By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahThe Highland Fling
Late July · three days, a state hammer title and fireworks at ten Directions
This is the one weekend of the year when a stranger would drive to Highland on purpose. It fills Heritage Park on the Alpine Highway for three days at the end of July, with a parade, Scottish heavy athletics, a 5K and a fireworks finish. The night-by-night billing and the schedule that resets each year are on the Highland Fling page.
Saturday is the substantial one and it is packed from dawn. A 5K and fun run goes at seven, a grand parade at nine, and the Scottish Highland Games run from nine until five on the park, with vendors and food trucks staying open until ten at night. In between there is a kids market, an antique tractor display, a fine art show, a pie eating contest, swing dancing in the middle of the afternoon, two live concerts from six, and a fireworks finale at ten.
The Games are the reason this ranks first rather than the parade. They are run by Utah Heavy Athletics rather than by the city, they are a registered competition with entries closing the week before, and the card includes caber toss, stone put, weight for distance, weight for height, sheaf toss and the Utah State Hammer Championship. Watching costs nothing.
Why it ranks first
Because it is the only thing in this city with a genuine outside draw, and because the athletics are the real article rather than a themed photo opportunity. A state championship in a throwing event, held free to spectators on a municipal park lawn, is not a common thing to find at the end of a residential street.
The Friday is a luau night
The Friday is Luau Night: a luau and island entertainment in the evening, a strongman competition in the late afternoon, a disc golf tournament run in blocks either side of the day, and a film in the park after dark. The billing shifts a little year to year, so pull the current running order off the city's Highland Fling page before you plan a Friday around it.
The details
Getting there
Heritage Park sits on the Alpine Highway at 10400 North with its own parking, and the Saturday parade closes streets around it in the morning, so arriving before nine or walking in from a neighboring street is the sane approach.
Before you go
- Confirm every time at the city's own Highland Fling page. The days and the billing repeat; the individual hours do not.
- The pioneer cabin on the corner of the park, normally an appointment only visit, opened for tours from eleven until three on Celebration Day in 2026.
- The full three day breakdown, the Games card and where the name came from are on the Highland Fling page.
Highland Glen Park and its pond
Daily 8am to 9pm · a state listed community fishery with a sand beach on it Directions
Highland Glen Park sits at 4800 Knight Avenue on the eastern side of the city, immediately south of the high school, and the pond in the middle of it is the single most used piece of public water in Highland. It is a listed community fishery, which is a specific status rather than a description: the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources stocks it with rainbow trout and channel catfish, bluegill and largemouth bass are also reported in it, and community waters carry a two fish limit.
Around the water the park carries a small imported sand beach, sand volleyball, a playground, restrooms, walking trails and a reservable pavilion that seats a hundred. Non-motorized craft are allowed on the pond, so a paddleboard or a kayak carried down from the parking lot goes straight in. There are no lifeguards and swimming is at your own risk, and the fishing is open only while the park is, which is eight in the morning to nine at night.
The park is also one of Highland's two doors onto the paved county corridor across the bench, which means a morning here can start with a ride and finish with a rod. That combination is the reason this is the park in Highland that people from outside the city actually use.
Why it ranks second
Because it works on more days of the year than anything above or below it, it costs nothing to walk into, and it stacks four different activities on one address. It ranks under the July celebration only because the celebration is unrepeatable and this is available every week.
The state watches the water, not the park
The state monitors this pond for recreational water quality under the name Highland Glen Reservoir. It has carried E. coli advisories in past summers and a harmful algal bloom advisory as recently as late 2025, and clean weeks in between. That is normal for a warm, shallow community pond, and it is why the honest advice is to check the state's current result for the week you are going before anybody swims, rather than trust a sign at the beach.
The details
Getting there
Turn east off the Alpine Highway at Park Road and the parking lot is at the end of it, beside the high school. The trail access sits off the same lot, so the corridor is a minute away on a bike.
Before you go
- Check the state's recreational monitoring page for this water before anybody gets in, especially between July and September.
- Fishing is from the bank and the state does not publish the stocking calendar far ahead, so treat any schedule you find on a forum as a rumor.
- The pavilion, the fee card, the beach, the paddling rule and the advisory history are all on the Highland Glen Park page.
Beacon Hill Park disc golf
Free, year round · eighteen holes with two tees to a basket, plus a putting course Directions
The west side of Highland holds one of the better free rounds in north Utah County. Beacon Hill Park at 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard carries an 18 hole disc golf course laid across steep park ground: the front nine runs across open grass with paved walkway access, and the back nine, known locally as the Outback Nine, drops into scrub oak and ravine and is where the round gets interesting.
