On this week’s edition of #PhotowalksTV, I take you to the Heber Valley in Northern Utah, one of the great places in the state, just down the way from Park City, home to amazing views, 150 different varieties of milk shakes, great swimming, historical Swiss homes from the 1850s and much more.
Speaking of history, I thought I’d take a moment and tell you about how Heber came into our lives, way back when.
I had been sent by USA TODAY to profile a company in Salt Lake City that designed roller coasters, and while there, I was encouraged to take a drive down to Park City and look around.
We did just that, but also kept going, down route 189, and ended up in what is now known as the “Heber Valley.” We found a cool place to stay in nearby Midway, a historic, family friendly resort called the Homestead.
We fell in love with the pool, the homemade fudge and the scenery—majestic, snow-capped 11,752 ft Mt. Timpanogos looks down at you from everywhere you stand. (You can see it as far south as 60 miles away.)
We returned a few times, at the Homestead, where on one of those visits, we rented bikes, and ended up going all the way to Heber City, some 3 miles away and ended up on a backroad at 1200 South, 2400 East, which is how streets are named in Utah.
There we saw a “for sale” sign advertising 4.5 acres for $20,000. And it wasn’t just any bland 4.5 acres, but one with that incredible view of Mt. Timp that I mentioned. (Visible pretty much anywhere in Heber and Midway.) You could just imagine an incredible log home sitting on the Graham Family Compound, with Mt. Timp in the background.
Originally, I thought we’d put a trailer on the property for awhile. Then I discovered that we could actually have a vacation log home built, from a kit, for under $100,000. So we did. A local builder named Harold did it for us.
We had a 2400 square foot home built, with four bedrooms, two stories and an unfinished basement, way bigger than what we had back home in Manhattan Beach.
The plan was to visit on holidays and extended vacations. We wanted a vacation home locally, but it wasn’t affordable. However, with the low cost then of airfares and what it cost to build the log cabin, we could make it work.
We knew how great logs looked—but we didn’t realize that logs had this nasty habit of attracting flies, wasps and other winged things that liked to fly in between the logs once they smelled food.
Still we went there for every holiday, and I would spend the entire month of August there, working remotely before anyone knew what the term meant. I was covering TV at the time for USA TODAY, and somehow I actually found shows to visit during my time there, like “Touched By An Angel,” or a TNT movie about the life of Brigham Young.
My favorite season was summer, taking long bike roads down the backroads, and ending up at the Dairy Keen, a greasy spoon in the heart of Heber, the home of 150 varieties of shakes. (They even had one of my articles, framed and hanging up there for years.)
We got a swimming pass at the Homestead, and spent many, many days and nights there in the pool. We did every activity you could name, from boating in Deer Creek to attending the rodeo in nearby Kamas and haunted houses in Provo, and spending lots of time in nearby Park City. Even though I’m not a fan of skiing, we did some of that as well, in Park City and Sundance.
But by 2004, my wife Ruth got bored with going to the same place all the time, and my son Sam had no interest in joining us, so I reluctantly put the house up for sale.
Visits to Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, British Columbia and so many other locations took Heber’s place. And even though I always wanted to come back for a return visit, it just never worked out, until 2023.
My love of the area—both Heber and Park City, was instantly reawakened. The place was actually more beautiful than I remembered, even though both had changed a lot.
The Heber population has nearly quadrupled, from 5,000 to just under 20,000, Heber’s rural, small markets (Duke’s IGA and Day’s) are now giant, chain stores, the tiny hardware shop closed, a Wal-Mart opened on the edge of town, there’s a bagel shop in town with amazing bagels (in Utah!) Large areas that had been wide, open fields are now littered with cookie-cutter homes and fast-food restaurants, but Mt. Timp still towers over everything, the grass is greener than I remember it and Dairy Keen is still churning out those shakes.
On my return visit in 2024, with my Photowalks camera eye focused on both Heber and Midway, I found a new appreciation for both, but especially the tiny Swiss town. Yes, it’s a little bigger now, but it’s kept its heritage intact, with 150-year-old homes built by Swiss settlers, those open fields, and views, views and views. (Love that Memorial Hill for the 360 degree special, and Deer Creek across the way for the morning reflections of Mt. Timp.)
Park City, however, has seen every more massive growth, to the point where local officials now have free city buses driving all over town, encouraging people not to drive, due to the jams. Text a number and you can find out how soon the bus will arrive—usually within minutes.
However, Park City still has miles and miles of amazing trails for biking, hiking and such that get you off the beaten path. One of the highlights of the summer for me was riding an e-bike down the carless “Rail Trail.” Fun stuff and again—those country views. So yeah, Park City is still a special place too.
I hoped to capture my love of the area in both the Heber and Park City episodes. If you haven’t been there before, I encourage you to check them out, especially in summer.
I hope to make it back at least once a year from now on. Heber, Midway and Park City—I love you just as much today as I did yesterday! If not more.
Nice funny too!
This brings back many fond memories of our trips to Heber, though the flies that found their way in through the chinks in the logs are not among them. I do remember climbing almost to the top of Mt. Timp with our son Sam when he was small. It was a long, hot climb, but we saw white mountain goats and carpets of beautiful wildflowers in a rainbow of colors, but we ran out of water and had to give up before we reached the top.
We also visited the famous Timpanogos Caves with their fascinating stalagmites and stalactites and watched our son experience the joys of sledding down a snow hill at top speed with other kids and with his dad, something we definitely never experienced in LA! Visiting Sundance Resort was another fun experience. Yes, many great memories! Nice piece, Jeff!