City Roy, Weber County
Two pools, eleven parks, a two week festival and a gate at exit 338
Roy, a city you use rather than a city you look at
Roy holds about 38,800 people on eight flat square miles west of the freeway in Weber County, and the useful way in is through what the city runs: an outdoor pool that stays open two hours later on Mondays for a family pass, an indoor complex with an eight hoop gym and a track that takes nineteen laps to make a mile, eleven parks with five pavilions you can book, a library branch, the only rail platform for four cities, and a two week festival every July. Six pages on all of it, with the hours, the prices and the mistakes to avoid.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Roy is a flat, worked-in, eight-square-mile city in southwestern Weber County with about 38,800 people in it, and the honest way to describe it is by what the city runs rather than by scenery, because there is no canyon, river or reservoir inside the line. What there is: an outdoor pool that stays open later on Monday nights, an indoor recreation complex that unlocks before dawn, eleven parks with five rentable pavilions, a county library branch, a commuter rail platform that four neighboring cities borrow, a two-week festival every July, and a gate at freeway exit 338 that the Air Force calls the Roy Gate.
Growing or shrinking
Is Roy growing or shrinking, and what does that actually look like on the ground?
Shrinking, slightly, and the more interesting part is where the growth went instead. The U.S. Census estimate puts Roy at about 38,800 in 2025, about 110 fewer than the year before and a little under the 39,306 counted in 2020. One city line to the northwest, West Haven added about 910 people in the same year and has been among the fastest-growing small cities in the state. The growth did not leave the area. It moved onto ground that still had room.
That is the whole story of what a Roy address feels like, and it is worth knowing before you drive it. This is a finished city. The blocks are laid out, the trees are up, and the census puts the median year of construction around 1986, with roughly four in five homes detached houses on their own lots. New building happens one infill lot at a time rather than a hundred at a time, which is why the arithmetic drifts gently downward while the fields west of 4300 West fill in.
Do not read anything about the people into any of it. A population estimate counts households and nothing else, and this page does not go further than the count. What it means, practically, is that most of what you will find for sale in Roy already exists, that the streets and the pipes are already in, and that the questions worth asking are about a specific house and a specific block rather than about a subdivision that does not exist yet. The page on moving here works through the ones that actually matter.
One more number, because a couple of figures for Roy circulate widely and are simply wrong. Roy covers 8.148 square miles with no water area at all, and the ground at city hall stands at about 4,531 feet, not the 4,377 that gets copied around. The same elevation reads about 4,468 feet at the rail platform and 4,361 feet at the outdoor pool, so the ground falls roughly 170 feet from City Hall to the pool, across a mile and a third. Across the whole city it falls about 350 feet from the I-15 edge to the west side, most of it off the bluff just west of 2400 West. Everyone calls Roy flat. It tilts, and you can feel it on a bicycle.
What the city runs
A city you use, with more public pools, parks and programs than places twice its size
Start with the two buildings, because between them they carry most of what people do here. The Roy Aquatic Center at 2977 W 5200 S is the outdoor summer pool, and it stays open later on Monday nights than any other day, which is not an accident: Monday is the city's discounted family-pass night. The Roy Recreation Complex at 2150 W 4700 S is the indoor one, open all year, with a pool, an eight hoop gym, two racquetball courts and an indoor track that takes nineteen laps to make a mile. A few dollars gets an adult in the door. There is no reason to pay for a gym membership in this town before you have walked through that building.
Then the parks, and here the city is generous. Roy lists eleven parks, each with an address and hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Four have pavilions you can book, five in all, from April 1 to September 30: Emma Russell out west at 5700 S 4300 W, George E. Wahlen at 4200 S 2175 W, Municipal at 2252 W 5900 S, and Roy West at 2900 W 4650 S. When you book, somebody has to collect a key for the water spigot and leave a refundable deposit against it, larger at the two big parks. That is the single most useful sentence anybody can hand a person planning a birthday party in Roy.
The rest of the year runs on four events and a train. Roy Days fills the last two weeks of July and finishes with a morning parade and evening fireworks on the first Saturday of August. The Easter egg hunt, the pumpkin swim and the tree lighting are dated by rule rather than by calendar, which is the city being sensible. And the FrontRunner platform on Sandridge Drive is the only one between Ogden Central and Clearfield, so it is the nearest station not just for Roy but for Hooper, Clinton, West Point and Syracuse as well. The ranked page takes all of it in order.
Roy at a glance
38,800
people on the 2025 Census estimate, down about 110 in a year
8.148 sq mi
of city on the federal boundary record, with no water area at all
9,705
jobs inside the city, on the state's 2023 count
11
parks, four of them with a pavilion the city rents
The places
Everything in Roy worth a trip, and where the current hours and prices live
Roy is a city where the practical details are the whole answer, and the useful ones are the address and what a place is for. Here is the short list, with where each sits. The exact hours and the full fee schedule change from time to time, so those live on the city's site and on the deeper pages below rather than here.
Roy is cheap to use, and better yet the city publishes what everything costs, so you can plan a day before you leave the drive. The page on the two pools lays out both fee tables, the memberships and the swim lessons, and the ranked page takes the whole list in order with what each stop is actually like.
