Best Things to Do in Utah Valley for Notre Dame Fans

16 hours ago

7 min read

If you’re flying halfway across the country to watch Notre Dame play football, don’t make the mistake of seeing nothing but your hotel room, a tailgate, and LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Rocky mountain canyon with layered cliffs and green slopes beneath a bright blue sky with wispy white clouds.

Shot by Mary Harris

The Irish haven’t played in Provo in more than two decades, and part of what makes the October 17 road game worth the trip is everything sitting around it. The Irish Tribune spent several days in Provo and its surrounding area, courtesy of Explore Utah Valley, and we came home with a much better understanding of how to build an entire weekend around three hours of football.

So, if you’re making the trip west this fall, consider this an insider’s starting point: five things we actually saw, climbed, ate, toured, and experienced that can help turn Notre Dame-BYU from another road game into a road trip worth remembering.

Hike the Y

You may consider yourself an athlete, but if you’ve ever wanted to put that to the test, braving the considerable altitude change to climb more than 1,000 vertical feet along a trail of rocky switchbacks up to this iconic local landmark may make you reconsider that notion.

Tree-framed campus lawn with a building, mountain hillside marked by a white Y, under a bright blue sky.

Shot by Mary Harris

The Y Mountain Trail is only about 1.1 miles each way, but Provo itself classifies it as difficult. That's not just due to the 1,000-foot incline, but also because there’s effectively no leisurely warm-up; you start climbing and continue climbing.

But the payoff is spectacular. From the Y, Utah Valley spreads out beneath you: BYU’s campus and LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo and Orem, Utah Lake in the distance and mountains wrapping around nearly everything else.

In most college towns, the stadium is the centerpiece of the trip. In Provo, it feels more like the centerpiece of something much larger.

Connor's practical box: Allow 1½–2 hours so you’re not rushing; bring water; wear actual walking/hiking shoes; remember that you’re starting around 5,200 feet; and prepare yourself emotionally to be humbled by an aging dog, a group of children, or someone’s grandmother passing you briskly with a warm hello.

Dreamwalk Park

The Irish Tribune kicked off our trip by escaping the August heat into one of the most unique attractions I’ve had the pleasure of visiting – Dreamwalk Park.

This 50,000-square-foot, indoor immersive art and walk-through entertainment venue is located inside the University Place mall. It’s a family-friendly walk of nearly half a mile through hand-sculpted, cinematic sci-fi and fantasy environments.

Two men view a glowing purple tunnel-like light installation, one holding a camera rig, with a starry swirl backdrop.

Shot by Mary Harris

Dreamwalk opened in late 2024 after roughly three years and more than 150,000 hours of work, according to its creators. Rather than an art museum where you’re looking at pieces on walls, the idea is to physically walk through a succession of hand-built worlds—sci-fi environments, fantasy landscapes, lighting and sound installations and interactive elements. There are also optional puzzle/scavenger-hunt components built into the experience.

Part of what makes Dreamwalk so special is how unique it really is. There’s a pretty high chance you’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Every corner of the facility is thoughtfully and artistically built to indulge the senses, tickle your curiosity, and give you multiple moments where you just say “Wow.”

Glowing red and purple oversized mushrooms under a dark tree canopy, with twinkling string lights in a magical forest scene

Shot by Mary Harris

It’s also a useful Friday activity because it’s completely weather-proof. If Utah’s weather decides not to cooperate with your carefully planned football weekend, this stop doesn’t care.

For the record, Dreamwalk is technically in Orem, but is very close to Provo proper.

Bridal Veil Falls

One of the strangest things about Utah Valley is how quickly civilization seems to disappear behind you. Just a short way up Provo Canyon lies Bridal Veil Falls, a 607-foot-tall double-cataract waterfall that makes you immediately feel like you’ve entered a completely different world.

Tall waterfall cascading down rocky canyon cliffs under a blue, wispy-cloud sky, with green shrubs on steep slopes.

Shot by Mary Harris

The beauty of the Falls is that it gives you absurd scenery for almost no physical investment. The two-tiered waterfall cascades down the south wall of Provo Canyon, and unlike the Y, you’re not required to question your cardiovascular fitness to see it. Historically, the main viewing area has been reached by a short, essentially flat paved walk.

Note for October 2026: Utah County is in the middle of a multi-year, roughly $7 million reconstruction around the falls. Current reporting says Phase 2 affects access around the base while the waterfall itself remains visible from the canyon road and portions of the Provo River Parkway. Because construction schedules can move, double-check the county’s current access notice again immediately before game week.

