Payson, and the road that starts in the middle of town

For being the town where a national scenic byway starts. Follow the brown signs up 600 East and the street becomes the Nebo Loop, which climbs past a waterfall trail at around seven miles and three lakes at about twelve. Beyond the road, Payson is known for a Labor Day weekend celebration first held in 1929, a Scottish festival held each July, a salmon supper that has run on the first Friday of August since the mid 1950s, an 1901 schoolhouse turned museum, and for selling its own electricity through a department of the city.

21,101 at the 2020 census, and the town has grown since. Census estimates put it around 24,000 by mid 2023, a count that keeps climbing, so treat the low twenty thousands as the working figure. Payson sits about eighteen freeway miles south of Provo inside the Provo and Orem metro area, with two of its own I-15 interchanges at Exit 248 and Exit 250.

Inside the city, on 600 East. Brown byway signs route drivers up 600 East toward the canyon mouth, and the street becomes the Nebo Loop National Scenic Byway without a formal boundary marker. The Grotto trailhead is about eight miles south of the city on the byway and Payson Lakes about twelve, and the road continues over the shoulder of Mount Nebo and down toward Nephi. The byway's own length, overlooks and seasonal gate are covered on the Nebo Loop page.

The Forest Service decides, and this is the single most misdirected question in the south valley. The Nebo Loop is not state maintained, so UDOT does not open or close it and cannot tell you its status. The road is typically gated with the first heavy storms in late October or early November, and because sections sit above 9,000 feet it often does not fully reopen until June or early July. Call the Spanish Fork Ranger District for the position on your date.

Over the Labor Day weekend, opening on the Thursday evening with a free concert at the Peteetneet amphitheater. The lineup runs a parade, a carnival, a car show, an art show, a flower show, a baby contest, a 5K and 10K, vendors and fireworks, with most of it free. The celebration began in 1929 as the Onion Harvest and Homecoming, marking the onion farming ground around the city, and was later renamed Golden Onion Days.

A community meal held on the first Friday of August at Memorial Park, running since the mid 1950s. Salmon is grilled over dried fruit wood fires on custom racks by city firefighters, ambulance crew, high school athletes and volunteers, roughly 4,500 pounds of it, served a pound to a plate. It regularly sells out, so turn up early.

Most of it. Memorial Park and the city's other parks charge no admission, the Scottish Festival is free at the gate, most of the Golden Onion Days program is free including the opening concert, the temple grounds are open to walk without a ticket or a visitors' center, the museum on the hill lists free admission, and the historic walking tour's fourteen markers cost nothing to follow. What costs money is short: a round at the municipal golf course, a campsite or a day use pass in the canyon, a pavilion booking, and the ticketed pieces inside the summer celebrations.

Yes. Payson Power and Light is a department of the city rather than a regional utility, run under a city Power Board, and it serves somewhere around 7,100 accounts. The practical consequence for a resident is that outage reporting, service connection and rate questions all go to city hall rather than a call center in another county.

A full day if the canyon road is open and about three hours if it is not. The canyon is the reason to come, and between the waterfall walk at seven miles and the lakes at twelve it will absorb most of a day on its own. In town, the museum on the hill, the historic blocks below it, the central park and the temple grounds on the west side sit within a few minutes of each other and can be worked through in a morning. The exception is a festival weekend, which is its own trip.