Take a morning at Blackridge Reservoir
15000 S Ashland Ridge Drive · Free midweek · Summer
There is no other municipal sand beach in Salt Lake County, and the reason this one exists is entirely accidental. Blackridge is a secondary irrigation pond of about seven acres, built to feed Herriman's secondary water system and to support pressure in Riverton, and the city wrapped a park of roughly ten acres around it. The result is a piece of open water with a beach, a playground, restrooms, five pavilions and a paved loop, sitting at the top of a residential street with the Oquirrhs directly behind it.
What follows from that is the whole reason this entry needs a page of its own. An amenity that unusual, in a valley of 1.2 million people, generates more demand than a neighbourhood car park can hold, and the city has spent a decade building rules around it: charged weekend parking, a permit zone on the surrounding streets, and a capacity notice on busy days. The reservoir page takes every one of those rules in order.
The car park is the constraint, not the beach
Almost every complaint about this place is a parking complaint rather than a swimming one. There is one lot, it fills, and when it does the city posts a notice asking visitors to come back later rather than opening anything else. There is no shuttle and no overflow. Midweek mornings are the version of this reservoir that people describe fondly, and a Saturday afternoon in July is the version that ended up in the news.
Check the water before you drive, not after you arrive
Utah DEQ samples this reservoir through the season for E. coli and for harmful algal blooms and publishes each result. Through 2026 the posted samples on 3 June, 6 July and 28 July all came back clean with no advisory. That is a good record and it is not a guarantee, because conditions in a shallow warm water body change quickly. The state page is the source that updates; a listing site is not.
The details
Getting there
West and uphill from Mountain View Corridor through the Rosecrest neighbourhoods. The published gate hours are 7am to 10pm with the gate locked at 10pm. Weekend and holiday parking is card only between 1 May and 7 September, and the surrounding streets are permit parking across the same window.
Before you go
- One car park, no overflow and no shuttle. Arrive early or accept the risk of being turned away.
- No dogs on the beach or in the water, no glass, no alcohol, no diving and no fishing.
- Non-motorized craft only, and the state's mussel-aware course applies before you launch.
- No lifeguard. This is untreated natural water in a warm shallow basin.
- Do not park on the neighbourhood streets between 1 May and 7 September without a permit.
Drive Butterfield Canyon Road, in the years it is open
West end of Herriman Main Street · Free · June to October
This is the one ordinary car route into the Oquirrh range, and it starts at the west end of Herriman Main Street rather than anywhere dramatic. The paved climb runs about 6.6 miles and gains roughly 2,213 feet, averaging 6.4 percent, on a narrow two lane road that narrows further near the top. Above the pavement a graded dirt spur runs to a rim car park at around nine thousand feet, from which you look straight down into the pit.
That view is the reason people make the drive and it is also the moment to hand you over, because the mine, its scale and its ticketed visitor experience belong to the county page rather than to this city. What belongs here is the road: the gate dates, the surface, what the climb asks of a vehicle, and the fact that in August 2026 it is shut. The canyon page has all of it.
As of August 2026 this is not a drive you can take
A monsoon storm over the range on the evening of 21 July 2026 dropped 0.7 inches at a gauge near the mine and washed the road out about 5.5 miles up, leaving a passable strip of roughly eight feet. The canyon was closed the next morning, Salt Lake County Public Works published no timeline, and the closure was still listed when this was checked on 7 August 2026. Assume it is shut and verify before you plan around it.
In an ordinary year the gate, not the weather, is the constraint
The road is seasonal and closes from 1 November to 1 June. Salt Lake County announced the 2023 reopening on Thursday 1 June that year, which is the pattern to expect. Anything published without a date attached is describing a summer road as though it were a year round one, and the difference between those two things is most of a winter.
The details
Getting there
Follow Main Street west until the houses stop. Salt Lake County Public Works oversees the section that crosses Rio Tinto Kennecott ground, so the county rather than the city is the authority on whether the gate is up.
Before you go
- Check the current status with Salt Lake County before setting out. The 2026 closure has no published end date.
