Highland Glen Park is an urban oasis
An oasis from urban sprawl, Highland Glen Park’s wooded setting is a great place for a quick nature fix. There you’ll find picnic areas, a playground, a fishing pond and trails for jogging or biking.
Located to the west of Lone Peak High School, you can enter the park from Knight Avenue in Highland on the east side of the park or from West Park Road just off the Alpine Highway on the west side of the park.
My family went for a bike ride on a beautiful October day. We parked at the playground and then explored the trails from there. The temperature was perfect and the fall colors were fabulous.
We rode for a while and then stopped to feed ducks at the pond. I think that was my kids’ favorite part.
The trails in Highland Glen Park are short and mostly dead-end at a picnic table or hook into the trail around the pond. It is a great place for kids to get a taste of mountain biking. The trails are paved, but there are a few bumpy places and a few places where the pavement ends, but a narrow dirt trail continues.
The ride was easy enough for my son to do with his training wheels, though he did have to stop and push his bike through some bumpy spots. Riding the woody trails made my kids feel like they were really mountain biking and gave them a big boost of confidence in their skills.
If you’re looking for a longer bike ride, a trail on the east side of the pond heads east out of the park and hooks into a trail along the Lone Peak Highway. The trail follows the road north a little ways on the east side of the road, then turns north and goes through Cedar Hills to the mouth of American Fork Canyon.
Fishing is popular at the park. The 3-acre pond is stocked by the Division of Wildlife Resources. Likely catches are channel catfish and rainbow trout, but the lucky may hook at blue gill, large mouth bass or yellow perch. The fishing limit is four.
Emily Gillingwater, Highland City community enhancement coordinator, said youth fishing classes are held at Highland Glen in the spring and there is some ice fishing available in the winter. In June there are also National Trails Day activities and a Youth Fishing Derby.
Park hours are from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. There is one large pavilion that can be rented out by contacting the city, but only during the summer months.
Gillingwater said the trails are often cleared in the winter, but snow removal is on a priority system, and the parks and trails are only done after all the streets are cleared.
