I had some time to kill and wandered the area with my dog in tow. I found the area to be…read moresurprisingly well maintained and enjoyed the little pocket of "nature" and stream within the city. There was no camping or strewn trash visible during my visit. Was a nice scenic route to Sugarhouse Park from the shopping center.

This is a beautiful public lands small park owned by SLC. Parleys Creek runs through it and it…read moreconnects to Sugarhouse Park through an under the road (1300) tunnel. Failed policies, misguided bleeding hearts and restrictions or handcuffs placed on the Police and other agencies have led to it being overrun with homeless, strewn with trash and a public safety risk. One camp of multiple persons was physically right on top of Parleys Creek into which they were throwing trash, defecating, cooking and washing. Parleys Creek is supposed to be a PROTECTED WATERSHED in drought prone UTAH. Helping the homeless and being kind is very noble and charitable. It should not put the taxpaying public at risk. It should not prevent us from using our public spaces, it shouldn't put our children & seniors at risk and it shouldn't pollute & damage sacred public parks and spaces. Let the Police and govt agencies remove dangerous, violent (multiple offense) vagrants from our streets. Don't let camps start in off-limits locations. We can provide temporary housing without renting out hotels.

You'd think with its location due North in the shadow of Bingham High School -- and being directly…read moreeast of Bonanza Court and the bevy of other housing developments -- it would be better known. Or, at least reviewed by now! My first visit came during school hours ... there was an almost-full parking lot, but nobody at the park. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Prospector Park won't blow your hair back with epic amenities, but it has all the things you'd want in a park: A big open field (covering 2-3ish acres); a Loop Trail around the park's perimeter (about 1/3 of a mile); a covered and reservable pavilion with 10 picnic tables ... and what would be most charitably referred to as a "serviceable" barbecue; a gazebo with a picnic table, a volleyball area (grass underneath, not sanded or paved), a newish playground (with one "parents bench"), and a full basketball court. The amenities will definitely do the trick for a family gathering (of, say, up to 50ish). I came in April, which I consider as preceding peak season (and the sprucing up that cities usually do before it), so the park I saw wasn't the cleanest and well-kept one I've been to. It may have a better shine on it once the outdoor season is in full swing. Still, it's a great place for the people of South Jordan -- and especially the surrounding Prospector Place and Cherry Hill neighborhoods -- to go for fun, a family gathering, or just for a brisk afternoon walk.

I have known the name Bywater Park my entire life. The first house I remember living in was just a…read morefew streets away from here, but you know how things go when you're just a tyke--you hear names, you go places, but you don't really pay attention and put it all together. I was out for a nostalgic drive the other day and wound up driving past the old house. In the recesses of my mind, I remembered thinking that there is a park nearby. I have vague recollections of my dad walking there. Of a crabapple tree, and him teaching me what a crabapple tree is. They didn't look like apples to me, and he explained they're not edible. These are only hazy memories; we moved from this house when I was seven years old. I drove out of the neighborhood and followed the haze of my mind. I remember running away from home once, but not getting far as I was not allowed to cross the street. So I remembered the route was outside of my street, because only dad could take me there by crossing the street, and I drove beyond the boundaries of my former universe. Left. Then straight. Then right. But there was no park. I had sworn it was there. But it also had, as I mentioned, a mysterious place in my mind. Like it was our own little private park. Like it was some kind of secret. So I zoomed out my GPS and scanned for nearby parks. I did see a large patch of green, but it was a ways away. Curious, I set a course, drove down a hill, left, up, and out onto a busy street. This wasn't it. It couldn't have been; this was too busy and not our secret. Still curious, I finished the route and saw a sign for Bywater Park. The name swung open a sealed door in my mind with such a clang that I turned in and immediately was that boy again. The tennis courts. The pavilion. the baseball diamond. This was our park! Only the upper parking lot was open, and everything below was gated off. I got out, walked down the hill (did there used to be a water canal here? I don't recall) and all the way down the parking lot. As I neared the north end of this narrow park, it felt like I was close to my old neighborhood. And then, there at the very tail, I saw a little opening in the fence. Well, I must have had a giant grin on my face as I made my way through the opening to a tiny, narrow little walkway between two fences. It's long and skinny (like, one-person wide) and as I neared the end and popped out, there I was. Next to the house where dad had taught me about crabapples, just three streets from the old house. Why do I tell you about this? Because that's the feel of Bywater. Like a hidden little spot way up on the east side. Like a little park where the junior baseball kids play in diamonds with REAL halfway-underground dugouts. Where very tidy tennis courts are used by Cottonwood Heights Rec Center but are open for citizens. Where a quiet, happy park sits at the end of a secret neighborhood shortcut. This is where dads take their kids, where moms meet up, where neighbors congregate, and kids live out diamond dreams. Decades had passed since he took his son to the park with the secret entrance, and I thought about how much has changed. My dad retired the week prior. My whole life, the whole time I've known him, he's gotten up, put on a suit, and gone to work. What must he had thought on those days when we went for a walk? Is there anything still the same today as it was back then? As I was thinking about this, I made my way back up the narrow passageway into the park. Just then, a dad and his son entered the walkway, the little boy toddling along pushing his toy lawnmower. They were just finishing their visit to Bywater Park and walking home.