The layout is built around choice. Every hole carries two tees, a red and a blue, sharing the same basket and the same number, so the course plays as a short round or a long one without moving anything. The blue layout runs about 5,147 feet with every hole a par three except the fifth. Many baskets shift position on a monthly rotation, which is the single most useful thing to know about it: a card you shot in March is not a card you can compare in June.
The nine hole putting course is the part people miss. It starts behind the large course map just off the parking lot, every hole is a par two, and it exists to be walked in twenty minutes with a single disc. From up there the ground opens out over the valley, the lake and the ranges around Highland and Alpine, which is why the putting green is worth the walk even if you never throw at the main course.
Why it ranks third
Because it is free, it is genuinely good rather than merely present, it works in every month, and it is the only thing in Highland that draws people from other cities on an ordinary Tuesday. It ranks below the pond because the pond serves people who did not come to play a sport.
It is a public course kept up by a private club
The park is the city's and the course is designed, maintained and funded by the local disc golf club rather than out of a parks budget. That shows in the upkeep: a full set of new baskets went in during a recent winter work push, and concrete tee pads have replaced the old dirt ones. It also means the club, rather than the city, is the one keeping the current layout up to date.
The details
Getting there
Head west from the Alpine Highway onto the Beacon Hill streets and the park parking lot is signed. The first tee and the putting course both start within sight of the lot, and the large map by the putting green is the orientation point.
Before you go
- Basket positions rotate monthly on many holes, so check the current layout on the map board before you keep score.
- The ground is steep and the back nine is genuinely hilly. This is a walk with elevation, not a stroll across a flat park.
- Water and restrooms are unavailable from October through April, so a winter round means carrying your own.
The paved corridor across the bench
Free, year round · the only stretch on the route with two city trailheads
The best long ride from a Highland address is not Highland's, but both doors onto it are. The paved county corridor that runs the length of the north valley crosses this city along its bench, and Highland puts two of its own parks on it: Highland Glen off the Alpine Highway at the eastern end, and Mitchell Hollow at 6450 West 10400 North about two and a half miles west. Every other city on the route manages one.
The Highland stretch is the high ground of the whole thing. Because the corridor follows an old canal alignment it holds a nearly level contour across sloping bench, so you get the sightline of high ground without any of the climbing, with the wall of the mountains above and the valley falling away below. It is paved, it is wide, and it never closes.
Two trailheads two and a half miles apart also solves the logistics problem that ruins most out and back rides. Start at one park, ride to the other, and you have a route with a parking lot, restrooms and a reason to stop at both ends of it.
Why it ranks fourth
Because the surface is superb and it is not this city's. Highland owns two doors onto it, which is worth ranking and is genuinely unusual, but seven cities have the same claim on the corridor and it is covered on the region trail page. A borrowed attraction does not outrank the things Highland built.
Where this entry stops
At the two parking lots. The corridor's full length, the enclosed aqueduct buried beneath the asphalt, the underpasses that carry it under the arterials, the junctions at either end and the rules for riding it are all on the region's Murdock Canal Trail page, which covers all seventeen miles rather than the stretch that happens to sit in Highland.
The details
Getting there
Both trailheads have their own parking, restrooms and lighting. Highland Glen is entered from the Alpine Highway at Park Road; Mitchell Hollow is reached by crossing to 6400 West and turning at 10250 North.
Before you go
- The bench catches afternoon wind in spring, so a morning ride up here is a materially different ride from an afternoon one.
- This is a commuting surface as well as a recreational one, and weekday mornings carry more traffic than weekend afternoons.
- Everything about the corridor itself, as opposed to Highland's two doors onto it, is on the region's Murdock Canal Trail page.
The Highland Hollows singletrack
Roughly March to December · about four miles of dirt in a gulch inside the city
In the Dry Creek gulch on the northwest side of Highland, downhill of a flood control dam beside the paved corridor, there are about four miles of mountain bike singletrack ridden as tangled loops. The named lines include Bonzai, Adrenaline, Machette, Shotgun and Greg's Trail, and they range from broad doubletrack a child can ride to upper intermediate technical ground.
The origin story is the good part. The network was cut in the summer of 2016 by the Lone Peak High School mountain bike team, with Eagle Scout projects filling in pieces of it, on ground the city already owned. It is a school team's trail system that became a city amenity, which is not how most municipal singletrack arrives.
