Every Highland summer looks the same from a distance. There's the Fling, there's the trail, and there's whatever the family manages to squeeze in around soccer and swim team. But the calendar this year rewards residents who read it as one connected week rather than a series of separate outings. The Fling weekend anchors the last stretch of July, the Murdock Canal Trail turns the town's parks into a single corridor, and the food scene along Alpine Highway has quietly caught up to the population.
The thesis is simple. Most of Highland's best summer moments happen within a two-mile radius of Heritage Park, and the 2026 schedule stacks them tighter than usual. If you plan around that geography instead of jumping from event to event across the valley, the season gets easier.
The Fling is three events stacked into one weekend
The Highland Fling runs from Thursday, July 30 through Saturday, August 1, and the mistake most first-time attendees make is treating it as a single festival. It isn't. Each night has its own tone, and the schedule is built so that families can dip into the parts that fit and skip the rest without missing the arc.
Thursday is Heritage Night. Friday is Ignite the Future Day, weighted toward the town's youth programming. Saturday is the marquee: parade in the morning, Highland Games all day at Heritage Park, and the crowd peaks in the afternoon.
| Day | Anchor Event | Notable Details |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, July 30 | Heritage Night at Heritage Park | Fireman fundraiser dinner from the Lone Peak Fire Department, interactive blacksmith demonstration, and a car show in partnership with J.C. Hackett from 5–8 p.m. Celtic dancing presented by Barclay School of Dance and Archibald Academy of Dance runs 5:30–6:00 p.m. |
| Thursday evening | Live entertainment | Earth Wings Bird Show from 6:00–7:00 p.m., followed by Synkofa Celtic Band from 7:15–8:15 p.m. |
| Friday, July 31 | Strongman Competition | Utah Heavy Athletics Strongman event runs 4:30–8:30 p.m. at Heritage Park, 10400 Alpine Hwy |
| Saturday, August 1 | Parade + Highland Games | Parade steps off at 9:00 a.m. from 10865 N. 6000 W.; the Highland Games feature the Caber Toss, Weight for Height, Stone Put, State Hammer Championship, and Sheaf Toss for Height |
Two practical notes. First, admission is free for all spectators at the Highland Games, so Saturday is the lowest-friction entry point if you're bringing extended family who haven't been before. Second, the parade route starts at Highland Elementary, which means the neighborhoods along 6000 West fill up early. If you're not walking from home, arrive before 8:30.
The Murdock Canal Trail is the town's summer infrastructure
Residents who moved here from denser cities sometimes miss that the Murdock Canal Trail isn't a recreational amenity in the ordinary sense. It's the connective tissue that ties the north half of the valley together. The paved trail opened in May 2013 atop the now-enclosed canal, and its 20.8-mile route connects seven communities at the base of Mount Timpanogos. Highland sits roughly in the middle, which is the practical advantage.
The two trailheads inside city limits do different jobs. Mitchell Hollow at 10400 North 6400 West functions as a full-day base — restrooms, water fountains, a playscape, volleyball court, soccer field, and a covered pavilion with picnic tables and grills tucked into a grove of trees. Highland Glen at 4800 West Knight Avenue sits 2.4 miles further south along the trail and is the better bet for nature-focused mornings, with a playscape about a 0.4-mile walk from the trailhead. The Highland Glen Park itself has a swimming pond, which becomes the deciding factor on July afternoons when the pavement radiates.
One thing worth internalizing: the canal underneath the trail is a working piece of infrastructure. It carries municipal water between April and October and is decommissioned each winter, which is why the surface stays usable year-round but the surrounding landscaping peaks in June and early July before the summer heat sets in. If you're planning the one big family ride of the season, the last week of June through mid-July is the window.
A Highland summer week, actually assembled
Here's how the pieces fit together if you're building a real week around them rather than treating each as a separate errand.
- Monday or Tuesday morning: Ride or walk from Mitchell Hollow south to Highland Glen. The out-and-back is about five miles, mostly flat, and the underpasses handle the busy road crossings. Bring swim gear for the pond at Highland Glen.
- Wednesday evening: Pick up dinner along the Alpine Highway corridor. Captain Remo Fresh Fish, Ocotillo Prime, Mastra, Little India, Sur Cafe, PoPIE 1929, and Sol Agave rank among the Highland-area restaurants updated for 2026 on Yelp, and the mix skews more interesting than it did five years ago.
- Thursday, July 30: Walk into the Fling around 5 p.m. for the car show and blacksmith demonstration, stay for the Earth Wings Bird Show at 6, and leave before the Celtic band if you have young kids.
- Saturday, August 1: Parade at 9, then either commit to the full Highland Games or head south on the trail to burn off restlessness before returning for the afternoon.
- Sunday morning: Drive fifteen minutes south to the first Northern Utah location of Pinkbox Doughnuts at 610 W. Main St. in American Fork for the reward lap.
The point isn't that this exact schedule is optimal. It's that Highland's summer geography rewards clustering. The Fling, the two trailheads, and the eating options all sit inside a corridor you can cover on a bike.
Small details residents miss
Two programs quietly widen what the summer can include. Highland City runs a Hooked on Fishing program aimed at youth ages 6 to 13, focused on fishing and aquatic resources, and it's an easier point of entry for kids than most parents realize. Sign-ups run through the city's events page. Separately, the Park Pavilion Reservation calendar opens on the first business day of January each year, which matters because the Mitchell Hollow pavilion is the single best birthday-party venue in town and it books out fast.
The trail also connects to more than the two Highland trailheads suggest. The route runs from about a mile from the mouth of Provo Canyon in Orem north to Traverse Mountain in Lehi, and the Highland Glen trail links east to the mouth of American Fork Canyon. That second connection is the one that turns an ordinary evening ride into something more interesting, since it opens up the canyon's shade during the hottest weeks.
One more thing on the food side. Harvest at Thanksgiving Point sits in Water Tower Plaza and serves contemporary versions of comfort classics, and it's the closest thing to a proper anniversary-dinner room within a fifteen-minute drive of central Highland. Worth keeping in the back pocket for the week when the summer schedule finally lets up.
The read for the season
The Fling gets the attention because it's the loudest weekend on the calendar, but a Highland summer that's built entirely around those three days feels thinner than it should. The residents who get the most out of the season treat the Fling as the exclamation point on a rhythm that's already been running since June, with the canal trail as the through-line and the parks at either end doing the actual work of keeping kids occupied. Once you see the geometry, the calendar starts planning itself.
If you're thinking about how a Highland home fits into that geography, or you're preparing to sell and want to understand how proximity to the trail and Heritage Park translates into buyer demand, Tricia Vanderkooi knows this corridor block by block. Get your free home valuation to see where your property sits in the current market.
