Thanksgiving Point isn't one building with one parking lot. It's two separate campuses in Lehi, split by a stretch of I-15 frontage road, and a ticket that gets your group into the dinosaurs doesn't automatically get you into the gardens next door. Show up expecting a single lot and half your group heads the wrong way while the other half circles for a spot outside Ashton Gardens.
A charter bus or party bus rental solves both halves of that problem in one trip — one pickup, one drop at each campus, no one left hunting for the rest of the group.
Below is exactly how a group actually moves through Thanksgiving Point: which campus holds which attraction, how the venue's own stay-on-the-bus check-in works for field trips, what group admission costs for 10 people versus 300, and what a charter bus rental or party bus rental runs to put the whole day — or the whole Luminaria night — on one vehicle.
Thanksgiving Point Has Two Campuses — Plan Your Bus Around Both
Thanksgiving Point operates as two campuses in Lehi: the Water Tower Campus, home to the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life, Jurassic Jungle, Curiosity Farms, and the Butterfly Biosphere; and the Gardens Campus, home to the Museum of Natural Curiosity, the Carousel, and Ashton Gardens. Each campus has its own entrance, its own check-in, and its own lot. A family or youth group that buys a combo ticket covering both often doesn't realize the two campuses aren't walking distance apart until they're standing at the wrong gate.
That's the detail that decides your pickup plan. If your itinerary covers just one campus, one drop-off gets the whole group in. If it covers both, the bus needs to know it's making two stops on the same trip — not one.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at the Water Tower Campus
The Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life sits at 2929 N. Thanksgiving Way, Lehi, UT 84048, open Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 8 pm, and closed Sundays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. The Butterfly Biosphere is a short walk over at 3003 N. Thanksgiving Way, on the same curb loop as the museum. Curiosity Farms, the working farm and hands-on science area, has its own separate address at 2502 W. Wildflower Lane — close enough to the museum to be the same campus, far enough that it needs its own drop, not a shared one.
Because Curiosity Farms has its own street address, a group hitting both the dinosaurs and the farm in one visit is really making two stops, not one. Telling the group in advance which curb to expect at each stop keeps forty kids and a handful of chaperones from splitting up between buildings.
Charter Bus & Party Bus Drop-Off at the Gardens Campus and Ashton Gardens
Ashton Gardens is at 3900 N. Garden Drive, Lehi, UT 84048, and keeps longer hours than the Water Tower side — Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 9 pm, closed Sundays. The Museum of Natural Curiosity and the Carousel sit just up the road at 3605 Garden Drive. The two are close enough that a single drop near Garden Drive covers both, which is not the case on the Water Tower side.
Ashton Gardens Wedding Groups
Ashton Gardens also runs as an indoor wedding and reception venue through its Visitor Center on the Gardens Campus. For out-of-town guests staying near I-15 hotels, the Visitor Center check-in isn't the same door as the general-admission gate, so a wedding party needs a pickup plan and a clear drop point sorted out before the day, not a text sent from inside a garden where the signal is unreliable. A Lehi wedding shuttle covers that gap and keeps the guest list arriving together instead of trickling in car by car.
How Bus Check-In Works for School and Field Trip Groups
Thanksgiving Point's own field trip page spells out exactly what happens when a bus pulls up: Please stay on the bus. A Thanksgiving Point Team Member will come on board and provide instructions for the students.
A staff member boards to check in with the lead teacher and confirm payment while everyone else stays seated for a rules briefing and wristbands, all according to the field trips page.
That single-stop check-in is one of the clearest reasons a bus beats a caravan of parent cars for a school trip — the venue only has to process one group once, instead of a car window at a time.
Chaperone ratios are fixed: 1 adult to every 5 students for PreK through middle school, and 1 to 10 for high school groups, with extra chaperones beyond that ratio billed at $6 per person, up to 10 paid by the school. For Museum of Ancient Life field trips specifically, requests run $4–$7 per student and must go in at least 30 days in advance — not a plan you make the week before.
Lunch has its own rule, too: schools can't eat inside any venue building. Curiosity Farms is the one exception, with a covered outdoor pavilion available only for field trips scheduled at 9:45 am, 10:45 am, or 11:45 am. Booking outside those three windows means packing lunch back onto the bus instead.
For the full range of school-day logistics, the Lehi field trip transportation page covers pickup timing and multi-stop routes beyond Thanksgiving Point.
