3 Salt Lake City Parks in a 10 Minute Drive

I took my girls on a little park exploration on Saturday. We went to 3 different "parks", all unique for different reasons, and all within 10 minutes of each other. And all free. Of course, we walked around, took pictures and enjoyed the warm October day at each. 

Garden Park Ward                     1150 E. Yale Avenue
Gilgal Sculpture Garden            749 E. 500 S.
Liberty Park                               600 E. 900 S.

So the story of this day actually starts years ago when I saw a photo of this beautiful structure in front of what I thought was a pond online and all it said was Salt Lake City, with no address or name so that I could find it. I held that photo in my head, trying to search for it, but never finding it at any park I went to. Then last week, I saw a photo and realized immediately that it was the same structure I have been waiting to see in person and this time it had the name "Garden Park" with it. Again no address, but the name was enough for me to find the address online. And Saturday I finally saw it in person!

Unfortunately, though it took me years to find out where it was, many, many other people know all about it and it was crowded with 5 families taking photo there so it was difficult to get photos. I'll have to go back another day when it's a bit more empty to get better ones. 

This little garden park is actually in back of the historic LDS Garden Park ward building with the Red Butte Creek running through it. If you plan on visiting, there are rules for the days you may take photos, like no photos on Fridays and some other days, as a sign outside the park says. You can read the rules at Garden Park. 

 These 2 are from the front of the church

This is in back of the garden along the street

Our second stop was our first time at Gilgal Sculpture Garden, which is a smallish, very unique garden right in between two houses. We actually couldn't find it at first because I thought you could see sculptures from the road. But this is what you see. I was parked to the left of this so I couldn't see the signs. 

There are several sculptures there and many rocks engraven with quotes or scriptures. There are also different kinds of pretty flowers, at least for now. 

Then it took a couple of minutes to drive to Liberty Park. This is only my second time being there. Last time I went, it was a very hot summer day. I was there for a Pow Wow, which was great, but my youngest daughter got sick while we were there and we had to leave before I could explore and take photos of the park. It looks a bit different now in October with the fountains where the kids play having been drained and no kids rides running.

Chase Home -- Museum of Modern Folk Art in Liberty Park

 Can you spot little Spidey?

But there were lots of geese and ducks. We were lucky to catch the flowers on their last day. Someone who worked there told us that they were taking them out the next day. 

Unfortunately, we didn't go to Tracy Aviary, which is right there in Liberty Park. That will have to be for a different day and a different post.