Two of the things people most associate with Roy are not, strictly, in it. The aerospace museum stands on the next city's ground, and the rebuilt interchange at 5600 South is split down the middle between Roy and Riverdale. Neither changes a visit by a minute, and both are worth knowing before you repeat something you read. The page on the city line takes each one at the parcel.
The region
None of the six shared Weber and Morgan subjects starts in Roy, and every one of them is an easy drive from it
Weber and Morgan carry six subjects written once for all fourteen cities: a canyon, three ski resorts, two reservoirs, the historic main street downtown, the two river parkways and the bench above Ogden. Roy sits on the valley floor west of the freeway and has ground on none of them. That is not a gap. It is what a household here should expect, and it is why the drives are short.
The winter drive
Snowbasin and Powder Mountain
Two very different mountains reached over the same shoulder, compared properly on one page.
Read the guide
The summer drive
Pineview and Causey
The reservoirs above the canyon mouth, with their boat rules, their beaches and their seasons.
Read the guide
The index
Every city in the two counties
Fourteen cities and six shared subjects, gathered where you can compare them side by side.
The region hubThe other four are the same story: a drive rather than a claim, and none of them is longer than a school run. Ogden Canyon opens east of Ogden, half an hour from most Roy addresses, and the canyon guide covers the road, the seasons and the pull outs. The river parkways run along two rivers that Roy does not touch at any point, so the nearest access is in a neighboring city. The bench and Ben Lomond climb out of Ogden, North Ogden and Pleasant View, at the far end of the county from here. And Historic 25th Street is the one to make an evening of, about fifteen minutes up the freeway with the parking rules explained on its own page.
If you only have one Saturday
Aircraft in the morning, the pool after lunch, and the library when somebody has had enough
Nine in the morning
Out to the museum
Take exit 338 and follow the signs to the lot outside the gate. Dozens of aircraft and missiles, free to walk, and no base access involved.
The ranked page
After lunch
Into the water
The outdoor pool opens at noon in season. Out of season the indoor one runs open swim from ten in the morning to a quarter to eight on a Saturday.
The pools pageLate afternoon
A park with a pavilion
George E. Wahlen at 4200 S 2175 W is the big one and the city's stage. Book the pavilion ahead and collect the water key.
The ranked page
Or instead
Leave the car at home
Walk onto the train at Sandridge Drive, ride to Ogden Central or all the way to Salt Lake, and let somebody else do the driving.
The commute pageLiving with it
Sprinkler water on the tax bill, two fire stations, and a freeway gate that keeps its own hours
The honest character of a Roy address is convenience without much drama. Everything a household uses regularly sits inside eight square miles: a grocery run, two pools, ten schools, a library branch, two fire stations, its own police department, and a rail platform you can be standing on ten minutes after leaving the drive. The city is laid out on the numbered grid so plainly that after a week you can navigate it from an address alone. Nothing here is more than about six minutes from anything else here.
Two things surprise people, and both are about water and about time. Water first: sprinkler water in Roy comes from a separate government, the Roy Water Conservancy District, which was created in 1965, keeps its office over in Riverdale, and bills once a year on the county property tax bill. In dry years the district has trimmed its seasonal allocation, so a new owner should ask what the current limit is. Time second: the freeway exit at 5600 South leads to the base's North Gate, and that gate keeps limited weekday hours, so anyone whose schedule runs later uses a Davis County exit instead. The page on the gate sets out what is Roy's and what belongs to the installation.
What is genuinely good here is how little it costs to use the place, and the fact that the city publishes what everything costs. A few dollars at the door of a building with a pool, a gym, a track and two racquetball courts is unusual, and so is a fee schedule anybody can read. What is genuinely thin is scenery. There is no river frontage in Roy, no trailhead, no canyon and no reservoir, and any page that tells you otherwise is describing a neighbor. If that matters to a household, the good news is that the whole of the Weber and Morgan set is inside forty minutes.
Two things people plan around in Roy are worth getting right before you drive. The recreation complex is at 2150 W 4700 S, where the county assessor shows a large municipal parcel. A different city address, 5051 S 1900 W, is city hall at the other end of town, so use 2150 W 4700 S. And the small Roy Historical Museum turns up in directory listings with an address on 1700 West, but the city itself lists no museum on any department page and one directory marks the listing closed, so call the city before you drive over rather than trusting a listing.
Roy is the rare city where reading the fee schedule tells you more about daily life than reading the description: a few dollars to swim, a few more to lift, a modest block to hold a pavilion, and a key deposit nobody warns you about.