Just a few minutes from town, this is a great and easy way to experience some of Utah’s unique natural landscape without having to go far

Explore BYU Campus and LaVell Edwards Stadium

A road trip should feel like a road trip. You should know that you left home.

And when it comes to BYU’s campus and LaVell Edwards Stadium, the mountains do not feel like a distant backdrop. They tower over the place. They aren’t merely a photogenic landscape complementing the scene – they’re reminiscent of a painting commissioned for this very place.

Make sure to get a sneak peek of the stadium before the game so you can fully experience its unique features before the crowds descend.

Empty BYU football stadium with blue seats and green field, mountains towering behind, one person near the 20-yard line.

Shot by Mary Harris

For Notre Dame fans, I’d encourage spending some time around BYU before Saturday’s game-day crush rather than treating campus as something you see exclusively while walking to your seat.

BYU’s own visitor map identifies LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Brigham Young statue, Bell Tower, Harold B. Lee Library, Maeser Building, Y Mountain and the BYU Welcome Sign among its campus picture stops.

And there is a particularly cool wrinkle for this specific game: BYU currently lists purchasable Notre Dame-game experiences including pregame field access, a locker-room/media-room photo experience and the Cougar Walk. Those require a game ticket and are separate add-ons, so check availability well in advance before arriving.

The larger point, though, is cultural. Notre Dame and BYU are two universities whose identities make considerably more sense when you actually walk their campuses. If you’re traveling all this way, give BYU the same curiosity you’d hope visiting fans bring to Notre Dame.

Spend a Few Hours in Downtown Provo

One of my biggest misconceptions before visiting Utah was that Provo would feel more like a collection of buildings surrounding BYU than an actual living city. Downtown changed my mind pretty quickly.

We toured it with local legend Quinn Peterson, Executive Director of Downtown Provo Inc., who picked us up in his one-of-a-kind open-top dune buggy and proceeded to show us a side of the city I hadn’t expected to find. Now, Quinn probably doesn’t have enough room in the buggy for every Notre Dame fan coming to town, so you’ll have to recreate some of the experience yourself.

Start with Thrifthood, especially if you’re a college football junkie. What began in an unfinished basement in 2018 has evolved into a highly curated vintage, streetwear and sneaker shop specializing in pieces from the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. They’re known for old-school BYU gear, but what surprised us was the amount of vintage Notre Dame clothing hiding among the racks. Even if you don’t buy anything, digging through decades of college sportswear is a pretty entertaining walk down

memory lane.

Streetwear shop interior with colorful clothing racks, wooden table on green rug, posters, and a Nike sign on the wall.

Photo via Explore Utah Valley

From there, wander Center Street rather than immediately getting back in the car. Pioneer Book has been selling used and rare books since 1980, while the almost-hidden Tiny Gallery offers exactly what the name suggests: a miniature street-facing gallery with rotating art exhibits. Music fans can check what’s happening at Velour Live Music Gallery or B-Side HiFi, an intimate listening room built around the increasingly novel concept of sitting down and actually listening to an entire record.

There’s history mixed into those same few blocks. Much of Center Street runs through Provo’s historic downtown district, while the Provo City Center Temple rose from the remains of the historic Provo Tabernacle after it was gutted by fire in 2010. You don’t need an itinerary for every building; part of the fun is simply looking up from the storefronts every once in a while.

Then eat.

Guru’s Cafe is a great option for a group, with an enormous menu covering just about every possible preference. Owner Dean Judd recommends the signature sweet potato fries with Utah fry sauce, while I personally suggest ordering the skillet cookie for the table — which I may or may not have eaten nearly all of.

Shot by Mary Harris

For something considerably different, Black Sheep Cafe serves Native American Southwestern fusion, with roughly 80 percent of its food made from scratch. Try the Navajo taco, traditional frybread, green chile frites and prickly pear lemonade.

And if you’re downtown in the morning, make a stop at The Kolache Place. The family-owned Provo staple began in 2014 as Hruska’s Kolaches before rebranding in 2026 and still makes its Texas-style sweet and savory kolaches from scratch each morning. I’d go sausage and gravy, blackberry and cream cheese, or the Monte Cristo – or, if you’re operating under the same lack of restraint we were, several of them.

If you’re around Saturday morning before the game, the Provo Farmers Market is scheduled to run at Pioneer Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through the end of October. Depending on kickoff time, that gives Irish fans another distinctly local way to spend a few hours before heading toward BYU.

Don’t treat downtown as the place you pass through between your hotel and the stadium. Give yourself a couple of hours without much of a plan. Eat something you haven’t had before. Dig through racks of 30-year-old college football gear. Wander Center Street. Duck into whatever catches your attention.

Let Provo actually feel like the college town you flew across the country to visit.

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