Utah State Parks - Blind and Low Vision-Friendly Highlights

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Utah State Parks and the Utah State Library for the Blind are actively generating tactile graphics, large print, and Braille transcriptions of park exhibits, brochures, Jr Ranger books, and more. We aim to bring meaningful experiences to your next road trip. We can prioritize State Parks you plan to visit. Advance notice can help us meet requests. Email requests to monicastamm@utah.gov.

The Utah State Parks website is stateparks.utah.gov.

This guide spotlights low-vision and blind-friendly opportunities at 17 destinations. The guide has eight sections, How to navigate the guide, introduction and tips, and highlights in 6 geographical regions. 

It's time to discover what Utah State Parks have to offer. Touch 200-million-year-old dinosaur tracks or the skull of a bison, go fishing, or enjoy a stroll through nature. 46 Utah State Parks are scattered across the state. This includes rustic undeveloped wilderness to parks with museums or tiny houses, yurts, teepees, and other alternative campsite accommodations. 

Day-use fees are paid online or at the entrance station or museum. Your park fees provide for the care, protection, and enhancement of State Parks. Please note that Utah State Parks are not federal sites. Utah State Parks and National Parks Service passes are not interchangeable. 

Let us know if you are a participant in the Braille eReader pilot program through the Utah State Library for the Blind. And please share feedback and suggestions about this guide and your park experiences by emailing monicastamm@utah.gov.

Traveling to state parks is often part of a multi-day road trip with stops at various parks, heritage sites, and wilderness areas. This guide makes mention of popular destinations near State Parks that are often visited in the same trip.

5 tips for visitors with low vision or blindness.

• Find out if a park provides ranger programs or tours. Phone numbers are included in the description of each of our spotlighted parks in this guide. Advance notice can allow parks with public programming to schedule accessible or adapted programs for specific dates.

• Visits during festivals include engaging sensory-rich activities with something for everyone.

• Gift shops at heritage parks may have models, toys, and replicas of artifacts like Native American basketry that are significant to the site. Exemplifying objects that may be on display that are too fragile to touch.

• Ask staff what multi-sensory program materials and opportunities may be available at their park. Summer seasonal workers may need to ask the park manager for materials.

• Museum curators may have educational artifact specimens and models available to touch upon request. Advance notice will allow staff to locate these items before your visit and request support material from our interpretive media specialist in the Salt Lake administration office.

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Antelope Island State Park

Located on the Great Salt Lake. An 8-mile road splits through the section of the lake from Syracuse to the island. Syracuse sits between Bountiful and Ogden west of the Wasatch Mountains. The park naturalist's phone number is 801-721-9569.

Welcome to one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. This enormous lake supports a diverse ecosystem and the park provides many learning opportunities.

3 Park Highlights:

1. You can download the visitor center exhibit text to a mobile braille e-reader.
2. Touch a tactile map of the island, bison fur, antlers, and other objects on display in the visitor center.
3. Stop at a roadside exhibit where a ranger provides furs, antlers, horns, and more items to touch. Locations are listed daily at the entrance station and visitor center.

Great Salt Lake State Park

Located off I-80 on the South end of the lake. Just west of historic Saltair. This small park is 25 minutes west of downtown Salt Lake City. The visitor center is the size of a triple-wide trailer, which includes a gift shop, restrooms, and interpretive displays. The park's number is 801-828-0787. Ask for the ranger or naturalist.

3 Park Highlights:

1. Learn about the important role spiders play in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. A spider display in the visitor center includes a 3D printed spider anatomy model and tactile graphics of different types of spider webs with Braille labels.
2. Use this link to access a self-guided audio tour of the Great Salt Lake marina on your mobile device. A voice actor narrates the guide.
3. Read or listen to the text and visual descriptions of the five informational panels at the overlook observation deck. This short guide uses sensory details to bring the Great Salt Lake to life.

Willard Bay State Park

Located on the edge of the Great Salt Lake, this park is 20 minutes north of Ogden and an hour outside of Salt Lake City. The park's phone number is 435-734-9494.

Willard Bay is a man-made freshwater reservoir adjacent to the Great Salt Lake. This park is excellent for picnics, walking, and water sports. 

3 Park Highlights:

1. A wide flat trail connecting the beach, playground, parking areas, campgrounds, and day-use areas without crossing traffic. Nicely shaded by towering cottonwood trees and shorter trees like crabapples. An excellent opportunity to listen to birds.
2. A trailside tactile sign shows bird feet and wing span size with braille labels.
3. The park is decked out in Christmas holiday lights annually through December. This can be a delightful activity for visitors with low vision.

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The Wasatch Mountains are east of the Salt Lake Valley. A string of Utah State Parks are located along reservoirs in the area, which we refer to as the Wasatch Back. Our spotlight is on Wasatch Mountain State Park and the Rock Cliff Nature Center at the south end of Jordanelle State Park. The two areas are just 20 minutes apart, in Midway and Kamas, just south of Park City. 

