Walk the murals on Midvale Main
7505 S Holden Street · Free · Year round
More than fifty murals across a short brick street, painted by local, national and international artists, on the commercial strip that served a smelter town from 1909 onward. It is free, it takes an afternoon at a slow pace, and it is the only thing in this city that people drive in from other counties to see.
The city runs it as the Midvale Main Arts and Culture District and publishes an address of 7505 South Holden Street for it, along with a mural map and guide it updates each year. Around the paint sit locally owned shops, eateries and creative spaces, an art house in a renovated civic building, a food truck plaza and a small theatre. The Main Street page takes the whole district, including the programme behind it and what it costs the city.
Go on foot and start from one end
The murals concentrate across a handful of blocks and a good number of them are on side elevations, loading walls and the backs of buildings rather than the shop fronts. Driving the street shows you perhaps a third of them. Park once, walk the length in one direction and come back on the other side, and look up and into the gaps between buildings as you go, because that is where several of the larger pieces are.
The paint changes every June, so an old photograph is not a plan
The count grows because the city runs an annual mural festival, published for 13 June 2026, and each edition adds walls. That means any list, photograph or map more than a year old understates what is there and may point at a wall that has since been repainted. Take the current guide from the city rather than from a travel post, and if there is a specific piece you have come for, confirm it is still up before you drive.
The details
Getting there
Main Street runs north to south through the old town on the east side of the freeway. Park once and walk, because the district is compact and a good share of the murals face away from the carriageway.
Before you go
- The city publishes a current mural map and guide; use that rather than an old photo set.
- The mural festival is published for 13 June 2026 and adds new walls each year.
- Shops, eateries and the theatre keep their own hours, which are not the city's to publish.
- The food truck plaza runs weekly through the summer rather than all year.
- There is no admission and no ticket for the murals themselves at any time of year.
Play nine holes at Disc on 6th
425 W 6th Avenue · Free · 31 March to 1 December
A nine hole disc golf course with a practice basket, laid out on the north grounds of Midvale City Park, and the city describes it as beginner and intermediate. It costs nothing, it takes under an hour, and it is the single most underrated free thing inside this boundary.
The practical detail the city publishes is where to start. Hole 1 begins in the park's north west corner and the course is best reached from the west car park, which saves you walking the length of a park looking for a tee. Signage on the course carries a map of each hole, so you do not need to arrive with one.
It has a published season, and that is unusual for a course
The city publishes the course as open seasonally from 31 March to 1 December depending on weather. Most municipal disc golf simply exists year round and takes its chances with the ground. This one has dates on it, which means a January visit is not a quiet round in the cold, it is a wasted trip. It also means late March and early December are both weather calls rather than certainties, so ring the Parks Department on 801-567-7235 at either end.
A nine hole park course shares its ground with everybody else
The course is laid over the north grounds of a working municipal park, not a dedicated site, so the fairways cross ground that walkers, dogs and the odd football also use. The city asks players to be courteous to other park users, to respect neighbouring property owners and to follow the disc golfer's code, which is a polite way of saying watch your line before you throw. A weekday morning is the version of this course with nobody in the way.
The details
Getting there
Use the west car park at Midvale City Park. Hole 1 begins in the park's north west corner, and each hole carries signage with a map on it.
Before you go
- Nine holes plus a practice basket, described by the city as beginner and intermediate.
- Open during park hours, and the park is published as closing at 10pm.
- The published season runs 31 March to 1 December depending on weather.
- The course shares ground with the rest of the park, so check your line before throwing.
- Course questions go to the Midvale City Parks Department on 801-567-7235.
See the Midvale Museum on the park corner
350 W 7615 South · Free entry not published · Three afternoons a week
On the north east corner of Midvale City Park sits a small museum run by the Midvale Historical Society and Museum, whose published purpose is to collect, preserve and interpret the historical heritage of Midvale City for public benefit, education and enjoyment. It is the only place in the city that holds the pre redevelopment record in one room.