Bywater Park is the ritzy neighborhood's ritzy Park they don't want anyone to know about…read more Unfortunately, I found it. Some of the best-kept tennis courts I've seen at a park, epic and grandiose open spaces, well-tended-to baseball diamond, plenty of picnic tables, a lovely playground and a sheltered area which is perfect for large parties of people. It's big, secluded, filled with happy, chirping birds, and plenty of great places to walk, ruminate on a shaded bench, or play. So citizens of Murray, Midvale, South Salt Lake, Sandy, and all points in between, make your way to beautiful Bywater Park!

I came here last Saturday for a birthday party at a reserved pavilion and had a good time. The…read moreplayground appeared to have been updated recently, and plenty of kids were enjoying themselves. The pavilion itself had a lot of bench seating and additional tables were set up by the hosts for food and they had decorations up. Parking was plentiful and the restrooms were clean with flushing toilets, but the hand dryer wasn't working and there aren't any mirrors.

It's a nice park, has a playground and baseball fields. public restrooms and it's kept clean…read more picnic tables with stoves. Also a tennis court.

I absolutely love finding roadside gems like Gilgal Sculpture Garden! They really allow you to…read moreexperience the local flavor of community, and goodness... does this garden deliver! The garden was the passion project of Thomas Child, an LDS bishop and Salt Lake City businessman. Located in what used to be his backyard, he started the garden when he was 57 years old and worked on it until his death nearly 20 years later! A neighbor then bought the property and made it available for public visitation, and it was ultimately handed over to the city for longterm maintenance and preservation. I don't mean to be insensitive at all, but the garden is one of the most fabulously weird places I've ever visited. The park contains 12 original sculptures that depict various scenes from the Book or Mormon. My favorites include a sphinx with the face of Joseph Smith, and the sacrificial altar dedicated to Childs' wife. "Gilgal" refers a city and valley in LDS literature, and the name means circle of standing stones. If you're in Salt Lake City, this garden is definitely worth a visit. Admission is free, and the park is open from 8AM to 8PM. It's located in a residential neighborhood, so please be respectful of the neighbors. Add this to your list of favorite roadside bits of unique Americana.

We came here today and spent all of 10 minutes looking around. It was not at all what we expected…read more This garden is located in between two homes on what appears to have been a vacant lot so it is quite small. It is also incredibly religious in nature, with many biblical quotes carved into stones and art that reflects or is inspired by scripture. It's a little bizarre to be honest and has a creepy, cultish feel. SLC has lots of other great art and gardens where your time could be spent.

