I recently hiked to the top of Provo Peak with my husband on a weekday evening. We left home after dinner, drove up Provo Canyon to the trailhead, and summited just in time to witness a stunning orange sunset filling the sky over Utah Valley, with Utah Lake serving as a reflecting pool for the sun and surrounding mountains. While this particular hike was a little steeper than our usual outings, it was one of my many regular family leisure experiences that originated in Provo Canyon.
Each time I go to Provo Canyon, I believe more and more that calling our state “bea-UTAH-ful” is an understatement.
The benefits of regular leisure activities for families
Family leisure scholars call close-to-home regular leisure experiences core leisure. Core leisure is characterized by being familiar, near home, easy to pull off and inexpensive or free. It might be Water Wednesdays for families with kids or Saturday morning workouts. Park visits, pickleball, picnics, walks at dusk, bike rides and hikes near home all fit this description too.
The benefits of active core leisure are hard to duplicate in other settings. Physically engaging activities can create space to be offline and have distance from electronic devices. Active core leisure fosters physical and emotional well-being, relieves stress, and strengthens relationships with others through the accumulation of experiences that build trust, communication and shared memories. Importantly, these benefits may be most impactful for families from disadvantaged groups.
What makes core leisure experiences doable for families relates to two key concepts: proximity and price. In terms of location, families must have easy access to high-quality natural environments within a short distance that are conducive to recreation. In terms of costs, research on families — including my own — shows that leisure is sensitive to price.
Families can’t regularly engage in leisure if they are priced out, and lower-income families are especially sensitive to price. In short, there is high social value in protecting public spaces that are both accessible and low-cost to families.
What Provo Canyon brings to Utahns
It’s not coincidental that Provo Canyon is adjacent to one of the happiest communities in America. Provo Canyon has always been part of the “Welcome Home” spirit of Provo and the “Family City USA” spirit of Orem. Provo Canyon is Provo’s most visited and iconic natural feature. The low-development and highly natural environment of Provo Canyon supports healthy core leisure for families in Utah County. The cooler temperatures make it especially pleasant in the summer.
On a given day, thousands of people visit the canyon to bike, hike, walk, run, tube, camp, fish, rollerblade, skateboard, picnic, bird-watch, do outdoor yoga and so much more. Families, students, sports teams and young adult church groups in Utah County retreat to Provo Canyon for recreational experiences in nature. The open accessibility of such a high-quality natural environment in Provo Canyon is an important part of what makes Happy Valley, well, Happy Valley.
Currently developers want to build an amphitheater, hotel and shopping development in Provo Canyon. Termed the Vesper project, the proposed venture would have 20,000 seats, making it one of the largest if not the largest outdoor amphitheater in the country. Most outdoor amphitheaters like this hold events nearly every night in the summer. To be sure, the concept of building an amphitheater with retail and a hotel has merit. Utah has a long tradition of valuing and supporting performing arts.
From my perspective, building such a large commercial venue in the proposed location would be a net negative. Among other concerns, it would displace core leisure in Provo Canyon. With only one road into the narrow canyon and no freeway access for miles, traffic congestion in the canyon, in Provo and in Orem would seriously hinder canyon access and parking for Utah County families.
The proximity of the proposed commercial venue to canyon parks, trails and the Provo River would create significant noise, light and crowding spillovers that would negatively impact the canyon’s ambiance, natural character and peaceful environment.
In a word, a large commercial venue would supplant the core leisure experiences families need. I can’t help but think that Provo would lose something precious by selling public land and rezoning for the proposed commercial development in Provo Canyon. Healthy and accessible outdoor active recreation is more important than ever for Utahns right now.
Let’s keep the bea-UTAH-ful natural recreation spaces we have.