That matters more here than it would in most suburbs. This is a city whose west side has been physically rebuilt within living memory, on ground where five smelters once ran. Nearly everything a visitor sees on that side is younger than the century. The museum is where the earlier version of the place is still assembled, and it is a fifteen minute walk from the disc golf tee.
Three afternoons a week is the whole of it
Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, from midday to four. That is nine hours a week, which is a narrow window and the reason most people who mean to visit never do. It is a volunteer run museum rather than a staffed civic one, so those hours can move for the ordinary reasons volunteer hours move. The published number is 801-567-7285, and a call before you travel is thirty seconds well spent.
Pair it with the park rather than treating it as a separate trip
The museum sits on the corner of Midvale City Park, which means a Saturday that takes in the disc golf course, the park itself and the museum is one car park and one afternoon. Trying to fit the museum around a Main Street walk instead works too, since the two are close, but the park pairing is the one that uses the opening hours properly, because Saturday midday to four is exactly when the park is at its best.
The details
Getting there
The museum stands on the north east corner of the city park, so park for the park and walk. The city park's own address is 425 West 6th Avenue.
Before you go
- Open Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, midday to four, and shut the rest of the week.
- Run by the Midvale Historical Society and Museum rather than by the city.
- Telephone 801-567-7285 before travelling, because volunteer hours can move.
- The city describes the Main Street art house as the former museum building, renovated in 2024.
- It pairs naturally with the park and the disc golf course, which are a short walk away.
Come for Harvest Days at the end of July
Across the city · Free · One week, late July
The city's community festival is a week rather than a day, and it is the older of Midvale's two big annual events by a long way. In 2026 it ran Monday 27 July to Saturday 1 August: neighbourhood block parties on the Monday and Tuesday, an arts council awards evening with two art shows on the Wednesday, a library night on the Thursday, a concert at the park stage on the Friday at seven, and a Saturday that opened with a fun run and pancake breakfast at seven in the morning and a parade at nine.
It also carries the most honest recent lesson about a valley floor summer. On 1 August 2026 the city cancelled the Saturday afternoon and evening festival activities and the fireworks, citing the National Weather Service's Extreme Heat Watch and forecast temperatures reaching dangerous levels, and published that those parts are rescheduled for a date later in the autumn. The morning events went ahead. As of 8 August 2026 the rescheduled date had not been posted.
The morning is the fixed half and the afternoon is the vulnerable one
Everything before about ten in the morning happened in 2026 exactly as published: the fun run, the pancake breakfast and the parade. Everything from three in the afternoon onward did not. That is not a coincidence, it is what an extreme heat forecast does to an outdoor programme on this valley floor at the start of August, and it is the practical reason to build a Harvest Days plan around the early half of the Saturday rather than the evening one.
Parking on the parade route closes early
The city publishes no parking on the parade route from six in the morning to eleven. If you live on or near it, that is a car to move the night before. If you are coming in, it means arriving before six or parking several streets back and walking, and the parade is at nine, so there is a real gap between when the route clears and when anything happens on it. Take the current route and times from the city each year rather than from a previous year's map.
The details
Getting there
The week moves around the city, but the Saturday finale centres on the parade route and Midvale City Park. The park stage address the city publishes for the Friday concert is 455 West 7500 South.
Before you go
- Dates move each year, so take the current calendar from the city rather than from here.
- No parking on the parade route from 6am to 11am on the day of the parade.
- In 2026 the Saturday afternoon festival and the fireworks were cancelled for extreme heat.
- Those cancelled activities were published as rescheduled to a date later in the autumn.
- The Wednesday and Thursday evenings are indoor and are the heat proof part of the week.
Take the sledding hill at Bingham Junction Park
6980 S River Reserve Ct · Free · Year round, hill in winter
A municipal park on the west side with an unusual origin: it sits on ground that came off the federal cleanup list, and it reopened on 27 October 2016 after the city's Redevelopment Agency rebuilt it with the Utah Jazz and Larry H. Miller Charities. What went in was a resurfaced Jazz basketball court, a new play structure, a sledding hill, expanded parking with better lighting, restrooms and a storage building.