This is my favorite little known spot in Sandy. You can spend as much or as little time here as you…read morewant, walking leisurely laps around and taking just slightly different paths each time, or just sitting and listening to all the birds that love to frequent and to the waterfall installment by the wisteria covered benches. The breeze through the evergreen trees and the pampas grass in late summer/autumn is just lovely to listen to and the pines smell wonderful. There's almost no one that ever visits simultaneously so you're almost guaranteed a serene place to yourself. Come a few times a year to experience the garden a little differently every time and enjoy the various fragrant flowers throughout the season, learn a bit more about water conservation and Utah native gardening, and enjoy the wildlife from quail to squirrels to butterflies and bees -- I flinched most around the bees the first couple times visiting but I've stopped completely as they are very honed in on the task at hand . It's always such a peaceful visit. The only thing that would make it better would be if the road noise could completely disappear but that's the trade off for getting something so wonderful, completely for free, without having to drive far.

Sego Lily Gardens are a beautiful and free way to break in the Spring or Summer season. They have…read moreall their plants pretty much labeled so you can tell what's growing where. They also have helpful water conservation resources as well as other handy local helpful resources. There isn't vegetables at least the last time I was there but there may be as the summer months warm things up.

Wow, just wow. I may have just seen the smallest park in the state of Utah…read more Tucked away on an ally, at the corner of Gallagher and Park Street is this neighborhood park: A playset, some hedges, a few benches, and a picnic table (with a checkers/chess board painted on). All high-quality stuff. The city has it down as .25 of an acre, but it can't be more than 100 square feet.   It's pretty, clean, and verrrrrry small. For this neighborhood, maybe this is the perfect size.

The story behind Allen Park twists and turns throughout the last century or so, and is rich in fowl…read moreand folklore. Allen was a physician, and he had a nice chunk of property here that was, at one point, open to the public every Sunday. He had built quite the property, and with a great love for birds, much of the decor was avian-themed, with actual live birds on the property. He also, at some point, had an elephant, orangutan, and other exotic animals. In his later years, he would create many tile mosaics around the property that still remain today. Over the last few decades, however, long after Mr. Allen was gone, the property was closed to the public. Urban legends started to creep up about the property, and the name "Hobbitville" was whispered to high school kids who would dare each other to enter to see the small houses made for a development dedicated to little people. Or so the stories go. The many residences and duplexes over time fell into disrepair and were shuttered, and development seemed imminent. However, SLC stepped in to purchase the property and create Allen Park. If you go today (and I did) you'll see the beginnings of a park. It's a property that spans two blocks, and the old structures still stand. Some of them are in such disrepair, that they will certainly be leveled. Others seem to have been inhabited until recently. A few sit across Emigration Creek, which runs lazily through the property, with bridges to access them. Near the end of the property are the duplexes. The farther you go, the more mosaics, quotes, poems, and art you'll see. It's a hodge podge of tile work; it's a little weird, a little lovely, and entirely perfect. It's what this city needs. They have been cleaning and clearing (and someone has been weeding at one of the duplexes?) but let's be very clear--there's a lot of work to be done. The front has been cleared, and you can see the old cement basins where pools were. The buildings are boarded up. There's a chain link fence around the entirety that keeps you from accessing any of these areas, and it spans the whole park. This is the beginning of something. This is the beginning of what Allen Park might be, but it's bee derelict a while and it will need massive amounts of work and money. What will it become? That's the question. A public-private partnership where the properties are renovated and turned into rentals? A reception center? A city office? There are good and bad ideas out there, and they will certainly be entertaining them all. If you go (and it's so weird and wonderful, you should!) just recognize that there's not parking here and you really shouldn't park on 1300 E, so pick a side street and know you'll have to walk. Enjoy the stroll through the mosaics, read the placards, sit beneath the trees, say hi to the peafowl that inhabit the property (yes, really) and savor a small strip of land in the middle of the city that's been saved to be something special.

This is such a neat park in the middle of the city. You can't park inside the park . You have to…read morepark on the street at one of the neighborhoods next to the park. There are older homes that are placed through out on the hillside . It is a heavily wooded area that is fenced off with chain linked fence. We saw several squirrels a beautiful peacock & several birds. The road is asphalt & is up hill . It's so interesting to see the different homes & outdoor bird cages & poetry written on plaques. It is a peaceful place. There are many different plants & trees. Definitely a unique place. A must see !