By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahTurn up to the Blue Moon Festival in September
Holladay Village Plaza Free to attend One evening in September Directions
The Blue Moon Festival is the single evening in the year when the village stops being four quiet blocks and turns into a place with a crowd in it. The Holladay Arts Council runs it on the plaza at 4700 Holladay Boulevard East: an artisan market, live music, food and drink, and interactive work set up around the square. Admission is free and it runs into the evening rather than through the day, which is the part that makes it feel unlike a street fair.
It sits at the front of this list for a reason that has nothing to do with scale. In a city with no cinema, no arena and no rail stop, the arts calendar is the thing standing in for all of that, and this is its biggest night. If you want to know whether Holladay would suit you before you look at a house here, one September evening on the plaza tells you more than an afternoon of driving the streets. The village page has the rest of the year on it.
The date moves, and it is worth calling rather than guessing
This is a volunteer run council event with several web presences, and the published date has landed on different September evenings in different years. That is normal for an event of this kind and it is not anybody's fault, but it does mean a fixed list is the wrong authority for a specific Saturday. Take the current date from the Holladay Arts Council or the city before you build travel around it.
Park once, on the far side, and walk in
The plaza sits at a genuine crossroads and the streets around it were never widened for an event. The workable approach is to leave the car on one of the residential blocks a few minutes out, or in one of the commercial lots off Murray-Holladay Road, and walk the last stretch. Circling the square looking for the perfect space on the one evening a year it is full is how people end up parked further away than if they had committed early.
The details
Getting there
The plaza is at the Holladay Boulevard and Murray-Holladay Road crossroads, a few hundred yards from City Hall Park. Coming from I-215, leave at the 4500 South or 6200 South corridors and work east on the surface streets rather than trying to approach the square directly.
Before you go
- The date has moved between years. Confirm it with the Holladay Arts Council rather than a listing.
- September evenings on the bench cool off fast once the sun drops behind Olympus. Take a layer.
- Admission is free, so the budget is whatever you spend at the market and the food stands.
- The council also runs a plein air weekend and a December makers' market on the same ground.
- The plaza is the city's event space year round. If you miss September, the summer concerts are the other free evening.
Climb Mount Olympus, or turn round honestly on the way
5800 South and Wasatch Boulevard Free Late spring to autumn Directions
This is the hike that defines the address. The Forest Service publishes Mount Olympus Trail 455 as 3.32 miles with 4,158 feet of elevation gain, which is a brutal average and an honest one: the trail climbs almost immediately from the Wasatch Boulevard trailhead and does not stop until the saddle below the summit block. The last stretch to the 9,026 foot top is a scramble on rock rather than a walk, and plenty of people quite sensibly stop at the saddle.
The trail also enters designated wilderness, so the ordinary wilderness rules apply above the boundary. Leashed pets are permitted, which is a genuine local advantage, because the same is not true of the canyons a quarter of an hour south. The Mount Olympus page covers the route, the two sensible turnaround points, the waterfall in Tolcats Canyon on the way, and the neighboring drainage at Heughs.
There is no water and, for the first two thirds, almost no shade
The lower trail faces roughly west across the valley on an open, scrubby slope, which is glorious in October and punishing at ten in the morning in July. There is no drinking water anywhere on the route. The local habit is to start before six in summer and to carry more than feels necessary, and the people who get into trouble on this hill are almost always the ones who started late with one small bottle.
The parking lot fills, and the neighbors notice
The trailhead lot on Wasatch Boulevard is not large and it is full by mid morning on any decent summer weekend. Wasatch Boulevard is a fast road with a shoulder rather than a parking lot, and the streets below the trailhead are residential. If the lot is full the honest answer is to come back at another hour or pick a different drainage, not to improvise a space on somebody's curb.
The details
Getting there
East off I-215 to Wasatch Boulevard, then south to the signed trailhead at 5800 South. The lot is on the east side of the road and the trail leaves from the far end of it, climbing immediately.
Before you go
- The Forest Service figure of 4,158 feet of gain is not padding. Treat it as a mountain day.
