Free & Cheap Things to Do in Lehi

Family Fun

Sixty complete mounted dinosaur skeletons — one of the largest displays on the planet — plus 50 hands-on exhibits, a quarry dig, an erosion table, and a window into a working paleo lab where staff are unearthing a 150-million-year-old Barosaurus. It's the marquee venue of Thanksgiving Point's seven-attraction campus and the best dinosaur museum between Denver and the coast.

Address: 2929 N Thanksgiving Way, Lehi, UT 84048

Tip: Buy online — gate prices run $3 higher and entry is time-ticketed. The budget plays: $5 Tuesdays every February, $6-per-person Homeschool Days each quarter, and $9 adult admission with a SNAP/WIC card (kids free). Closed Sundays. Daily STEM programs like the 3:30pm Breaking News fossil talk are included.

Parks & Nature

Fifty acres of themed gardens — waterfall, rose, butterfly, and Italian-inspired spaces among them — anchoring Thanksgiving Point's Gardens Campus. June is Rose Month with thousands of blooms filling the rose garden; September's Garden of Quilts drapes 500 handmade quilts across the grounds, and the springtime Tulip Festival is one of Utah's biggest flower events.

Address: 3900 N Garden Drive, Lehi, UT 84048

Tip: Same budget tricks as the dinosaur museum: book online to save $3, hit $5 Tuesdays in February, or come on a $6 Homeschool Day. Tulip Festival (April) and the winter Luminaria are separate-ticket events that sell out — regular garden admission is the value play. Closed Sundays.

History & Culture

A century-old cabinet-of-curiosities museum in downtown Lehi where touching is the point: grind corn on a metate, brush sand off dinosaur fossils, and wander rooms of geology, Native American artifacts, pioneer relics, and Wild West history. Live animal shows run Thursdays at 4pm and Saturdays at 1pm, free with admission.

Address: 55 N Center St, Lehi, UT 84043

Tip: Open Tuesday–Saturday from 11am, with late hours to 8pm Wednesday and Thursday; closed Sunday–Monday. Time your visit to a free-with-admission animal show. It's two minutes off I-15 and pairs naturally with a Thanksgiving Point day when the big campus crowds get thick.

Family Fun

Utah's most unexpected free museum hides inside a 150,000-square-foot outdoor-gear store: a 30-foot Conservation Mountain ringed with museum-quality mounted wildlife, a big aquarium stocked with native Utah fish, and trophy-animal dioramas of African and North American game. Kids treat it like a free zoo-meets-natural-history stop; parents get a break from admission fees.

Address: 2502 Cabela's Blvd, Lehi, UT 84043

Tip: Open daily with long retail hours — it works as a rainy-day or I-15 road-trip break when museums are closed. Bring a quarter to feed the fish in the indoor stream. It sits next to the Outlets at Traverse Mountain, so combine the two for a zero-dollar afternoon.

Quirky Landmarks

The 1906 flour mill where Kevin Bacon's Ren worked — and danced — in the original 1984 Footloose, still milling and still family-run more than a century on. The photogenic grain silos painted with the Peacock Flour logo are a National Register landmark and one of Utah's great movie-pilgrimage photo stops.

Address: 833 E Main St, Lehi, UT 84043

Tip: Snap the silos from the parking lot anytime, then duck into the mill store (open Monday–Saturday) for pancake and cookie mixes that make better souvenirs than anything at the airport. It's five minutes from Thanksgiving Point — an easy add-on rather than a destination on its own.

Family Fun

Utah County's largest playground and splash pad, opened in 2024 on 85 acres — an aviation-themed, all-abilities playground with wheelchair-accessible equipment, a sensory garden, an amphitheater, and a long splash-pad 'river' capped by climb-on airplanes and an air-traffic-control tower. The whole park is fenced with a single entrance, which parents of runners will appreciate.

Address: 1999 N 600 E, Lehi, UT 84043

Tip: Open daily 9am to sunset; the splash pad runs Memorial Day through Labor Day. Shade is still maturing, so bring hats for midday summer visits. No reservations — it's first-come, first-served, and weekends get busy by late morning.

Parks & Nature

Seventeen miles of smooth, paved trail built over an enclosed canal, running the east bench of Utah Valley from Lehi to Orem with Mount Timpanogos filling the eastern skyline most of the way. Walkers, runners, and cyclists share the asphalt; a parallel dirt path handles horses.

Address: Bull River Trailhead, Timpanogos Hwy (SR-92) & 1200 W, Lehi, UT 84043

Tip: Start at Lehi's Bull River Trailhead off Timpanogos Highway — it has restrooms, water, parking, and a playground. The grade is gentle enough for kid bikes and strollers. Mornings beat afternoons in summer; the trail is exposed and the valley heats up fast.

Shopping & Strolling

Utah's only outlet mall — 50-plus name-brand stores at 30–70% off in an open-air center with heated walkways for winter browsing, right off I-15 at the Point of the Mountain. Free Wi-Fi, free stroller and wheelchair loans, and a steady calendar of free seasonal events and scavenger hunts.

Address: 3700 N Cabela's Blvd, Lehi, UT 84048

Tip: Sign up for the free rewards program at the lodge-style customer service center for extra coupons before you shop. It shares a parking area with Cabela's wildlife mountain, so the kids' free aquarium stop and the outlet run fit in one trip.