- The pavement ends before the top. The spur to the rim and the west descent are graded dirt.
- The upper section is narrow with loose rock, and the descent is unpleasant when wet.
- There are no services of any kind once you leave Main Street.
- This is a working mine's neighbourhood. Stay on the road and do not improvise side trips.
Ride the county trail park the mine gave back
Butterfield Trailhead Regional Park · Free · Spring to autumn
On 31 August 2023 Salt Lake County opened Butterfield Trailhead Regional Park with more than 13 miles of multi-use trail, including a link through to Yellow Fork Canyon, with another two miles queued behind it. The interesting part is not the mileage. It is that this is ground that was closed to the public for a century, and it opened through a partnership between the county, Rio Tinto Kennecott and the Bureau of Land Management rather than through a purchase.
The paperwork behind it is worth knowing because it explains why the Oquirrh side is finally getting trails at all. In March 2022 the county acquired 94 acres of open space in Butterfield Canyon, and later that month the County Council approved a lease of 17 acres from Rio Tinto Kennecott under which the county takes stewardship of ground the company still owns, opening the way to about 12 miles of new multi-use trail on land that had been off limits. The county had already taken 1,681 acres in 2007 to preserve Rose and Yellow Fork canyons.
It is a trail park, and it is not the same rulebook as a city park
Salt Lake County runs this as a trail-only facility with a trailhead and a car park and nothing else, and organised groups have to reserve rather than simply turn up. Motorized vehicles are prohibited across the whole Southwest Canyons network, mountain biking is permitted only in designated areas rather than everywhere, and dogs are leashed. Read the county's trail map before you assume a route is open to what you are riding.
This is the west bench, so the season is not the Wasatch season
The Oquirrhs are drier, browner and lower than the range across the valley, and they hold snow differently. That makes the shoulder seasons here genuinely useful: spring comes earlier on these slopes than it does at the same elevation on the east bench, and autumn holds longer. July afternoons on a south facing Oquirrh slope with no tree cover are the version to avoid.
The details
Getting there
The trailhead and car park sit at the western end of the city on the county's ground. Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation publishes the network map, which is the document that tells you where bikes are permitted and where they are not.
Before you go
- More than 13 miles opened in August 2023, with a further two miles planned behind it.
- Mountain biking is allowed in select areas only. The county map is the authority, not a trail app.
- Motorized vehicles are prohibited across the whole Southwest Canyons network.
- Dogs are permitted on a lead. The reservoir a few minutes away does not permit them at all.
- There is no water and very little shade. Carry more than the distance suggests.
Skate the ice ribbon at J. Lynn Crane Plaza
13082 S Fort Herriman Parkway · From 6 dollars · December to February
An outdoor ice ribbon is a looping skating track rather than a rink, and Herriman runs one beside its own town hall from the first of December to the end of February. The 2025-26 season sold timed sessions: three one hour slots on weekday evenings at 4.30, 6.00 and 7.30, seven sessions across a Saturday from half past ten in the morning, and Sunday sessions in December and January only, with the plaza closed on Sundays through February and on 25 December and 1 January.
The pricing is municipal rather than commercial. Adults aged 14 and over paid 10 dollars with skate hire included and 6 dollars bringing their own; children aged 3 to 14 paid 8 and 4; under threes were free and helmets were free. Ice walkers and strollers hired at 5 to 7 dollars. The park page carries the full season, and the summer half of the same plaza.
Book it, because the sessions are timed and non-refundable
This is not open skating with a gate and a queue. Sessions are reserved, they are non-refundable, and rescheduling has to be done by telephone with the events team during business hours rather than online at ten at night. Weekend slots and the extended holiday sessions in late December go first. Treat it like booking a table rather than like turning up at a park.
The plaza and the park are two different addresses
This catches people constantly, including mapping apps. J. Lynn Crane Park is at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway and J. Lynn Crane Plaza is at 13082 South Fort Herriman Parkway, and the city lists them separately. The ice ribbon and the splash pad are on the plaza side. They sit next to each other so the mistake costs you a two minute walk rather than a drive, but it is worth knowing which one a listing means.
