When passing Deer Creek State Park, you can see boaters, scenic mountain and lakeside views, and…the world’s longest continuous zip line course. That’s right. Zipline Utah is shattering world records in our own backyard.
Zipline Utah owner, Jon Johnson, developed an interest in ziplines at a young age. Growing up in Orderville, Utah, Johnson’s family lived on a sprawling ten acres of land. At age 15, Johnson found a cable on the side of the road, took it home, and had the bright idea to try out configuring his own zip line. His construction went from the top of a hill by his house, and down into the bottom of a tree. He convinced his brother and a friend to give the makeshift cable a try. After a few adjustments, Jon had successfully created his first zipline!
Johnson later built a larger zipline on their property with his father’s help. Word caught on in the community and Johnson was soon constructing backyard ziplines for neighbors. However, as life would have it, Jon’s zipline adventures came to an abrupt stop — not at the end of a tree — but while working in maintenance at BYU for 20 years. Thankfully the break was temporary. Johnson shared, “It felt like Groundhog Day work. You know — the same every day. So, I was trying to figure out ventures I could do to draw me away from that type of work. And then I had the idea to build ziplines again.”
Deer Creek Origins
After assisting Sundance for a year and a half where they built their own zipline, Johnson tried to find another venue to build his own. “I drove by Deer Creek State Park every day as I was heading to work. And I thought, well, maybe they’d want one. So I pitched my idea, they loved it, and the rest is history,” said Johnson.
Open year-round, Zipline Utah offers seven different experience tours taking adventure seekers up spiral staircases, across suspension aerial bridges, and soaring down ziplines. Tours range from $39 for the “Out and Back”, designed for those who want a quick thrill, up to $199 for the “Screaming Falcon Full Adventure”, which features all ten ziplines and seven aerial bridges. To ensure everyone’s safety, two adventure guides accompany guests throughout the entire course.
While most zipline courses start by driving visitors to the top of a hill and then ziplining switchbacks down to the lower valley, Zipline Utah offers courses as a continuous loop. They accomplished this by constructing a series of poles with staircases and bridges to gain elevation as visitors go up the hill. Not only does this make the course the longest continuous zipline course in the world, it also features the longest deployment over water in the world. Johnson explained, “Being almost three-quarters of a mile, that makes our course very unique. Then you add in the views of Deer Creek on top of that, and it’s pretty amazing!”
Building Backyard Magic
Johnson’s love for constructing custom backyard ziplines never went away. Today, Johnson is still designing and building ziplines for the smallest backyards to the largest ranches. After a potential customer reaches out, Johnson and his team visit the property. They discuss ideas and budget, they learn about and understand the terrain, and determine the feasibility of building out the customer’s dream zipline. “We like to get creative and build unique things that people love. The feedback that I’ve had is that kids just love them even if it’s a small zipline,” said Johnson. Every backyard zipline is constructed according to the same commercial specs and regulations as Zipline Utah was.
Zipping Into The Future
Last fall, Zipline Utah added a ropes course to their already extensive adventure offerings. Johnson says the ropes course is one of the largest you’ll come across in the country. It is constructed with larger bridges and five different levels of increasing intensity. In the future, Johnson is planning to build a climbing wall on their main tower. His team also hopes to collaborate with other local adventure operations to offer family-friendly, multifaceted experiences combining elements like UTV, boating, and snowmobiles with ziplining tours.
The sky is literally the limit for Zipline Utah.
Zip on over to ziplineutah.com to book your ultimate Zipline Utah course today! Better yet, give them a call and schedule a visit for them to build your own unique backyard Zipline.