Wasatch Mountain State Park

Hands-on Interactive programs at this park are a delight. The park phone number is 435-654-1791. Ask for the Naturalist.

3 Park Highlights:

1. Backpack Adventure kit can be checked out at the visitor center and include 3D prints of the texture of the near and far sides of the moon. The models are from scans of the moon by NASA.
2. The Visitor Center has touchable fur, a mining display, and an audio wildlife display.
3. Visit the park's events webpage for announcements about festivals and celebrations throughout the year with hands-on activities. You can go fishing or apple picking, touch furs and antlers, or attend a live bird demonstration. 

Jordanelle State Park

The park's main office phone number is 435-649-9540. Ask for the manager for current Rock Cliff Nature Center information.

Paved areas and a wood boardwalk weave through the Rock Cliff area of the park. The nature center is open depending on volunteer availability 10 am to 5 pm Sundays. Areas of the boardwalk may be under construction for improvements. For Braille and tactile graphics of trailside signage about the seasonal wetland, please email monicastamm@utah.gov. Advance notice will allow us to provide more material. 

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Drive east of the Wasatch and Uintah Mountains to Vernal, Utah. You are now in the area fondly known as Dinosaur Land. Giant dinosaur sculptures are scattered across town, and the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum is in the heart of the city. Red Fleet State Park is to the North and Dinosaur National Monument is a half hour to the east.

Utah Field House of Natural History Museum State Park

The park phone number is 435-789-3799. Ask for the Outreach Program Specialist or Curator.

This museum experience begins as soon as you come through the doors. The entrance leads into a vast two-story rotunda with a full-sized long-necked brontosaurus skeleton on display. Each giant skeletal foot has its own pedestal and visitors walk under and around the dinosaur to the elevator or main floor exhibit areas. Buy tickets at the front desk and enjoy the adjacent gift shop.

6 Park Highlights:

1. Contact the museum’s Outreach Program Specialist to request an educational tour and make accommodations requests like a visual description and tactile-focused tour. Coordinating in advance enables us to provide programs for visitors. 435-789-3799.
2. Touchable fossils are throughout the museum. More prehistoric models and casts can be requested at the front desk, including a half-model of an ancient whorl tooth fish called a Helicoprion.
3. A Whorl Tooth Shark or Helicoprion display is on the second floor. The full exhibit text is in braille. A sculpted model of a fossil is in front, and you can reach across the top of the display to run your fingers over the braille.
4. Stop at the hands-on dinosaur dig activity area on the second floor next to the Eocene displays.
5. The museum has 2 different zones in the museum with recordings playing. An audio sensation area plays the sounds of paleontologists at work. This hall connects you to the Eocene diorama, which has animal sounds.
6. A video plays in the Jurassic Hall, where visitors can push a button to listen to paleontologists explaining various theories and topics.
7. The gated garden adjacent to the museum has giant yet smaller-than-life-sized dinosaur sculptures and a wooly mammoth. Visitors are welcome to reach or step off the pavement to touch the sculptures.

Red Fleet State Park

This spectacular part of Dinosaur Land is 20 minutes north of Vernal towards Flaming Gorge. The phone number is 435-789-4432. Ask for a Park Manager or Ranger.

From the park's dock or beach area, you can boat or paddle board across the narrow reservoir to a dinosaur trackway site. The landscape around you is an ancient field of fossilized sand dunes. You can walk across and touch fossilized dinosaur tracks 120,000,000 years old. The tracks are on a slanted slab of sandstone that comes out of the water. Depending on the water level, tracks may be close enough to the waterline to touch without walking up the sandstone slope. An easily accessible interpretive pavilion with models of tracks will be available when the new campground expansion is complete, likely in 2026.

Paddle boards and canoes are available for rent at the entrance station. Rentals include life jackets.

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Highway I-15 runs north-south down the west side of the state. Several State Parks sit near the I-15. From Fillmore in central Utah, moving south to St George, we'll highlight 3 museums and one recreation park, Territorial Statehouse, Fremont Indian, and Frontier Homestead State Park Museums, and Snow Canyon State Park. National Parks Zion and Cedar Breaks are nearby. We will highlight three more State Parks further off the main highway that you might like to bundle into the same road trip in the next section. 

Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum

The museum is located in the heart of Fillmore, just off the I-15 in central Utah. The phone number is 435-743-5316.

The Museum is Utah’s oldest existing governmental building. In anticipation of Utah’s statehood, early pioneer Brigham Young directed the construction of the building as the State’s capitol. Only the south wing was ever completed. Three restored pioneer cabins and an 1867 stone schoolhouse are on the museum grounds.