The details
Getting there
The plaza sits alongside Herriman town hall with its own car park and restrooms. Sessions and any weather closures are published by the city's events team on 801-446-8658 or at [email protected].
Before you go
- Sessions are timed and reservations are non-refundable. Rescheduling is by telephone only.
- Helmets are free. Ice walkers and strollers hire at 5 to 7 dollars.
- Sundays run in December and January only and the plaza is closed on Sundays in February.
- Closed 25 December and 1 January, with extended hours either side of both.
- Theme nights, glow skating and buy one get one Sundays in January are worth checking for.
Cool off at the splash pad, from Memorial Day
13082 S Fort Herriman Parkway · Free · Memorial Day to Labor Day
The same plaza that carries the ice in December carries a splash pad through the summer, published as running from Memorial Day to Labor Day between nine in the morning and eight at night. It is free, it is unstaffed, and it sits in the middle of a civic square with pergolas, fire pits, picnic tables, restrooms and open grass around it rather than behind a fence at the back of a park.
That siting is the point. The plaza was built as a gathering place next to the town hall rather than as a play area bolted onto a field, so a summer evening here has food trucks and a stage in the mix rather than only water. For a city where a very large share of the housing is newer than 2005 and the streets are still filling in, a working town square is a more meaningful amenity than the splash pad itself.
Free and unstaffed means the hours are the only rule
There is no admission, no session and no booking. What there is instead is a published operating window, nine in the morning to eight at night through the season, and a city maintenance schedule that can take the water off without notice. If the splash pad is the entire reason for the trip, it is worth a look at the city's page the morning of rather than assuming.
Pair it with the park next door rather than treating it as the whole visit
J. Lynn Crane Park at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway sits immediately alongside and carries the stage, the playground, the pavilion, the tables and the large grass area. The two together are about an hour and a half of a summer evening. Separately, either one is twenty minutes. Almost nobody realises they are two facilities until they try to book something.
The details
Getting there
Parking, restrooms and open grass are on the plaza itself. The published operating window is 9am to 8pm through the season, and the city posts closures for maintenance and weather.
Before you go
- Free and unstaffed, so the published hours are the whole of the arrangement.
- The fire pits and pergolas make this a usable evening space rather than a midday one.
- It is the same plaza that carries the ice ribbon from 1 December.
- The park next door is a separate address with the stage, the playground and the pavilion.
- Check the city's page the morning of if the water is the entire reason for the trip.
Take the rodeo at the end of May
W and M Butterfield Park · Ticketed · Late May
The Fort Herriman PRCA Rodeo runs three nights at the end of May at W and M Butterfield Park, 6212 West Butterfield Park Way, and the 2026 edition ran 28 to 30 May billed as twenty years of professional rodeo in Herriman. Bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing and bronc riding, on a city owned arena, in a city that had 1,523 residents at the turn of the century.
The reason it is on this list rather than in a footnote is that it is the older half of the city's civic calendar and the half that most newcomers miss. Twenty years of a sanctioned rodeo is a longer institutional memory than most of the neighbourhoods around it have, and it is the one event here that connects the modern city to the farming corner it was before the bench opened.
It is not the June festival, and locals will tell you so
There are two Fort Herriman events and they are a month apart. The rodeo is late May and the city's largest event of the year is in June, and conflating them is the standard newcomer error. They share a name, a park and a set of volunteers, and they are entirely different evenings. Get the date from the city rather than from a listing site that has merged them.
Tickets for a three night run go earlier than you expect
A sanctioned rodeo on a city arena with three performances has a fixed amount of seating and a twenty year audience, and tickets have historically gone on sale months ahead, in early February for a late May run. If this is the reason for a trip, put a note in the diary for the winter rather than looking in April.
The details
Getting there
The park sits on the west side of the city with its own arena and parking. Confirm the current year's dates and ticketing with Herriman City on 801-446-5323 or [email protected] rather than with a third party listing.
