This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Childhood memories are sketchy. I can remember certain events of my youth like they were yesterday, but not always exactly where they happened.

I sat down the other day and tried to remember my first trip to a Utah state park.

A mosquito-plagued trip to Rockport with my dad's co-workers? Cat fishing at Utah Lake? A touristy stop at This Is The Place? A trip to Antelope Island with a crazy — I say that in a loving way — great aunt? A family fishing trip to Scofield when my brother caught what has affectionately become known as "The Shark?"

Perhaps there are simply too many memories involving Utah State Parks that they have all become mingled into one massive scrapbook of my past.

Ultimately, the reason so many of the memories exist is that it was so cheap to create them. My family didn't have a lot of money for big road trips when I was a kid. When we did get out of the Salt Lake Valley it was typically to one of the state parks or the Uinta Mountains.

It didn't take long for my parents to realize that loading us into the car for a picnic on the shores of a reservoir or into the truck and camper for a weekend of fishing was not only inexpensive compared with other things we could do, but it was also WHAT we wanted to do.

In the case of Antelope Island, my great aunt Winnie took it upon herself to show us the wonders of the Great Salt Lake. We made many trips in her 1962 Volkswagen from her Syracuse home to Antelope Island and made one particularly fond memory during a boating trip on the lake to catch brine shrimp.

After much consideration, I've decided that my first Utah State Park visit was probably when my dad took my brother and me on a fishing trip at Utah Lake. I was probably 6 or 7 years old. We still talk about that day.

As I got older, more parks were added to the mix and the trips morphed into combination camping, boating, fishing and riding OHV adventures. Places such as Deer Creek, Willard Bay, East Canyon, Quail Creek, Jordanelle, Hyrum, Bear Lake, Yuba, Sand Hollow, and Starvation were crossed off my life list.

Along the way I found opportunities to visit Anasazi and Frontier Homestead state parks.

Once I had my own family, I experienced other parks for the first time and for different reasons: hiking in Snow Canyon; staying in the cabins and hiking in Kodachrome Basin; checking out the dinosaur tracks at Red Fleet; taking in the view at Dead Horse Point and spending Easter in Goblin Valley.

My job as a writer at The Tribune has also led to trips to state parks. I watched then-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman allow himself to be talked into some tandem paragliding during the dedication of the state Flight Park at Point of the Mountain and have vivid memories of an incredible sunset and moonrise during a sailing trip out of Great Salt Lake State Marina.

The cost for all these state parks trips — outside of gas, food, fishing equipment and lodging — was cheaper than entry into movie, most museums and any amusement park.

State parks entrance fees range from $6 to $10 per private vehicle with up to eight people in the car. A night at the movies, not counting goodies, for a family of four with two kids under 11 at the downtown Salt Lake theater is $29.50. That's for maybe two hours of sitting in the dark with no interaction with your family.

Compare that to a full day of playing on the beach, swimming, fishing, hiking at a state park for up to eight people for $10. And, if you can't afford that there is a program that allows a card-carrying library member to check out a state parks pass and visit for free.

It is overused, but there is only one word that an describe the value of helping your children develop a healthy and lifelong interest in the outdoors: priceless.

Brett Prettyman is an outdoors columnist. Reach him at brettp@sltrib.com