The approach matters more here than at anything else on this list. There is a small parking area on the south rim off Canterbury Drive with room for about two cars, and the practical way in is not to use it: ride roughly eight tenths of a mile along the paved corridor from a trailhead and drop into the gulch at the entry near the large wooden sign, about two hundred feet past a bridge crossing.
Why it ranks fifth
Because most cities this size drive to their dirt and Highland pedals to it, and because four miles of loops inside city limits is a real amenity rather than a token. It ranks below the paved corridor because it asks more of a visitor: a bike, some skill, and a willingness to find an unsigned entrance.
This is not the canyon and it is not the bench trail
Dry Creek is a long drainage and the name attaches to more than one thing in this part of the county, including a canyon trailhead in the next city up. The Highland piece is the gulch on the northwest side, reached off the paved corridor. It is not the canyon trailhead, and it is not the regional foothill bench trail, which does not run a maintained stretch inside Highland's limits.
The details
Getting there
The reliable approach is by bike from a paved trailhead: ride about eight tenths of a mile and take the entry near the large wooden sign, roughly two hundred feet past a bridge crossing. Driving means the south rim pull in off Canterbury Drive, which holds about two cars.
Before you go
- The loops are tangled rather than signed as a route, so ride expecting to make choices at junctions rather than to follow a line.
- This is dirt in a gulch and it drains slowly. Give it a couple of dry days after rain or you will be repairing the trail with your tires.
- There is no water, no restroom and no shade of consequence down there. Carry what you need for the loop.
Mitchell Hollow Park
Daily 7am to 9pm · a park in the hollow that named the city's celebration Directions
Mitchell Hollow Park sits at 6400 West 10250 North with a covered reservable pavilion, restrooms, a playground, a ball diamond, a paved loop and open field, and it is Highland's second door onto the paved county corridor, listed at 6450 West 10400 North. As a park it is ordinary in the best sense: a place people from the surrounding streets use every day of the week.
What lifts it onto a ranked list is the ground itself. Mitchell Hollow is the hollow that 10400 North crosses at about 6500 West, over a culvert, and in the era when this was a gravel road with horses on it the abrupt drop and rise was simply the shape of the land. Pavement arrived in 1947, speeds went up, and the dip became something people drove at deliberately.
Eastbound cars left the road at the crest. Westbound drivers could not see what was on the far side. Locals called it the thrill hill, the Highland dip, the Highland bump, Highland Whoopee, Whoopee Hill and, eventually, the Highland Fling, and when the city wanted a name for its celebration the last of those was already in everybody's mouth.
Why it ranks sixth
Because it is a neighborhood park with a genuinely good story standing on it, and because the two together are worth twenty minutes on a drive across the city. Without the story it would rank ninth. With it, it explains the name of everything else in Highland.
What you can book, and one thing to know
You can reserve the covered pavilion here by the half day or the full day, and the baseball diamond separately, both through the city. One quiet detail worth carrying: the spigot at this park has been posted as unavailable for public use on water pressure safety grounds, so bring your own water rather than count on a tap.
The details
Getting there
Cross the city west on 10400 North and turn at 10250 North to 6400 West. The road you drove in on is the one the story is about, and the hollow it crosses is immediately obvious once you know to look for it.
Before you go
- Book the pavilion or the diamond through the city's own reservation system, and note the seven day minimum notice on the field.
- The spigot at this park has been posted as unavailable for public use, so bring water rather than assume a tap.
- The full road story, the nicknames and the naming of the celebration are on the Mitchell Hollow page.
The Town Center splash pad
Memorial Day to Labor Day · free, recirculating, and closed at 2:50 every day Directions
North of City Hall at 5400 West Civic Center Drive, roughly 10800 North 5400 West, Highland runs a splash pad through the summer and does not charge for it. It opens Memorial Day and closes Labor Day, runs Monday to Saturday from ten in the morning until eight at night, and shuts every single day from 2:50 until four in the afternoon while the water is cleaned and regenerated.
It closes on weather as much as on the calendar. The city takes it out of service below 75 degrees, in high wind and in a thunderstorm, which in late May and early September means checking before you drive. There is no lifeguard, children under fourteen need an adult with them, and swim diapers are required for anybody not out of them.
The most interesting thing about it is why it survived the summer of 2026 at all. The council kept it open specifically because it draws on treated culinary water rather than the pressurized irrigation system that was under drought pressure, and because it recirculates what it uses for as long as that water meets the mandated cleanliness standard. In a city where outdoor water is the live civic argument, that distinction was the whole decision.
