Kaysville, UT Outdoor Activities

When Utah High Adventure's staff members head into work, they don't sip coffee during meetings or ride the elevator up to an office on the ninth floor. Instead, they crash through raging whitewater rapids and rappel down the sides of canyons against a backdrop of sun-soaked red rocks. Years of training and education have earned them the certification and expertise to lead other thrill-seekers on rock climbs, which is more satisfying than scaling the granite backsplash of a neighbor's fancy kitchen. They also guide mountain-bike rides across Utah's rippling alpine trails. During the spring, summer, and fall months, the company hosts weeklong tours into the wild, which include lodging and equipment.

Park City was founded as a mining town, filled with miners that purportedly drank, gambled, frequented brothels, and committed crimes. Park City Ghost Tours’ guides delve into this illicit history during 70-minute walking tours. They investigate the sites most known for hauntings and chills while relaying the harrowing history of each. Tours begin nightly at 8 p.m., when the sun is thoroughly below the horizon and it gets harder to tell the difference between a zombie and a parking meter.

Gleaming under the pale light of the winter sun, blades slice along the smooth surface of Resort Center Ice Skating Rink, sending icy dust spraying in their wake. Surrounded by the quaint, Bavarian-style walls of the Village shopping center, the outdoor oval beckons guests wishing to discover what ice skating was like before indoor rinks confined it and ice sharks rendered neighborhood ponds off-limits. Periodically throughout each public-skate session, a zamboni buffs the subzero sheet to present skaters with a surface as smooth and gentle as the festive tunes filling the air. Guests circle around hand-in-hand, remarking on the surrounding Christmas lights and fir trees while fledgling skaters focus on their footing and grasp complimentary ice-skate trainers for balance.

Between pirouettes or mad dashes across the rink, hands can warm up with steaming mugs of hot chocolate in the skate house. Nearby, in the Village shopping center, more balanced meals can be found at Food for Thought or Kristi’s Café, refueling skaters before they explore more than 40 winter-gear hubs and gift shops.

After moving to Utah in 1997, Will Westrate got right to work, assembling a team of fishing experts to lead expeditions along the Provo and Weber Rivers. Each of Will’s hand-picked guides have tallied more than 1,000 days of fly fishing on the local waterways, utilizing their knowledge to mimic seasonal food sources and catch fish on their way back from shopping. The Park City Anglers also regularly explore the Strawberry, Duchesne, and Currant Creek, as well as some smaller streams and tributaries throughout the region.

Blue Sky Adventures beckons adventure nuts with its 3,300-acre Blue Sky Ranch filled with abundant wildlife, mountain peaks, meadows, and canyons. The outdoor experts offer activities year-round. Summertime days are spent rafting, fly-fishing, horseback riding, biking, and spending warm nights in a yurt. During the winter months, nature lovers can take in the white-blanketed sights on a sleigh ride or dogsled, or try to sneak up on a rare species of snowman in a pair of snowshoes. Other group adventures include archery and a geo-cache scavenger hunt for the mountain's golden egg.