The highlights of this museum are the festivals and school trips. Building log cabins, celebrating Native American culture with song and dance, and pioneer heritage with arts, crafts, and oral history. Call the museum for information or visit their event page.

Fremont Indian State Park Museum:

Located in Central Utah near Richfield, Utah. East of the I-15 I-70 highway junction. This museum is a great place to stay or stop if you are headed south towards St George or east towards Moab. The park's phone number is 435-527-4631. Ask for the curator. 

Discover artifacts, petroglyphs, and pictographs left behind by the Mokwik People, known as the Fremont Indians. This park is a popular stop for ATV riders, campers, and tourists. A comprehensive guide to the park is available in this same audio format at this link. Use the guide to learn more about recreation, facilities, and heritage of the site. The content is a 30-minute read at the default audio speed.

4 park highlights: 

1.  A paved quarter-mile path from the museum parking lot loops around the back of the museum along cliffs with rock imagery from a few hundred to over a thousand years old. Enjoy trailside tactile signage and learn about petroglyphs. 
2. The museum exhibit has two audio displays, a hands-on corn-grinding activity, and a kids' play area. The museum curator has tactile representations of petroglyphs for educational programs and educational samples of artifacts that can be brought out on request. Advance notice will allow us to have items available if the curator is not in when you visit.
3. This museum hosts many cultural events throughout the year with sensory-rich activities and enjoyment. Call the museum for event details or visit their events page.
   

Frontier Homestead State Park Museum

Located in Cedar City, Utah. The phone number is 435-586-9290. This museum is known for its festivals.

3 park highlights:

1. Enjoy an audio tour with a voice actor narrator. Scan QR codes throughout the museum with your phone, or open the links online for the audio tour. The tour includes audio narration and written transcripts. 
2. Paved, flat to gently sloped pathways connect outdoor features, including antique farm equipment, pioneer homes, sheep shearing shed, and a two-story tall brick oven. Customizable tours are available. One week’s advance notice is requested to make sure staff can prepare. Call 435-586-9290.
3.  The museum hosts many annual events throughout the year. Visit the park’s events webpage for a complete list and details.. Examples include the Sheep-to-Shawl Festival, held every March. Sheep are sheared on-site for visitors to comb wool, spin and dye yarn, and learn to knit and crochet. Come to Iron Mission Days in November. Participants can dip candles, pan for fake gold, and participate in many other pioneer skills activities. Haunted Homestead activities happen throughout October, including guided haunted tours.

 

Snow Canyon State Park

Our last stop in the southwest is west of the I-15, just 15 minutes outside St. George. The phone number is 435-628-2255. Ask for a manager, naturalist, or ranger.

4 Park Highlights:

1. Guided ranger walks and programs can involve varying levels of difficulty from stand-still programs to scrambling and caving. Call a park ranger or naturalist for information and requests. 435-628-2255.
2. Enjoy the new Tortoise Walk trail, a firm and stable, wide, flat path in the center of the park. It is a short walk with resting benches at the end and a larger-than-life-size desert tortoise sculpture to touch. Six trailside signs teach about the threatened desert tortoise and this protected area.
3. Whiptail Trail is a rolling, curving, and sometimes steep paved path. Popular for walking, jogging, and biking. It is 3 miles one-way. One mile includes steep grades and curves. E-bikes on the trail may pass people quickly.
4. West Canyon trail is a compact gravel and sand, gated service road. This multi-use trail is popular for walking, jogging, biking, and horseback riding. It is 4 miles one-way.

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South of Fremont Indian State Park and Museum on I-70 and east of Highway I-15, our spotlight turns to Otter Creek, Escalante Petrified Forest, and Anasazi Museum State Parks. These parks are near Bryce Canyon, Capital Reef, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Parks and Monuments. Note that State Parks are separate from similarly named National Parks in Utah and Arizona, so verify you are heading to the intended petrified forest.

Otter Creek State Park

Welcome to a popular RV camping and year-round fishing park with an excellent exhibit about wildlife in the entrance station. The phone number is 435-624-3268.

Travelers en route from Fremont Indian State Park Museum to Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments or Escalante Petrified Forest State Park may like to stop or stay at Otter Creek State Park. The entrance station features a tactile mural with animal cutouts, fur samples, and casts of paw prints.

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park

Our next stop is another reservoir park. The phone number is 435-826-4466. 

2 park highlights:

1. Petrified wood in the visitor center and around the park can be touched.
2. An outdoor petrified tree exhibit. Tour buses regularly stop here to enjoy seeing and touching petrified wood and learning about fossilized wood from a time when the now desert landscape was a lush forest, and both dinosaurs and mammals walked the earth. Request a braille guide or large print version of the exhibit text for the 50-foot-long petrified tree on display adjacent to the parking lot. The tree lays on a pedestal about 3 feet high. The display has four beautifully illustrated interpretive panels about the tree and its ancient origins. Tactile versions of the illustrations developed by Utah State Parks and National Braille Press are in the Braille book.