The sledding hill is the reason it is on this list rather than only in a parks directory. This is flat valley floor with no natural slope on it, so a hill in a park here is something somebody built on purpose, and it gives the west side of a small city one thing to do outdoors in the season when the reservation system is closed and the power is off.
The softball field has two owners, and it is worth knowing which is which
Salt Lake County put 665,000 dollars of Tourism, Recreation, Cultural and Convention funds into the field. The arrangement that came with that money is that Midvale City owns and maintains the park, while the county programmes softball leagues on the field. So a pavilion booking is a city transaction and a question about who has the diamond on a Tuesday evening is a county one, and ringing the wrong one wastes an afternoon.
It is the west side's park, and the west side is where the newest ground is
Almost everything else on this list sits on the old town side of the freeway. This park sits on the reclaimed western third, within reach of the rail platform, the offices and the newest housing, which makes it the park that a large and growing share of this city actually walks to. If you are looking at an address on that side, this is the green space to stand in rather than the one on the map with the museum on it.
The details
Getting there
River Reserve Court sits in the redeveloped ground west of the freeway, a short distance from the Bingham Junction rail platform. The park has its own parking, expanded in the 2016 rebuild.
Before you go
- Reopened on 27 October 2016 after a rebuild with the Utah Jazz and Larry H. Miller Charities.
- The city publishes pavilions, a playground, a softball field, basketball courts and seasonal restrooms.
- The pavilion is reservable, but only inside the 1 June to 30 September season.
- Salt Lake County programmes softball leagues on the field; the city owns the park.
- The sledding hill is built rather than natural, and it needs the valley floor to hold snow.
Get onto the river trail at Jordan Bluffs Park
7970 Bingham Junction Blvd · Free · Year round, closes at dark
The Jordan River draws the whole western boundary of this city and the paved regional trail follows it. Midvale publishes its trail connections at Jordan Bluffs Park, which is the practical way onto that corridor from inside the boundary and the one place where a short walk from a car takes you straight onto a county trail.
The park itself is a newer one and it is not a picnic park. The city publishes basketball, pickleball and volleyball courts, a playground, small pavilions and the trail connections, and it publishes two things you need to plan around: no restrooms, and it closes at dark rather than at ten. The river page takes the whole western edge, including what is underneath it.
No restrooms and a dark closing time are both planning facts
Every other park in this city is published as closing at 10pm. This one closes at dark, which in December means about five in the afternoon and in June means well past nine, so the useful window changes by four hours across the year. Add no restrooms on site and the sensible shape of a visit here is short and daylight bound, or long with a plan that involves somewhere else. The nearest published restrooms in the city's own parks are at Bingham Junction Park and the city park, both seasonal.
Three court sports in one small park is the point of it
Basketball, pickleball and volleyball on one site is a lot of hard surface for a park of this size, and it is a deliberate choice for ground that sits within walking distance of a great deal of newer housing. If courts are what a household actually uses, this is the park in Midvale that has them stacked together, and it is on the side of the city where the walk to them is short.
The details
Getting there
Bingham Junction Boulevard runs south through the redeveloped western third of the city. The park has parking, and the trail connections are the reason to come rather than an extra.
Before you go
- The city publishes no restrooms here, which is the difference from its other parks.
- It closes at dark rather than at 10pm, so the usable window swings by hours across the year.
- Basketball, pickleball and volleyball courts, plus a playground and small pavilions.
- The trail beyond the city line belongs to a county system covered by the region page.
- The river is low ground, so spring runoff changes what the corridor looks like entirely.
Hit a bucket at Topgolf, which is in Midvale
920 Jordan River Blvd · Charged · Year round
The valley's Topgolf carries a Salt Lake City name and a Midvale address, at 920 Jordan River Boulevard on the reclaimed ground west of the freeway. A very large number of people who have spent an evening there could not tell you which city they were in, which is a fair summary of what a central address does to a place's public identity.
