Lehi
A farm town turned Silicon Slopes hub, with dinosaurs, tulips, a rodeo and the Footloose mill
Photo: OrangeJedi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Lehi was settled in 1850 and incorporated in 1852, which makes it one of the oldest towns in Utah County. It went through several names in its first years, including Sulphur Springs, Dry Creek and Evansville, before settling on Lehi, from the Book of Mormon. Say it LEE-hi. For a century it was a farm and sugar-beet town; the first successful beet-sugar factory built with American machinery opened here in 1891, and the flour mill on East Main Street has been grinding local wheat since 1906.
Since the 2000s Lehi has become the physical center of Silicon Slopes, the tech corridor along I-15 between Utah County and the south end of Salt Lake County. The glass office campuses you pass on the freeway, the Outlets at Traverse Mountain and the new subdivisions climbing the hills at the Point of the Mountain all arrived in about twenty years. That growth is why Lehi’s restaurants skew new and spread out, and why weekday rush-hour traffic here is the worst in the valley.
The reason most visitors come is Thanksgiving Point, a nonprofit campus at the south end of town: the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life, with about 60 mounted dinosaur skeletons and a lab where you can watch fossils being prepared; the Museum of Natural Curiosity for younger kids; the Butterfly Biosphere; Curiosity Farms; the indoor Jurassic Jungle playground; and the 50-acre Ashton Gardens, which hold the spring Tulip Festival and the winter Luminaria light walk. Admission is timed, so book ahead.
Old Lehi rewards a slower hour. Walk Main Street from Lehi Bakery, home of the square doughnut since 1969, past the Hutchings Museum’s fossils, minerals and pioneer artifacts, then drive east to Lehi Roller Mills, whose painted silos starred in the 1984 movie Footloose and which still sells its flour and baking mixes as Lehi Mills. Come in late June and the whole town turns out for Round-Up Week, built around the Lehi Round-Up Rodeo, held since 1937.
See and do
- Museum of Ancient LifeThanksgiving Point’s dinosaur museum: about 60 complete mounted skeletons, more than 50 hands-on exhibits and a working fossil lab behind glass. One of the largest mounted-dinosaur displays anywhere.
- Ashton GardensFifty acres of themed gardens around a man-made waterfall, at their best during the spring Tulip Festival, when hundreds of thousands of bulbs bloom at once.
- Museum of Natural CuriosityA hands-on children’s museum with a rainforest climbing structure, the outdoor Kidopolis mini-town, a water works play area and hundreds of exhibits. Easy to lose a whole morning.
- Butterfly BiosphereA warm, humid conservatory full of free-flying tropical butterflies plus an insect zoo; a short visit that works for toddlers and makes a good winter escape.
- Curiosity Farms and Jurassic JungleThanksgiving Point’s working farm (called Farm Country until 2024) with animals, pony rides and cow milking, and next to the dinosaur museum a five-story indoor prehistoric playground.
- Lehi Roller MillsA working flour mill on East Main Street since 1906, listed on the National Register in 1994 and famous for its painted silos in Footloose. No tours, but the Lehi Mills store sells flour, pancake mix and cookie mix. Closed Sundays.
- Hutchings MuseumA small, much-loved downtown museum built on John Hutchings’ lifetime of collecting: minerals, fossils, shells, live animals, pioneer and Native American artifacts. Hours are limited, so check before you go.
- Lehi Main StreetThe old town strip around the museum and the bakery, with historical markers and some of the city’s oldest buildings. The part of Lehi that still feels like a town.
- Murdock Canal Trail and Jordan River ParkwayTwo long paved trails meet the city: the Murdock runs about 17 miles along the benches to Orem, and the Jordan River Parkway follows the river north from Utah Lake toward Salt Lake County.
- Traverse Mountain and the Point of the MountainThe hillside district at the north end of town, with the open-air Outlets at Traverse Mountain, foothill trails and, just over the ridge, paragliders riding the thermals at the Point of the Mountain flight park.
Eat and drink
- Lehi BakeryA Main Street bakery since 1969 and the home of the square doughnut. Go early; popular items sell out.