Thanksgiving Point Group Pricing for Youth, Church, and Community Groups
Outside the school system — scout troops, ward youth groups, day camps — Thanksgiving Point prices by headcount, not a flat per-person rate all the way up. Under 10 guests pay the standard individual rate. Groups of 10 to 36 pay $11 per person.
Groups of 37 to 100 pay a flat $400 no matter the exact count in that range. Groups of 101 to 300 pay $800 plus $5 for each guest past 100, according to the religious and youth group reservations page.
| Group size | Admission structure |
|---|---|
| Under 10 guests | Standard individual rate |
| 10–36 guests | $11 per person |
| 37–100 guests | $400 flat |
| 101–300 guests | $800 plus $5 per guest over 100 |
Reservations for 10 or more need at least 3 days' notice for tickets alone, and 14 days for package reservations that bundle add-ons. The venue is direct about the fine print, too: a request is NOT final until confirmed and communicated by Thanksgiving Point staff.
Group discount pricing also has blackout dates — it doesn't apply during Luminaria or Tulip Festival, the two busiest stretches of the year, so a youth group leader planning around either event should expect standard admission instead.
Separately, Curiosity Farms offers its own 20% discount for groups of 20 or more visiting that venue specifically, per the Curiosity Farms page. For ward and stake groups coordinating a bus alongside all of this, the Lehi church transportation page covers pickup for youth activities and multi-group outings.
What a Bus Skips: Parking at Thanksgiving Point
Thanksgiving Point doesn't publish a general parking rate for a normal admission day, but during its two ticketed seasonal events, parking becomes its own planning problem. At Tulip Festival, general parking is free but limited and first-come, first-served; preferred parking closer to the entrance runs $8 per vehicle, charged electronically only, according to the Tulip Festival page. On a sold-out Saturday, that means every car in your group is either paying $8 individually or gambling on the free lot filling up before they arrive.
A bus skips both problems — it drops your group at the entrance and stages nearby, no lot roulette, no per-vehicle charge multiplied by however many cars showed up.
What Size Charter Bus or Party Bus Fits Your Thanksgiving Point Group?
No two Thanksgiving Point groups are the same size, and Lehiminibuscompany.com makes it easy to compare vehicles instead of guessing. A small family reunion or church activity of 10 to 14 fits comfortably in a Sprinter van. A scout troop or single classroom in the 18- to 25-person range is a natural fit for an 18-passenger minibus, and a full grade-level or larger ward group moves well in a 30-passenger minibus.
For a whole-school field trip or a 40-plus person community outing, a Lehi charter bus rental keeps everyone on one vehicle with room for coats, backpacks, and the gear that comes home from Curiosity Farms.
Luminaria draws a different kind of group — adults doing a holiday night out rather than a school day trip. A Lehi party bus rental fits that outing well: built-in lighting and sound for the ride over, then a straight run home after 8 million lights and a stop for hot cocoa. Browse the full vehicle lineup to compare seat counts side by side before you request a quote.
Getting to Thanksgiving Point from Salt Lake City, Provo, and the Airport
Lehi sits roughly midway down the I-15 corridor between Salt Lake City and Provo — about 30 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City, about 20 miles north of Provo, and about 32 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport. Both campuses sit just west of I-15, reached via Thanksgiving Way on the Water Tower side and Garden Drive on the Gardens side.
Groups flying into Salt Lake City International Airport and heading straight to Thanksgiving Point skip the rental-car counter entirely with one bus gathering the whole group at baggage claim and running them down I-15 to whichever campus is first on the itinerary.
Moving Your Group Between the Two Campuses
Since the dinosaurs and the gardens sit on separate addresses, a group covering both in one day needs a real plan for the hop between them, not a five-minute walk that turns out to be a mile down surface streets. A bus makes that hop simple: park once, ride the short stretch between Thanksgiving Way and Garden Drive, and skip re-parking twice in one afternoon.
For a full-day itinerary hitting more than one Thanksgiving Point stop, or Thanksgiving Point plus a second Lehi destination, the Lehi group transportation services page covers how multi-stop routing gets built around your schedule instead of the other way around.
Luminaria, Tulip Festival, and the Thanksgiving Point Calendar That Fills Buses Fast
Two events on the Thanksgiving Point calendar draw crowds heavy enough to change how a group should plan its bus. Tulip Festival runs each spring at Ashton Gardens, typically opening in early April and running into mid-May, with more than a million flowers across 50 acres and time-ticketed, capacity-limited entry. Luminaria runs the opposite end of the year — this season's dates stretch from November 12 through January 10, closed Sundays, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, with 8 million lights spread across the same 50 acres after dark.
