Utah Valley Family Adventures: Bear River Migratory Refuge

One of our favorite adventures is to the Bear River Migratory Refuge just outside of Brigham City. This is a free activity (if you can afford the gas!) with a visitor's center, a short walk, and a long drive around the refuge. The visitor's center is located just off of 1-15 (exit 363: Forest Street exit). Just get off the freeway and go west about 1 block. The center is located on the left.

At the visitor's center, there is a gift shop, some cool educational exhibits (ever pet a skunk?), and a few ponds to look in. We always see coots and swallows here, but last week we saw really big green toads all around the edge of the pond. There was even a muskrat and some huge carp swimming around.

You can also take a short walk here that goes from the visitor's center around the ponds and back to the parking lot. We usually don't see much on this walk because it gets a lot of traffic from noisy walkers.

After you spend some time at the visitor center, there is a drive around the refuge that we love. It takes about an hour. This is where we spot some more unique birds and we usually see carp jumping out of the lake. We love to stop here because it breaks up our drive from Grandma's house, but we also have a soft spot for birds. Here are some birds (and animals) that we saw on our last trip over Spring Break.