Before you go
- Late May, three nights, and a month before the city's June festival.
- Tickets have gone on sale as early as February for a late May run.
- The 2026 edition was billed as twenty years of pro rodeo in Herriman.
- It shares a park and a name with Towne Days and is a completely separate event.
- Take the dates from the city. Third party calendars for this one disagree with each other.
Spend a day at Fort Herriman Towne Days
W and M Butterfield Park · Mostly free · June
The city calls this its largest event of the year and it runs across several days in June at the same Butterfield Park arena and grounds, with a parade, a carnival, stage entertainment, fireworks, food trucks, vendors, a car show and the Herriman Yeti Run. In a city where a very large share of the population arrived after 2010, it is the one occasion in the calendar where the whole place is in the same field at the same time.
There is a practical warning attached, and it is not the usual one. The city's own Towne Days page does not publish the dates, and the third party listings that do carry them disagree with each other by more than a week. That is unusually messy for an event this size, and it is exactly the sort of thing that turns a family day out into a wasted drive across the valley.
Get the dates from the city and from nowhere else
Chamber calendars, ticketing aggregators and travel listings for this festival do not agree, and at least two of them cannot both be right. The city runs the event, so the city's events team is the only source worth acting on: 801-446-5323 or [email protected]. This is the single most useful sentence on this entry.
The parade and the carnival are different days and different problems
A parade closes streets and a carnival fills a car park, and they ask different things of anybody trying to get across the west side of the city that week. If you live nearby, the answer is to walk. If you are driving in from elsewhere in the valley, arrive early enough that the parking is a choice rather than a search, because Butterfield Park is not on a road network with much slack in it.
The details
Getting there
Park once and walk. The parade takes streets out of service and the carnival occupies the grounds, so anything that involves driving across the west side on those days needs a different route or a different day.
Before you go
- The city does not publish the dates on its own festival page. Ring or email for them.
- Third party listings for this event disagree by more than a week. Do not act on one.
- It is a separate event from the PRCA rodeo, which runs a month earlier at the same park.
- The parade, the carnival, the car show and the Yeti Run are on different days.
- Bring cash and a card, because vendor payment options vary.
Watch something at Zions Bank Stadium
14788 S Academy Parkway · Ticketed · Season dependent
A five thousand seat professional stadium on the bench in a city of this size is genuinely unusual, and it sits on the Zions Bank Real Academy campus at 14788 South Academy Parkway. The proposition for a resident is small stadium pricing on professional sport a few minutes from home, in a venue where the back row is closer to the pitch than the middle tier of a big arena.
The caution is that the tenant list here moves. The Utah Warriors announced on 4 November 2025 that they had withdrawn from the 2026 Major League Rugby season and suspended operations, which took a fixture list off this ground at short notice. Anything you read describing the stadium's occupants needs a date on it, and the campus and its facilities are covered properly on the city guide rather than here.
Check who is actually playing before you buy anything
A small stadium shared between several leagues is a moving target, and 2026 proved it. Take the current fixture list from the venue and the clubs rather than from a page that lists tenants without saying when it was written. That is a two minute check that has saved people a season ticket in a league that is no longer operating.
Five thousand seats changes the economics of an evening
This is the argument for going. A venue this size prices differently from a downtown arena, parking is on site rather than in a structure, and getting out afterwards takes minutes rather than an hour. For anybody weighing what living on this side of the valley actually offers, professional sport at that scale within fifteen minutes is a real line item rather than a brochure one.
The details
Getting there
The stadium sits on the Real Academy campus off Academy Parkway with parking on site, a couple of minutes from the corridor. Take the current fixture list from the venue rather than from a directory listing.
Before you go
- Five thousand seats, so sightlines are good everywhere and the whole ground empties quickly.
- The tenant list changed in late 2025. Verify who is playing before buying a season plan.
- Parking is on site rather than in a structure, which is most of why the evening works.
- The campus itself and its facilities are covered on the Herriman city guide.
