The Weber and the Provo, from the valley in between

Beaver Creek, which is the largest of the five main creeks in the Kamas Valley. It comes out of the southwestern Uintas along the line of the Mirror Lake Highway, crosses the valley diagonally from southeast to northwest and joins the Weber River just south of Peoa. The valley itself is bounded by the Provo River on the south and the Weber on the north, so Kamas is a Weber town by drainage with the Provo a few miles away.

A nine mile canal that carries water from the Weber River, starting about a mile east of Oakley, generally south across the divide to the Provo River. It is a mixture of unlined, earth lined and concrete lined sections, it can deliver up to a thousand cubic feet per second, and it was built in 1929 and 1930 under the Weber River Project and enlarged between 1941 and 1947 under the Provo River Project. The Provo River Water Users Association operates it.

On the stretch between Holiday Park and Echo Reservoir, yes, subject to specific rules. In November 2017 the Utah Supreme Court decided Utah Stream Access Coalition v. Orange Street Development and found that historic railroad tie and log drives were sufficient proof the reach was navigable at statehood, which recognized public recreational access there. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources publishes the access rules and reissues its fishing guidebook each year, so anyone planning to fish it should read the current edition first.

About 35 to 40 minutes. The route is north out of Kamas to Oakley, left onto SR-213 up the Weber Canyon road for roughly twelve miles to the end of the pavement, then a further two miles to the campground entrance. The Forest Service campground sits just below the reservoir at about 7,800 feet in conifer and aspen, with vault toilets and picnic tables, and the reservoir itself is small, quiet and forested.

It is the developed water for this part of Summit County, about 20 minutes north of Kamas on SR-32 near Wanship. The reservoir carries year round fishing along with boating, waterskiing, swimming and sailing, and the park has five campgrounds, over a hundred sites in all, both developed and primitive, plus day use areas and ramps. Fees and reservation arrangements change annually, so confirm current figures with Utah State Parks.

At about milepost 23.9 on the Mirror Lake Highway, roughly 24 miles east of Kamas, with a large signed car park on the west side of the road and a pit toilet. A half mile out and back path runs along a series of cascades in a pine and aspen canyon and takes about half an hour. It is the best short stop on the whole byway and the part of the upper Provo that most visitors actually see.

No, and the difference matters. The upper Provo starts in the lake basin at the top of the Mirror Lake Highway, goes over the falls at milepost 23.9 and comes down through Woodland and Francis into Jordanelle Reservoir as small, largely privately bounded water. The blue ribbon river people mean when they say the Provo is the Middle Provo, the tailwater below the Jordanelle dam running down the Heber Valley, which is a Heber City subject.

Summit County and the Summit Land Conservancy closed on about 834 acres at the entrance to Kamas on SR-248 through a public conservation purchase on 15 December 2025. The ground sits on both sides of the road at the headwaters of the Weber River, the Ure family had farmed it since the 1890s, and conservation easements now bar nearly all development while keeping the land in farming. Summit County has described roughly 454 acres south of the road as a possible recreation area, handled separately from the conservation purchase.

Not automatically, and this is the single most common expensive assumption here. Water in this valley is worked, allocated and physically moved between drainages, and irrigation shares are a separate matter from the deed. On any parcel with agricultural ground, establish what shares exist, which company holds them, what the ditch arrangements are and exactly what conveys in writing, before the offer rather than after.