The Roy companion
Six pages, and every one of them answers a question people actually type
The ranked list of what to do and what each one costs. The two swimming pools, their hours and the whole fee table. Roy Days, the parade, the fireworks rule and the three events dated by rule instead of by date. The gate at exit 338, the interchange the city shares and the train that four other cities use. Where the city line actually runs, and the four things with a Roy address that sit in somebody else's city. And what an address here asks of a household.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
Roy, answered
Swim, mostly, and then everything else. The Roy Aquatic Center is the outdoor summer pool at 2977 W 5200 S, and the Roy Recreation Complex at 2150 W 4700 S is the indoor one, open all year with a pool, an eight hoop gym, two racquetball courts and an indoor track. Beyond those there are eleven parks, four of them with pavilions the city rents, a county library branch on 4000 South, the Hill Aerospace Museum out of Roy's own freeway exit, and Roy Days over the last two weeks of July. The ranked page on this site takes all eight in order with the hours and the prices.
Roy covers 8.148 square miles of southwestern Weber County with no water area at all, and city hall sits at 5051 S 1900 W. The ground at city hall reads about 4,531 feet, 4,468 feet at the rail platform and 4,361 feet at the outdoor pool, so the ground falls about 170 feet from City Hall to the pool. Across the whole city it falls about 350 feet from the I-15 edge to the west side, most of it off the bluff just west of 2400 West. Neighbors are Riverdale to the east, West Haven wrapping the northwest shoulder, Hooper to the west, and the Davis County line and the Air Force installation to the south.
It is reached from Roy and it stands in Riverdale. The Weber County assessor's parcel record, the state boundary layer and the federal one all place the museum's ground inside Riverdale city, on a federally owned tax exempt parcel of about 17 acres, while the operator's own mailing address prints Roy. Both are true at once, because that is a base postal address rather than a city line. What is genuinely Roy's is the way in: take freeway exit 338, which is Roy's own interchange, and follow the signs to the lot outside the gate. Admission and parking are free and no base access is involved.
Not much, and that is one of the real draws. The outdoor Aquatic Center and the indoor Recreation Complex both charge a few dollars at the door, with the youngest children free and lower rates for seniors, plus punch passes and a resident membership at the complex. There is a discounted family pass on Monday nights, which is the reason the outdoor pool stays open later on Mondays than any other day. The figures come off the city's adopted fee schedule and change from time to time, so check the current prices on the city's site before you go.
Roy City runs it over about two weeks in the second half of July, closing on the first Saturday of August. The 2026 run went from July 17 to August 1. Almost everything free lands on that closing Saturday, and three venues carry it: the parade uses 1900 West and no other street, the daytime program of booths, entertainment and a car show fills George E. Wahlen Park, and the fireworks go up at night from a golf course, so most people watch from the park or a nearby street. The city sets the dates year to year rather than by a fixed rule, so check its Roy Days page for the current schedule.
Yes, at 4155 S Sandridge Drive, and it is the only one between Ogden Central and Clearfield. That makes it the nearest platform not just for Roy but for Hooper, Clinton, West Point and Syracuse too, none of which has one. Trains run Monday to Saturday with no Sunday service, every half hour at weekday peaks and hourly the rest of the time, and the parking is free. The fare is distance based, a couple of dollars for a short hop and more the farther you ride, so check the transit authority for the current fare.
The city's own parks page carries eleven entries, two more than the figure that usually circulates. Each has its own city page with an address and hours, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Four of them have a pavilion you can reserve, five pavilions in all, from April 1 to September 30: Emma Russell out west, George E. Wahlen in the middle, Municipal to the south and Roy West on the west side. The other seven include a dog park, a rail trail and a pond. Booking a pavilion runs a modest rate for residents, and the tap key carries a refundable deposit on top, so the city posts the current figures.
Roy is in Weber School District, which covers all of Weber County outside Ogden city. The city's own schools page names nine buildings: Roy High, Roy Junior High, Sand Ridge Junior High, and the Roy, Lakeview, Midland, Municipal and Freedom elementaries, plus Bridge Elementary, which the city itself labels a public charter school rather than a district one. Eight of the nine sit on Roy parcels. Freedom Elementary does not: the Weber County assessor puts its parcel in Hooper despite the Roy postal address the city prints. This site does not rate schools and the district runs the boundary tool.
Because drinking water and sprinkler water come from two different governments. The city bills the culinary side. Secondary irrigation water, the untreated supply that feeds lawn sprinklers, comes from the Roy Water Conservancy District, which was created in 1965, keeps its office at 5440 Freeway Park Drive in Riverdale, and does not bill through the city. Roy City does not bill for secondary water; the district charges a flat yearly fee on the Weber County property tax bill. The district's own site is plain that secondary water is not drinking water and should only be used on yards, and in dry years it has trimmed the seasonal allocation, so ask the district what the current limit is.
Six pages on a city that publishes its prices and lets you plan around them
Roy asks a short and specific list of questions, and almost none of them is about scenery. How close the property sits to the 5600 South corridor and to the freeway, because that is the loudest edge of the city. Which side of the line it is on, because a Roy postal address is not the same thing as Roy ground and four well known places prove it. What the yearly sprinkler water charge on the county property tax bill is, because in Roy the city bills the drinking water and a separate district bills the sprinklers. Which of the ten in city schools an address actually feeds, because the district holds that answer rather than the city. And whether a rail platform ten minutes from the drive is worth real money to somebody in the house. Tell me what you are weighing and I will introduce you to a Weber and Morgan partner agent who works these streets, and stay on the file for the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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