Provo, UT

The Hill Air Force Base is just a little over an hour away from Provo, right outside of Layton, and the Hill Aerospace Museum is a fantastic place to go for day out. Mike and I went with his family, and although I wasn’t super excited about it to begin with, I discovered that it’s actually a really fun place to see. The museum is open from 9 am to 4:30 pm every day of the year except Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, and New Year’s Day. Admission is free, but the museum accepts donations if you feel inclined to contribute.
First we walked around the outdoor exhibit, which is what you see when you first pull in to the parking lot. There are several planes and helicopters out there, and you can walk right up and take pictures next to them; they also have underside hatches open on many of them, so you can walk under the plane and see some of the things inside. If you’re going to spend time in the outdoor exhibit, make sure you take some water (and it wouldn’t hurt to wear a hat too). It takes a while if you want to see all the planes up close, and in the summer it’s really hot.

If you need a bathroom, they have fairly big ones inside, which is where we went next. They’re right across from the gift shop (which we hit at the end) and the info desk, where you can buy a museum guide for $7 or ask questions of the attendant. Then we looked at the indoor exhibits, which are all air conditioned. There are two large galleries inside, and these include mannequins that are dressed up in period costumes to go with the aircraft. There are photograph, text, and video displays along the walls with information about the planes, and there’s even a cell phone tour—you call the phone number and get a guided tour throughout the galleries.

In the front of the museum, across from the info desk, is a room called the Uniform Room, which is exactly what it sounds like—there are mannequins wearing uniforms from all different military organizations and time periods. After we visited this room, we went to the gift shop, where there are lots of really fun things to look at on your way out. (For the record, the gift shop does not accept American Express.)

You can spend as long as you want in the museum, depending on your level of interest; for those who are avid military, history, or war buffs, there is no end to the exciting information you can learn. But if you’re like me and this isn’t exactly your cup of tea, you’ll at least have fun looking at some really cool aircraft. There’s just too much there to be able to see everything in one trip, and I would definitely go back.