Why it ranks seventh
Because it is free, it is genuinely useful for about fourteen weeks, and it is the only water in Highland you can get into without a license, a board or a risk assessment. It ranks here rather than higher because it works on fewer than a third of the days in a year.
It is not a pool, and Highland does not have one
This is a pad rather than a facility: no basin, no depth, no lifeguard and no changing rooms. There is no municipal swimming pool inside Highland, which is worth knowing before you plan a hot afternoon around one. The nearest options are in neighboring cities and the valley wide survey of them belongs to the family weekends page.
The details
Getting there
The Town Center sits on 11000 North west of the Alpine Highway and the pad is on the civic block north of City Hall, with parking on site. It is the only part of Highland where several things sit within a walk of each other.
Before you go
- The daily shutdown from 2:50pm to 4pm is the single most common wasted journey here. Arrive before it or after it.
- Below 75 degrees, in high wind or in a thunderstorm the pad does not run, which catches people either side of the season.
- There is no lifeguard and under fourteens need an adult present, so this is a supervised visit rather than a drop off.
Heritage Park and the pioneer cabin
Year round · the city's event ground, with a museum cabin on its corner Directions
Heritage Park at 10400 North Alpine Highway is where Highland does things collectively. It carries a baseball field, sand volleyball, a basketball court, a horseshoe pit, playgrounds, barbecues, picnic tables wired with electrical outlets, a reservable pavilion and parking, and it is the ground the July celebration is built on.
On the corner of that block stands the Highland Daughters of Utah Pioneers camp cabin, at 5381 West 10400 North. It is a registered small museum rather than an informal display, it holds pioneer artifacts and the city's early record, and it is normally visited by appointment rather than on set opening hours.
The exception is worth planning around. During the 2026 celebration the cabin ran open tours from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon on Celebration Day, alongside a historical museum session from ten until two on the same ground. That is the one day of the year when the city's own history is simply open to walk into.
Why it ranks eighth
Because for fifty one weeks of the year it is a good municipal park with an appointment only museum on the corner, and a good municipal park is not a reason to drive across a county. On the weekend it hosts the celebration it is the most important address in the city, which is why it is on the list at all.
The cabin is at the corner rather than inside the park
Its address, 5381 West 10400 North, sits on the Heritage Park block rather than within the park's own footprint, which is a small distinction that matters if you are looking for it on foot. Call the city to arrange a visit outside the celebration weekend.
The details
Getting there
The park fronts the Alpine Highway at 10400 North with parking on site, and the cabin stands on the same block at 5381 West. During the celebration weekend the surrounding streets carry the parade route and parking moves outward.
Before you go
- Cabin visits are arranged by telephone with the city rather than turned up for, except on the celebration Saturday.
- The picnic tables here carry electrical outlets, which is unusual and is the reason this park gets booked for family events rather than the others.
- The three days of the celebration and the athletics card are on the Highland Fling page.
Canyon Oaks Campground
Bookable, seven night limit · a one acre city campground inside city limits Directions
Highland owns a campground and almost nobody outside the city knows it. Canyon Oaks Campground at 4000 West 11000 North is a single acre with tent ground for five to eight tents, a designated fire pit, picnic tables, a parking lot and seasonal restrooms, booked through the city's own reservation system with a seven night limit on any stay.
The pricing is the giveaway that this is a municipal facility rather than a commercial one. Highland residents, government agencies and non-profits pay a reduced daily rate, roughly half what other visitors pay, with check in at three in the afternoon on the first day and check out at three on the last. There are no trash cans on site, so everything you bring leaves with you.
The city attaches one plain safety notice to the listing and it is worth repeating: do not go into the river beside the site. The water there is privately owned and the city says it can be dangerous depending on the time of year. Treat the campground as a place to sleep beside water rather than in it.
Why it ranks ninth
Because it is a genuinely unusual thing for a bench suburb to own and because you can book a night in it, which nothing else on this list offers. It ranks last because it serves one group of eight people at a time and because it is a facility to use rather than a place to visit.
What a one acre city campground is actually for
Scout groups, a family overflow when the house is full, a first camping night for somebody who wants to be five minutes from home, and organizations that qualify for the lower rate. It is not a substitute for the national forest campgrounds up the canyon, which are a different proposition with a different booking system and their own fee structure.
The details
Getting there
The site is reached through Highland's own streets rather than off a highway, and it is booked in advance through the city's reservation system rather than turned up at, so get the confirmation before you load the car.
Before you go
- Check in and check out are both at three in the afternoon, which is unusual and easy to get wrong on the last day.
- There are no trash cans on the site. Everything you carry in comes back out with you.