- Carry all your water. There is none on the trail and the lower slope is exposed.
- The final push to the summit is a scramble on rock. The saddle is an honest place to stop.
- Leashed pets are permitted here, unlike in either Cottonwood canyon.
- Above the wilderness boundary the wilderness regulations apply. Read the sign at the trailhead.
Spend a Saturday in the village and walk the history walk
Holladay Village and City Park Free Year round Directions
Four blocks is not much of a town center, but it is a real one, and walking it takes about an hour if you stop. The crossroads at Holladay Boulevard and Murray-Holladay Road carries a grocery with a mezzanine and balcony seating, a run of independent restaurants and coffee, the city plaza, and City Hall Park on the ground the 1847 settlement started from. The Salt Lake County library branch is a few minutes west on Murray-Holladay Road.
The piece most visitors miss is underfoot. The Rooted Together project, paid for with a county grant, installed a history walk through City Park with four sidewalk thresholds carrying short poems, plus markers at public places around the city. It is a quiet, unshowy thing and it is the closest Holladay comes to a museum. The village page has the addresses, the library hours and the year of events.
Saturday evening in July and August is the version to catch
Through those two months the arts council runs a free concert series on the grass at City Hall Park with the music starting at eight. That turns an ordinary afternoon in the village into an evening with somewhere to go, and it is the single best hour to judge whether this place would suit you. Bring something to sit on; the lawn is a lawn, not a venue.
The village hall is closed for a seismic retrofit
The nearly hundred year old building at 4580 South 2300 East, which started life as Holladay Elementary, closed in April 2026 for a seismic retrofit, and city staff moved to leased offices in the old Millcreek City Hall at 3330 South 1300 East. The park, the plaza and the events on both carried on regardless, but if you are picturing the civic photograph on the city's website, the building in it is wrapped as of 2026.
The details
Getting there
From I-215 take the 4500 South or 6200 South corridors east and work in on the surface streets. There is off street parking around the plaza and the commercial blocks, and the whole core is walkable once you have left the car once.
Before you go
- City park restrooms are open 1 March to 31 October and are locked at night.
- The county library on Murray-Holladay Road runs long weekday evenings and shorter weekend hours.
- The free summer concerts are Saturdays in July and August with the music at eight.
- The history walk is in City Park, not at the plaza. They are two adjacent pieces of ground.
- City offices are working from the Millcreek address while the hall is retrofitted, so business goes there as of 2026.
Walk up Neffs Canyon with the dog on a leash
Top of White Way, above Olympus Cove Free Spring to autumn Directions
Neffs Canyon is the drainage cut into the north side of the Mount Olympus massif, and it is the nearest canyon to a Holladay address that is not protected watershed. That single fact is why it matters: a leashed dog is permitted here, and the Forest Service says so on its own listing for Neffs Canyon Trail 456, which it publishes at about 4.44 miles with roughly 1,821 feet of gain, no motorised use, and not suitable for bikes or horses.
The trailhead is a small lot at the top of White Way, reached through a residential street just over Holladay's northern boundary above Olympus Cove. There is no fee, no facility and no water. The canyon climbs through oak and maple into open meadow under the ridge, and it is quiet in a way the famous canyons stopped being years ago. The Neffs Canyon page covers the walk, the name and the cave at the bottom of it.
The parking is the whole etiquette problem
You reach this trailhead by driving through somebody's neighborhood to a lot that holds a modest number of cars, and when it is full the temptation is to leave the car on the street below. Do not. Residential parking restrictions around bench trailheads have tightened across this valley precisely because of that habit, and the surest way to lose access to a walk like this is to make it a nuisance. If the lot is full, drive on.
Leashed means leashed, and the reason is the neighbors as much as the rules
The Forest Service note for this trail is leashed pets permitted, and separate to that, dogs must be under control at trailheads, in parking lots and at developed sites. Whatever you have read on a walking forum about this canyon, the agency's own wording is the one that will be quoted back at you. The first quarter mile of the walk is also within earshot of houses, which settles the argument on its own.