- Fixture lists here follow several different competition calendars rather than one.
Two halves of one city
What is above the last street, and what is on the civic side.
Herriman splits cleanly for a visitor, and the line is the western edge of the housing. Above it is county ground: canyon, trail, rim and a road with a gate on it. Below it is a city that programmes its own calendar: a plaza, a park, an arena and a stadium. The two halves ask entirely different things of you and neither is the better half.
| Above the last street | The civic side | |
|---|---|---|
| Who to ring | Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, or county public works for the road | Herriman City on 801-446-5323, or the events team on 801-446-8658 |
| What it costs | Nothing, at any of it | Free at the plaza and the park; ticketed at the rodeo, the festival carnival and the stadium |
| Best season | Spring and autumn, because there is no shade and the slopes face south | June for the festival and December to February for the ice |
| Turn up or plan | Turn up, but check the road and the trail map first | Plan, because almost all of it runs to published dates and timed sessions |
| What can stop you | A gate on 1 November, and in 2026 a washout in July | A sold session, a closed Sunday in February, or a festival date you took from the wrong site |
| What it is good for | Getting out of a valley of 1.2 million people in about ten minutes | The thing a city this new is usually accused of not having, which is somewhere to gather |
The reservoir sits awkwardly across that line and belongs to neither column cleanly, which is why it has a page of its own. It is city owned and city run, it is at the top of a residential street, and it behaves like a county attraction on a Saturday in July.
Before you go
What to sort first, because most of this list is rule bound.
Three of these eight can be shut, full or sold out on the day you arrive, and none of that is visible from the road. Five minutes of checking before you set off is the whole of the preparation this city asks for.
Sort before you drive
- The status of Butterfield Canyon Road with Salt Lake County, which has been closed since 22 July 2026
- An ice ribbon session, because they are timed, reserved and non-refundable
- Rodeo tickets, which have gone on sale as early as February for a late May run
- The festival dates, from the city itself, because third party listings disagree by more than a week
- A card, because weekend parking at the reservoir does not take cash
Check on the day
- The reservoir's water quality on the Utah DEQ page, which posts each sample and any advisory
- Whether the reservoir car park has already filled, because there is no overflow and no shuttle
- The splash pad, which is free and unstaffed and can be off for maintenance without notice
- Which competition is in residence at Zions Bank Stadium, because the tenant list changed in late 2025
- The county trail map, which decides where bikes may go across the Southwest Canyons network
Turn up and it is fine
- The city's own trail network, more than 60 miles of it, off almost any western street
- J. Lynn Crane Park, which is free, open and next door to the plaza
- Butterfield Trailhead Regional Park, free and open, with the county's map in your pocket
- Blackridge Reservoir on a weekday morning, when the parking charge does not apply
Two of these eight changed status in the last twelve months, and the internet has not caught up. Butterfield Canyon Road has been closed by a washout since 22 July 2026 with no published reopening date, and the Utah Warriors withdrew from the 2026 season and suspended operations on 4 November 2025, taking a fixture list off Zions Bank Stadium. A very large share of what is written about doing things in Herriman describes a scenic summer canyon drive and a rugby club, because it was written when both were true. Date every source you use for this city.
What this list leaves out, and why
- The Bingham Canyon Mine, its dimensions and the ticketed Rio Tinto Kennecott Visitor Experience. The mine is the Oquirrh range's defining fact and it belongs to eighteen cities rather than to this one, so the county page holds it. This list takes only the road out of Herriman and the rim at the top of it.
- The Cottonwood canyons and their four resorts, which are on the other side of the valley and about three quarters of an hour east in good conditions. Driving to somebody else's canyon does not make it a Herriman attraction.
- The Jordan River Parkway, which runs the valley's west side through eight cities and has a county page of its own. Herriman is above it rather than on it.
- Winter air quality in the valley, which is a county wide subject with a county page of its own and does not belong in a bullet on a city list.
- Mountain View Village and the retail across the line in Riverton, which is where a good share of this city's shopping actually happens and is not a reason to visit Herriman.