The park has two full-time staff and seasonal workers in the summer. If a seasonal worker does not know where braille and large print items are, the manager will.

Anasazi State Park Museum

The museum is 45 minutes from Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Located in the small town of Bolder in the center of Southern Utah. The phone number is 435-335-7308. Ask for the park manager.

3 Park Highlights:

1. Walk inside a replica of an Ancestral Puebloan home. Feel the architectural structure, the stonework, the compact dirt floors, and the height of the doorways. The replica is true to size. It sits behind the museum to the side of a paved path through a partially excavated Ancestral Puebloan village.
2. The museum exhibit has one push-button audio interpretation display and tactile representation of patterns on regional ceramic artifacts.
3. Ask the park manager for tactile educational artifact materials that may be in the back. Advance notice will help us fulfill your request.

Coming Soon. The exhibit space is in a redesign planning phase with advisors from the Library for the Blind, Services for the Blind, and Federation of the Blind of Utah. Reconstruction is planned for 2024.

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Highway I-70 starts on the west side of the state from I-15 and runs east across Utah and into Colorado.  Green River is the main town where travelers will likely stop en route from northern or southwest Utah to Southeast Utah. Our Park Highlights for this area are Goblin Valley, Dead Horse Point, and Edge of the Cedars State Parks and Museum. Other public lands in the area include Capital Reef, Arches, Castle Valley, Canyonlands, and Hovenwheep National Parks and Monuments. Visitor centers and museums will have information about nearby attractions. 

Goblin Valley State Park

Located in the San Rafael Swell geological region, less than an hour southwest of Green River. The phone number is 435-275-4584. Ask for the manager. This park is known for its geology and dark night skies.

3 Park Highlights:

1. A giant 3-dimensional tactile map of the geological region of Goblin Valley and the San Rafael Swell fills the small visitor center entrance station. Be sure to come inside. 
2. Goblin Valley State Park presents a fun and unique experience for those who wish to explore on foot. The Valley of Goblins, our most well-known attraction, spans nearly three square miles and is a free-roaming area that can be explored at leisure. A two-story length of rugged stairs with a handrail descends from the main parking lot and picnic pavilion area to the first valley. The staircase is comfortable for most people but may be challenging for some visitors and is not accommodating for typical mobility devices. The valley is a mostly flat expanse containing several dozen clusters of towering sandstone hoodoos that resemble goblins. There is something interesting to see or touch no matter what direction a person chooses to walk.
3. Are you interested in Astronomy or nocturnal ecosystems? Are you staying the night or want a late-night visit? Attend a star party. Call the park in advance to request or find out dates for a possible night sky program. Let the manager know if you want tactile astronomy material at the event. Advance notice will help us fulfill requests.

Dead Horse Point State Park

Located 40 minutes from Moab. The phone number is 435-259-2614. Ask for a park manager or naturalist.

4 Park Highlights:

1. Visit the Dead Horse Point overlook. A paved path leads to a wood deck with a full perimeter rail. The difference in sound and movement of air over the vast canyon is sensational. Please note most overlooks around the park are not fenced. Use extreme caution.
2. Braille and tactile graphic astronomy materials are available by request at Star Party and Dark Sky Programs.
3. A paved path with few obstructions is an easy walk to enjoy at the visitor center.

Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum

Located in southeastern Utah in Blanding. It is an hour and a half south of Moab. The park phone number is 435-678-2238. Ask for the park manager or curator.

4 Park Highlights:

1. The partially excavated Ancestral Puebloan archaeology site. A paved path behind the museum with gentle slopes loops around an unexcavated Chacoan great kiva and an excavated Chacoan great house. The path also weaves through an unexcavated village that predates the Chacoan features.
2. Climb into a reconstructed kiva at the archaeology site. Feel the stonework, ladder construction, and kiva structure.
3. Edge of the Cedars hosts lectures, demonstrations, and arts and crafts events throughout the year. Events may include pottery making, Pueblo weaving, flint knapping, basketry, wood carving, and other traditional skills. Call the park or visit their events webpage.
4. Ask at the front desk for educational samples of artifacts that can be touched.

Coming Soon to Edge of the Cedars. Braille and large print guides with tactile graphics of the trailside interpretive signs around the archaeology site. Please send requests to monicatamm@utahstateparks.gov or contact the park.  

Edge of Cedars State Park Museum is a great addition to a 4-Corners heritage site tour which may include Hovenweep National Monument an hour to the east, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico and Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Arizona. Contact National Parks for accessibility information about their parks.

That brings our guide to a close. Enjoy your travels across Utah. We'd love to hear about your visits to Utah State Parks. Let us know how we can improve this guide and if there is a tip, road trip, or State Park highlight you want us to share with our Blind and Low-Vision Community or others. 

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