The details
Getting there
North east from Holladay to Wasatch Boulevard, then into the residential streets above Olympus Cove and up White Way to the small lot at the end. The trail leaves from the top of the lot and climbs east into the canyon straight away.
Before you go
- The lot is small. If it is full, do not park in the neighborhood below it.
- Leashed pets are permitted. This is not one of the odd and even off leash canyons.
- There is no water, no restroom and no trash can. Carry out everything, including the dog's.
- The canyon is dry and the lower slopes are snake country in warm weather.
- The cave in this canyon is gated shut by the Forest Service. It is not a visit.
Take the afternoon to Knudsen Park and the creek
6290 South Holladay Boulevard Free Year round Directions
Knudsen Park is 7.5 acres at historic Knudsen's Corner in the south east of the city, and it is the most recently built public thing in Holladay that you can actually walk into. Big Cottonwood Creek runs through it. The city lists a playground, a water play space, restrooms, a hammock garden, a grassy play area, a bike repair station, and two facilities that can be reserved: a picnic pavilion and an outdoor classroom.
About 88 percent of the construction cost came from a Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks recreation grant rather than from the city, which is how a place this size builds a park at all. The creek is the reason to come rather than the playground: it is the same water that comes out of Big Cottonwood Canyon, and it threads the whole south side of the city. The mouths page follows it properly.
The two reservable things are the ones worth planning around
A picnic pavilion and an outdoor classroom can both be booked, which changes this from a playground stop into somewhere you can hold something. Reservations run through the city rather than being first come, and with city staff working from leased offices during the hall retrofit the booking route is the city website rather than a counter in the village. Sort it before the date rather than on it.
Restrooms here follow a season, not a clock
Holladay locks its park restrooms nightly and publishes them as open from 1 March to 31 October. That is easy to forget on a mild November afternoon when the playground is perfectly usable and the building is shut. It applies at City Hall Park too, so a winter visit to either is a visit with a plan for that.
The details
Getting there
South east through the city on Holladay Boulevard toward the 6200 South corridor. The park is on the corner with its own parking, and Big Cottonwood Creek runs along the low side of it.
Before you go
- Restrooms are seasonal, 1 March to 31 October, and locked overnight.
- The pavilion and the outdoor classroom are both reservable through the city.
- Big Cottonwood Creek runs high and cold with snowmelt through late spring.
- The water play space is seasonal. Confirm before you drive out for it specifically.
- There is a bike repair station on site, which is unusual for a park this small.
Play Old Mill at the far end of Wasatch Boulevard
6080 South Wasatch Boulevard County green fees Roughly spring to autumn Directions
Old Mill sits at the southeast corner of the city on Wasatch Boulevard, right where the ground starts tipping toward the canyon mouths, and it is run by Salt Lake County rather than by a club or the city. That matters in a practical way: it is a public course with published county green fees, reduced senior and junior rates on weekdays and weekend afternoons, carts extra, and a small facility improvement fee added per round. Anyone can book a tee time, and there is no membership to it.
It is also the best public seat in the city for the thing Holladay is actually about. The course runs along the base of the mountain with Mount Olympus over one shoulder and the valley opening out on the other, and there is a driving range with range balls in three sizes if you would rather hit for an hour than play a round. The grill keeps seasonal hours, dawn to dusk, and the banquet side runs year round.
Green fees are the county's and they get re-set
County golf rates are seasonal and time of day dependent, and the facility improvement fee is added per round on top. They run lowest on weekday mornings and highest on weekend mornings. Confirm the current sheet and the tee time system with the county before you turn up expecting a specific number, particularly if you are relying on a senior or junior rate.
The name belongs to a ruin that is not in Holladay
The stone shell that gives this end of the valley its Old Mill name is the 1883 Cottonwood Paper Mill, and it stands at Wasatch Boulevard and Fort Union Boulevard, over the line in Cottonwood Heights rather than here. It is a striking thing to drive past on the way and it belongs to that city's own story. The golf course took the name, not the ruin.
The details
Getting there
South along Wasatch Boulevard past the Mount Olympus trailhead. The course entrance is on the west side of the road at 6080 South, at the corner where Holladay's bench begins tipping toward the canyon mouths.