Both events sell out individual time slots and both fall under the group-discount blackout dates noted earlier — standard admission applies, and standard admission fills fast. Because vehicle demand climbs right alongside ticket demand during these two windows, locking in a bus early matters more here than for an ordinary Tuesday field trip. For any event-day pickup timing beyond Thanksgiving Point itself, the Lehi event transportation page covers how that scheduling works.
Thanksgiving Point Charter Bus & Party Bus Rental Prices
What a Thanksgiving Point bus rental costs comes down to a few clear factors: the size of vehicle your headcount needs, how many hours you keep it (a quick Water Tower visit prices differently than a full day covering both campuses), whether your date falls during Tulip Festival or Luminaria, and how far the pickup is from Lehi.
To give you an idea: a 45-person youth group visiting on a regular Saturday falls in the 37–100 admission tier, so the group pays a flat $400 at the gate. Split across a 6-hour charter bus rental for the day, the transportation cost divides evenly across every rider instead of forty-five separate parking headaches and gas tanks. Every figure here is meant to help you plan — for pricing built around your actual group size, date, and pickup point through Lehiminibuscompany.com, fill out the quick quote form or call 385-746-6430 and get a number in about a minute.
The Lehi bus rental prices page breaks down what shapes the quote in more detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does a charter bus drop off at Thanksgiving Point?
It depends on which campus you're visiting. The Water Tower Campus drop serves the Museum of Ancient Life and Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Way, with Curiosity Farms on its own separate curb at Wildflower Lane. The Gardens Campus drop on Garden Drive serves both Ashton Gardens and the Museum of Natural Curiosity.
A group covering both campuses needs two planned stops, not one.
Is Thanksgiving Point one parking area or two?
Two. The Water Tower Campus and the Gardens Campus are separate properties in Lehi with their own entrances and lots, connected by a short drive rather than a shared walkway.
How does bus check-in work for a school field trip?
The group stays seated on the bus while a Thanksgiving Point staff member boards to check in with the lead teacher, confirm payment, and hand out wristbands and rules to the whole group at once, per the venue's own field trips page.
What's the group discount for youth and church groups?
Groups of 10 to 36 pay $11 per person, groups of 37 to 100 pay a flat $400, and groups of 101 to 300 pay $800 plus $5 per guest over 100, according to the religious and youth group reservations page. That pricing doesn't apply during Luminaria or Tulip Festival.
Is Thanksgiving Point open on Sundays?
No. Every venue across both campuses closes Sundays, along with Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
How much does parking cost at Thanksgiving Point?
During Tulip Festival, general parking is free but limited and first-come, first-served, with preferred parking near the entrance available for $8 per vehicle, electronic payment only. A regular admission day doesn't have a published parking rate.
What size bus fits a school field trip to Thanksgiving Point?
Chaperone ratios run 1 adult to 5 students for PreK through middle school and 1 to 10 for high school, so vehicle size depends on your class or grade count plus that ratio. A single classroom typically fits an 18- to 25-passenger minibus, while a full grade level needs a full-size charter bus.
How far ahead should we book Thanksgiving Point group tickets?
Groups of 10 or more need at least 3 days' notice for tickets alone and 14 days for package reservations. Museum of Ancient Life field trips specifically require a request 30 days in advance. Booking the bus on the same early timeline avoids scrambling for a vehicle the week of the trip.
Can a party bus work for a Luminaria night out?
Yes — Luminaria draws adult groups doing a holiday outing rather than a school-day trip, and a party bus rental's onboard lighting and sound fits that kind of night better than a standard minibus.
Where's the nearest major road to Thanksgiving Point?
Both campuses sit just west of I-15 in Lehi, reached via Thanksgiving Way on the Water Tower side and Garden Drive on the Gardens side.
Also planning a BYU game at LaVell Edwards Stadium or a Real Salt Lake match at America First Field? Those guides cover their own drop-offs.
Book Your Thanksgiving Point Bus Rental Today
Whether it's a single-classroom field trip to the Museum of Ancient Life, a full ward activity covering both campuses, or an adult night out at Luminaria, Lehiminibuscompany.com makes it easy to compare vehicles sized for your Thanksgiving Point group. Fill out the quick quote form or call 385-746-6430 any time to see pricing and available buses in about a minute.