- Lehi Mills storeNot a restaurant, but the mill’s shop is where locals buy Turkey-brand flour, scone mix and pancake mix. A better souvenir than a T-shirt.
- Edna’s Market & GrilleLehi’s go-to special-occasion kitchen, doing scratch-made comfort food such as wood-fired pork chops with a side of funeral potatoes. Closed Sundays; use the online waitlist.
- Harvest at Thanksgiving PointA long-running sit-down restaurant on the Thanksgiving Point campus, with painted rooms and prime rib, plus a deli and seasonal garden café on the same grounds.
- Strap Tank BreweryA big, motorcycle-themed brewpub near the outlets serving its own beer and pub food. It is a branch of the Springville original, the first craft brewery in Utah County.
- Burgers and Chicago beefCubby’s, a Provo-born local chain with a Lehi store, does juicy burgers, fry sauce and an Italian beef sandwich; smash-burger counters cluster along State Street and Traverse Mountain.
- Dirty soda and cookie shopsLehi’s tech crowd runs on drive-through soda from chains such as Swig, Sodalicious and Fiiz, plus the cookie bakeries that boomed in Utah County.
Through the year
- Tulip FestivalRoughly early April to mid-May at Ashton Gardens: hundreds of thousands of tulips, plus a Tulip 5K and photo passes.
- Lehi Round-Up WeekLate June: a week of parades (including an all-horse parade), a family fun day, vendors and the Lehi Round-Up Rodeo, a PRCA rodeo held since 1937 at the downtown rodeo grounds.
- Freedom CelebrationJuly 4: free fireworks on the Thanksgiving Point grounds, the north valley’s big Independence Day show.
- Timpanogos Storytelling FestivalSeptember: storytellers from around the country perform over several days in Ashton Gardens.
- Cornbelly’s and the Scarecrow FestivalLate September through October: Utah’s original corn maze and pumpkin festival at Thanksgiving Point, plus a scarecrow display in the gardens. Closed Sundays.
- LuminariaMid-November into early January: millions of lights strung through Ashton Gardens on a walk-through route. Closed Sundays; buy timed tickets.
- Lehi Christmas celebrationDecember: the city’s Santa parade and holiday celebration outside the Legacy Center on Center Street.
Day trips from Lehi
- American Fork CanyonFifteen minutes east: Timpanogos Cave, Tibble Fork Reservoir and the Alpine Loop.
- Point of the Mountain flight parkJust north on the county line: watch paragliders launch from the ridge on afternoon thermals, or book a tandem flight.
- Saratoga Springs and Utah LakeWest across the Jordan River: shoreline parks and sunset views of the lake.
- Camp Floyd State ParkAbout 30 minutes west in Fairfield: a pre-Civil War army post and the Stagecoach Inn, on the Pony Express route.
- Salt Lake CityAbout 30 minutes north by I-15, or by FrontRunner from Lehi Station on weekdays and Saturdays.
- Sundance and Provo CanyonUnder an hour by the Alpine Loop in summer or the freeway year-round.
Good to know
- Thanksgiving Point sells timed admission with limited slots across its venues. Book online, especially on school holidays and bad-weather weekends.
- Thanksgiving Point is closed Sundays, as are Luminaria, Cornbelly’s and many independent restaurants. FrontRunner does not run Sundays either.
- Lehi Station, the FrontRunner stop, is inside the Thanksgiving Point business park, so you can do a museum day from Salt Lake or Provo without a car.
- Avoid I-15 through Lehi northbound in the morning and southbound in the late afternoon; the Point of the Mountain bottleneck is real.
- Lehi Roller Mills is on East Main Street near I-15, not in the Thanksgiving Point area. Map apps may list it as Lehi Roller Mills or Lehi Mills; it is the same place.
- The rodeo is run by the Lehi Civic Improvement Association, separately from the city; buy rodeo tickets through its own site.
Parks in Utah County
More towns nearby
American Fork
Canyon town at the foot of Timpanogos, with a cave, two alpine lakes and a July party that dates to 1945
Provo
BYU’s hometown, between Utah Lake and the steepest wall of the Wasatch