Before you go
- This is a Salt Lake County facility, not a city one. Bookings and rates go through the county.
- Published rates change. Confirm the current sheet before you rely on a figure.
- Range balls come in three sizes if you only want an hour rather than a round.
- The grill runs seasonal hours, dawn to dusk. Banquets run year round.
- Wasatch Boulevard carries canyon traffic on winter weekends. Time the drive accordingly.
Honest about scale
What is inside the city, and what the address simply puts nearby
Holladay is a small, full, residential city with an enormous amount of somebody else's programming within twenty minutes. Confusing the two is the commonest mistake in writing about this bench, so here they are separated.
| Inside Holladay | Within about twenty minutes | |
|---|---|---|
| Mountains | Three walk-in drainages behind the houses, one of them with a 9,026 foot summit | Two canyon roads with four ski resorts on them, in the next city south |
| Water | Big Cottonwood Creek through the south side, and a county course beside it | Alpine lakes up both canyons, and a very large salt lake to the north west |
| Events | An arts council calendar, a plaza, a park lawn and a historical commission | A downtown with two professional teams, a university and an arena calendar |
| Shopping | A village crossroads, a grocery and a redeveloping mall site | Every scale of retail the metro has, in four directions |
| Transit | Local bus routes on the arterials. No rail stop in the city | Rail in the Murray and Millcreek corridors, ten to fifteen minutes away |
| Libraries | A Salt Lake County branch with a recording studio and 3D printers | The rest of the county system, plus a university library |
Neither column is a criticism. People choose this bench for the left column's quiet and the right column's reach, and the price of entry reflects both. What it is not is a self contained town, and anybody selling it as one has not spent a Tuesday here.
Before you go
What to sort first, because three of these are timing rather than kit
Almost nothing on this list needs booking, but several of them are only true at certain hours or in certain months, and that is where days go wrong here.
Sort before you drive
- Water for the mountain, because there is none on either trail and the lower slopes are exposed
- A tee time and the current rate sheet, if the county course is the plan
- A pavilion or classroom reservation at Knudsen Park, which goes through the city rather than the gate
- The current date for the September festival, from the arts council rather than a listing
- A leash for the dog, since both canyon trails here publish leashed pets rather than off leash
Check the hour or the month
- Park restrooms, which the city publishes as open 1 March to 31 October and locks nightly
- Trailhead parking on Wasatch Boulevard, which is gone by mid morning on summer weekends
- The concert series, which is Saturdays in July and August with music at eight
- Library hours, which run long on weekday evenings and short on weekends
- Wasatch Boulevard on a winter weekend morning, when canyon traffic owns it
Turn up and it is fine
- The village crossroads, which is free, walkable and open whenever the shops are
- The history walk through City Park, which is a footpath with poems set into it
- Knudsen Park's playground, hammock garden and bike repair station
- Heughs Canyon, if the Mount Olympus lot has already filled
One rule changes fifteen minutes down the road. Everything on this list that involves a dog works, because none of these drainages is protected drinking water. Drive south to either Cottonwood canyon and a dog is prohibited outright, including one that never gets out of the car. It is the same mountain range and the opposite answer, and the county publishes the protected list if you want to see it in writing.
What this list leaves out, and why
- Big and Little Cottonwood, and everything up them. Four ski resorts, a protected watershed and a winter access system are a county subject rather than a city one, and they have their own pages on this region's companion.
- The Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Six cities on this bench touch that route and none of them owns it, so the through route, the gaps and the Parley's Canyon break are written once at region level.
- Downtown Salt Lake City, twenty minutes north. Temple Square, the arenas and the airport connection belong to the county's downtown page and to Salt Lake City's own companion.
- Big Cottonwood Regional Park at 4300 South 1300 East. It is a good county park with creek access and a loop path, and it sits over the line in Millcreek rather than in Holladay.
- Holladay Lions Recreation Center on Murray-Holladay Road. It is a Salt Lake County facility with pools, classes and sports rather than a Holladay attraction, and it is worth knowing about as a resident rather than as a visitor.