Heber Valley Moonlit Snowshoeing

This experience was absolutely amazing! If you love being in the mountains, you will love this event! This snowshoeing event takes place in Heber Valley. It is about 45 minutes from Provo, at the Wasatch Mountain State Park.

The snowshoeing event started at 6:45 and we didn’t get back until 9pm. Makes sure to sign up online ahead of time to reserve your spot and your gear if you need gear to rent. The State Park is relatively easy to find, however there is not a lot of parking and sometimes the snow can make it hard to get up into Heber Valley.

The employees here are amazing! I got there super early (about an hour early) so that I wouldn’t get stuck in traffic and the snow, and there was free hot chocolate snacks, a small museum, and the employees were very friendly. They helped everyone put on their snowshoes and gave poles to anyone who needed extra balance help.

They double checked to make sure that everyone was in the right area and had the right level of difficulty. They have a beginner, beginner/intermediate, intermediate, and advanced snowshoe adventure to go on. I signed up to complete the intermediate adventure and I honestly thought it was super easy. If you are fairly active and enjoy hiking/don’t struggle with the outdoors or hiking, intermediate is probably too easy. The advanced hike was actually canceled when I went because there was too much snow and it would be too dangerous.

The intermediate hike was a trail that went up the mountain (in a zig zag pattern) and went around the frozen lake. It was beautiful! It was also done in the dark with no light. I thought it would be super dangerous and scary at first, because I wanted to have a head lamp and flashlight, but it was incredible. The moon was our only light and there was about 30 of us on the hike. We could see so clearly in the dark!

The Wasatch Park employees even taught us about light pollution and how important it is to have dark skies. Our hike was about 2 hours. It was really warm and we took many breaks for a few minutes. About every 10 or 15 minutes, we would stop for a break and get some water. I had on 4 layers of clothing, and I was sweating the first 10 minutes that we were hiking. I ended up taking everything off except for my normal street clothes because it was so nice to hike and snowshoe in.

My husband was supposed to do the snowshoeing activity with me, but he ended up not feeling well when we got there. He was able to hangout in the visitors center while I was on the adventure. There is a small museum to look through and walk through. Refreshments are provided, there is wifi, and he was even able to watch a movie that the visitors center had playing. When I got back to the center, the employees helped take everything off and clean the gear. We were able to hang out and enjoy food until we were ready to leave. This was an incredible experience! They mentioned having a Valentine’s Day moonlit snowshoe adventure in February, so be sure to watch for that!