- The city's own notice says not to enter the river beside the campground; it is privately owned and its condition changes through the year.
The trails and the disc golf hill
Three places that get confused, and how to pick the right one
Entries three, four and five all mean walking or riding across Highland's ground, and they get run together in local write ups, so picking the wrong one can cost you a morning. Here is what actually separates them, in the terms that decide which one to drive to.
| The paved corridor | The Dry Creek gulch | Beacon Hill Park | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose it is | A county corridor across seven cities, written at region level | Highland's own ground, cut by a school team in 2016 | The city's park, with the course run by a local club |
| Surface | Fifteen feet of asphalt, flat, wide, shared use | Dirt singletrack and doubletrack in a gulch | Grass, scrub oak and paved walkways on the front nine |
| Distance or size | Seventeen miles end to end, of which Highland holds a stretch | About four miles ridden as tangled loops | About 5,147 feet on the long tees, plus a nine hole putting course |
| Difficulty | None. It is a canal alignment, so it will not climb | Beginner doubletrack up to upper intermediate technical | Steep enough that the walk is the workout |
| Season | Year round, no seasonal gate | Roughly March to December; it holds mud | Year round, but water and restrooms shut October to April |
| The way in from Highland | Highland Glen off the Alpine Highway, or Mitchell Hollow at 6450 W 10400 N | Pedal about 0.8 miles from a paved trailhead and drop off the rim | The parking lot at 5959 W Beacon Hill Boulevard |
What the table cannot compress is the reason each one exists: a county put a lid on an aqueduct, a school team cut a gulch, and a disc golf club adopted a steep park. They sit within about four miles of each other, and they are not interchangeable.
Before you go
What to sort out before you drive over
Three things go wrong in Highland and each takes about two minutes to avoid: turning up at the splash pad inside its daily cleaning break, planning a swim at the pond without reading the state's water results, and driving to a gulch trailhead that holds two cars.
Sort before you drive
- The state's recreational monitoring result for the pond, if anybody intends to get into the water
- The splash pad's daily cleaning break, which takes it out of service from 2:50pm to 4pm every day it runs
- The current running order for the July celebration from the city's own Highland Fling page, which is the one that stays up to date
- A campground booking, if you want the site, since it is reserved in advance rather than turned up at
- Which trailhead you want on the paved corridor, because the two are about two and a half miles apart
Check on the day
- The temperature and the wind, because the splash pad stops below 75 degrees and in a blow
- How wet the gulch is, since the dirt there drains slowly and rides badly for a day or two after rain
- The current basket layout at the disc golf course, which rotates monthly on many holes
- Whether it is between October and April, because the course loses its restrooms and drinking water then
- Parking around Heritage Park during the celebration weekend, when the usual answer does not apply
Turn up and it is fine
- Both disc golf courses, free, in any month, with the putting green walkable in twenty minutes
- The paved corridor from either city trailhead, which carries no seasonal gate at all
- A loop walk at the pond, which is a different and better park in October than it is in July
- The hollow at 10400 North, where the whole point is the shape of the ground you are standing on
The pond has carried water quality advisories in past summers, and the park does not post the current one. The state monitors Highland Glen Reservoir for recreational water quality, and it has carried E. coli advisories in past seasons and a harmful algal bloom advisory as recently as late 2025, with clean stretches in between. Before anyone swims, check the state's current result and the Utah County Health Department for the week you are going. Neither of those is a sign at the beach, so the reading has to happen before you load the car.
What this list leaves out, and why
- American Fork Canyon, the ticketed cave and the Alpine Loop. All three begin at Highland's eastern edge and none of them is in Highland. The mountain, the seasonal gate, the cave tickets and the color drive are on the Timpanogos page, and the canyon's own fee and gate logistics belong to the city at its mouth.
- The paved corridor itself. Seven cities carry a stretch of it and none of them owns it, so its route, the enclosed aqueduct under the asphalt, its underpasses and its rules are written once on the Murdock Canal Trail page. Ranked above are Highland's two doors onto it, which is a different thing.
- Utah Lake. It fills the bottom of the view from the western half of this city and is not in it. The water, the advisory system, the recovery program and the five developed access points are on the Utah Lake page.
- The private country club inside the city limits. It is inside Highland, it predates almost everything around it, and it is a membership rather than a place a visitor can go, so it has no business on a list of things to do. There is no public course inside the city.
- The valley's indoor venues and pools. Highland has no municipal swimming pool and no indoor attraction of its own, so the honest answer to a wet Saturday here is somewhere else. Those options are priced and dated against each other on the family weekends page.