Lehi Family Park — Attraction in Lehi

Spring 2025 Edit - ⚠️Splash Pad Closed Sundays⚠️

9/26/24 Edit - HOURS UPDATED 9am - Sunset DAILY

Winter closure will likely be December 1st - March 1st. I would LOVE to see it open by 7am next spring/summer and I volunteer as tribute.

I attended the City Council meeting and I now understand why the city wants (but is not legally required) to make sure the park has at least one staff on site while the playground is open. This isn't your average neighborhood play structure. There are ≈700 unique pieces of equipment molded specifically for this park and just this year, vandalism and damage to Lehi City parks has cost about $30k. Some people suck, so I truly get why they want to protect their/our investment.

PLEASE DO NOT bring your non-service dog inside the playground gates, or let your human kid poop outside next to the bathrooms, or throw rocks and trash down the drains, or lift them up to climb on the shade sails, or let your teens use the metal airplane sculptures as monkey bars, or kick the ADA swings (yes, this has all sadly happened just in the couple of weeks the park has been open, smh).

Kindly speak up if you see people (willfully or ignorantly) being disrespectful of the rules, facilities or equipment. Confrontation sucks, but the rest of us literally paying for the consequences, sucks more.

Original Review:

Administration failed to finalize hours/staffing (why is staffing even required for a public park? No other parks in Utah require it.) prior to opening this park. For a 20ish million dollar project, this is astounding.

Current hours as of 9/21/24 are 9am to Sunset with Sundays being variable (possibly closed). If you or kiddos have sensory issues and social anxiety and want to come without crowds, you're currently out of luck. And don't try staying past opening hours unless you want to risk getting escorted out of the playground by cops (as guests were at 4pm on Sunday 9/14).

Thus, check their Facebook page before you try to go first thing in the morning, on a Sunday or after October 1st (when they're rumored to be closing for the season until 'spring'). Sign the change dot org petition, email the council members and/or come to a city council meeting if you want to give input on these hours/availability.

The playground equipment is fantastic, albeit spread out and hard to monitor from most picnic tables or pavilions. It has a wide variety of things that appeal to different ages, from mobile babies up to pre-teens. There are no benches directly around the individual playground structures though, so bring a camp chair or blanket if you don't want to just sit on the ground. The entrance gate is right next to playground equipment with no benches or picnic tables near it, somewhat defeating the point of having only one entrance to monitor kids from escaping without their supervisor's knowledge, w/o following them around (which we already have to to at every other park). At least you can head them off, I guess.

There's no basketball, tennis or pickleball courts, so teens won't have much to do.

Bathrooms are similar to many found in Europe with no gender designations, a combined sink area and single private toilet stall rooms with completely closing/locking doors off of that (see video). Changing rooms can be accessed from the outside of the building. None of the changing rooms or toilets have vacant/occupied indicators.

The flower beds could use some pavers where people constantly cut across the bark dust, because some of the bed placements are strangely right in between play areas.

9/22 Edit - City Council meeting agenda item to discuss operation hours, is during the pre-council this Tuesday.

Also, apparently an 'unauthorized individual' opened the gates today causing the cops to come and escort everyone out again.

The city really doesn't have to make this a big deal, but they are doubling down and it's not...

NO DOGS ALLOWED.

I'd really love to give this place five stars. Like the other reviews say, it's a great park. It's massive, with a giant pavilion in the center and multiple smaller ones scattered throughout. The play areas are engaging and exciting for kids of all ages. The splash pad is a decent size. The landscaping is gorgeous and there are plenty of sun covers. I absolutely love how much parking we have (Vineyard could learn a thing or two LOL).

Our biggest beef was that no dogs are allowed. We had absolutely no idea and didn't even think to look it up and check, since we've never been to a park that has this rule. I've been to parks that require dogs to only be in specific areas, so that they don't shred up the padding, or get their fur into splash pads. Most parks require on-leash anyways. But this one has a big fat sign right at the only entrance that says no dogs are allowed beyond this point at any time. So after a 30-minute drive to get here, we ended up having to split up. My husband and I rotated walking our bernedoodle around the sidewalk surrounding the fence, which had no shade and was very hot, while the other would try to keep an eye on all three of our young kids in this massive park. It turned this would-be fun family trip into a stressful and somewhat miserable experience.

When the park first opened, they were closed on Sundays, which is absolutely wild. I remember hearing about people breaking the lock to the gate to get in (which is also wild, come on guys). They don't have that rule anymore, although according to their sign, the splash pad is closed on Sundays (common practice to have splash pads closed 1 day a week for maintenance). My husband also did some research and found out that there is paid staff there all the time to maintain the park. At first I thought that was weird, but seeing how big it was, how many people were there, how much food was being consumed and how quickly the trash cans filled up...makes sense. I can see some people griping about taxpayer money going towards that kind of thing. I'm kind of on the fence with all of it, I can see the pros and cons for both. But what I still don't get is the no dog rule. Maybe I'm biased, but that seems a bit much.

Overall, it is a nice park, and I'm sure we'll be back again sometime. We just won't be able to come with our entire family, which is a bit ironic considering the name...

It’s sad that these newer parks seem to ignore the needs of kids and the community in order to make city planners happy.

These prefab metal structures are essentially all about making mass production and budgeting easier, but most are executed poorly and all of them get way too hot in the summer (the shade canopies help, but not enough) … and because kids always find an unexpected way to play with things they put up warnings, “No climbing!” … seems like we as adults should design 21st century playgrounds that aren’t so inherently flawed.

The FIVE bathroom sinks are all at adult standing height. Not even those fold up stools they have at the airport. You didn’t consider helping kids wash their hands?!

In this massive park, there are two normal baby/toddler swings. And they are on opposite sides of the park. In Utah, might there be any families with more than one kid that size that might want to swing at the same time?! Or maybe two moms that come to the park together with their toddlers and might enjoy that moment to chat?

The zip line… Have you ever considered how hard a 13 year old can push a younger sibling on that thing? It is more than enough to pendulum them up at the end and slice their head open on that sharp yellow metal arch. I’ve watched it happen at another park.

I know there are some nice elements to this park. But beyond swallowing a single playground manufacturer’s marketing, we’ve spent millions missing the opportunity to create a truly unique and beautiful park that connects us with nature (natural play elements), each other (intentional semicircle seating), and local builders/artists (build with a place-based theme/story). But all the ideas in the world won’t make a difference if you’re too busy to...