. From roughly March into June the Price River runs fast, cold and high on snowmelt out of the canyon above town, and the same beaches that are pleasant in July are not somewhere to take a family in May. The trail stays open year round.
The country around the river, on its own pages
- Balanced Rock, on the ridge above town, is a separate walk from the river corridor. The ranked list of things to do carries it.
- The Wood Hill trail system, roughly thirty miles of singletrack on Carbon County ground, has its trailhead on the Price side of the valley.
- Scofield Reservoir and the water upstream of the canyon belong to Price. The Scofield page covers the lake and the season on it.
- Nine Mile Canyon and the Book Cliffs are reached from Wellington and Price. Nine Mile and the Book Cliffs each have their own pages.
- Emery County's water and canyon country, Huntington Canyon, the reservoir above it and the Swell beyond, is another county's ground with its own town at the front of it.
- What a river-adjacent purchase costs to insure and to own is a property question, carried on the art town address page.