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Rock Cliff Nature Center will reopen to the public in May

Rock Cliff Nature Center
Utah State Parks
Rock Cliff Nature Center

The Rock Cliff Nature Center located on the east end of the Jordanelle Reservoir shut down eleven years ago when flooding damaged the building and infrastructure. Thanks to the work of the Wasatch Mountain Institute, the facility is reopening to the public this spring.

The Wasatch Mountain Institute – a nonprofit organization - was formed in 2019 just months before the pandemic hit. It survived and according to Executive Director Hilary Lambert, it is continuing its mission of providing outdoor recreation and science education for youth, similar to what the Teton Science School has offered for decades in Jackson, WY.

“Our founder Jack Shea was the executive director of the Science School for many years. And he had a vision of making the type of education that the Science School provides more equitable by locating a campus closer to Salt Lake and Park City and being able to reach the Salt Lake, Heber, and Utah valleys and making that type of education accessible to all of the people here because transportation is often a barrier to outdoor recreation.”

The Institute is in the process of getting a development agreement signed with Utah State Parks to develop their campus and headquarters on a parcel of land at Wasatch Mountain State Parks. In the meantime, they’ve raised money and secured grants to reopen the Rock Cliff Nature Center. Utah State Parks closed the center in 2011 when the Weber River flooded, damaging the restrooms, boardwalks, and power sources.

“This the perfect location for outdoor education,” Lambert said. “It's like the perfect place to take someone who's never been camping before. It's really comfortable. It's really safe. It's close to home but doesn't feel close to home. And so, we just fell in love with the location. And we worked as a nonprofit partner to write a couple of different grants that funded the rehabilitation of the boardwalks, all of the sewer and power.”

They were able to reopen the Rock Cliff center last November, and State Parks will reopen it to the public this spring.

“So, around May, “ she said, “ visitors should be able to, you know, see an interpretive ranger at the desk in the nature center for the first time in quite some time. So, we're really proud of that collaboration and the partnerships and the fact that we've brought this really beautiful public asset back to life.”

She says they’re developing partnerships with school districts and independent schools and doing field science on snowshoes in the winter and hiking, camping, and birdwatching when it warms up.

To help support their efforts, the Institute is selling tickets to an online Outdoor Backcountry Film Festival. Tickets must be purchased by end of day Saturday (2/19/22) and films can be screened for a week after that. Go online to wasatchmountaininstitute.org.