It earns a place on this list on honest grounds rather than affection: it is a genuine year round evening in a city whose other outdoor amenities have published seasons, and it is one of the few things inside this boundary that people travel across the county for. It is also a private business with its own hours and its own pricing, so nothing about it comes from the city.
It is the winter answer in a city with seasonal parks
Between the start of October and the end of May the reservation system is closed, the power at the outdoor facilities is off and the disc golf course is out of season. What is left outdoors is walking, the courts and a sledding hill that needs snow. A heated bay on the west side is the one thing here that behaves the same in February as in July, and that is a real point in its favour rather than a marketing one.
Check hours and pricing at the venue, because none of it is civic
Everything else on this list is either free or a published city charge. This one is a national operator setting its own hours, prices and booking rules, and all three change without any relationship to a city page. Confirm at the venue before you travel, particularly at weekends and in the run up to holidays, and treat any hours printed anywhere else, including here, as a starting point rather than an answer.
The details
Getting there
Jordan River Boulevard runs through the redeveloped ground on the west side of the freeway, close to the river and the rail platform. Parking is on site.
Before you go
- The venue carries a Salt Lake City name and sits inside the Midvale boundary.
- Hours, pricing and booking rules are the operator's, not the city's; confirm before travelling.
- It is the one entry on this list that works identically in January and July.
- It sits on ground that was part of a federal cleanup site, which the district page covers.
- Weekend evenings are the busy window, as at every venue of this kind in the valley.
Old town and reclaimed ground
What sits east of the freeway, and what sits west of it.
This city divides along Interstate 15, and the two halves are not different neighbourhoods so much as different centuries. East is the town that grew up around a smelter and kept its brick street, its park, its museum and its festival. West is ground that had to be cleaned before anything could stand on it, and everything there is younger than most of the people looking at it. Both are walkable and they are a few minutes apart.
| East of the freeway | West of the freeway | |
|---|---|---|
| What is there | Main Street and its murals, Midvale City Park, the disc golf course, the museum and the festival ground | Bingham Junction and Jordan Bluffs, two reclaimed parks, the river trail connections, the offices and the driving range |
| How old it is | A commercial street laid out for a smelter town that incorporated in 1909 | Rebuilt after federal cleanups deleted in 2004 and 2015, with the buildings younger again |
| What it costs | Free, apart from the shops, the eateries and the theatre on Main Street | Free at both parks; the driving range and the eateries are priced normally |
| Best season | Late spring to autumn, when the disc golf course is in season and the festivals run | Any season, because the one indoor evening and the sledding hill are both over here |
| Turn up or plan | Plan, because the museum opens three afternoons and the course has published dates | Turn up, at either park, on any day the light holds |
| What is still changing | Slowly, building by building, through facade and reuse programmes | Continuously, with new phases still going up on both districts |
Neither half is the better one and this is not a ranking. The east side is where the city's history and its free daytime hours are, and the west side is where its newest ground and its most weather proof evening are. Anybody weighing an address should walk both in one afternoon, because in a city this small that is genuinely possible and it settles the question faster than any amount of reading.
Before you go
Check the calendar first, because four of these seven only work on certain dates.
Nothing here is difficult to reach and almost nothing here is expensive. What catches people out is timing: a museum that opens nine hours a week, a course with a published season, a reservation window that shuts on 30 September, and a festival whose best half happens before ten in the morning.
Sort before you drive
- The day of the week, if the museum is on your list, because it opens Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday only
- The date, if the disc golf course is the plan, because the published season is 31 March to 1 December
- A pavilion or amphitheatre reservation through [email protected], and only inside the 1 June to 30 September window
- A booking at the driving range, which sets its own hours and its own prices
- The current mural map from the city, because the count and the walls both change each June
Check on the day
- Museum hours on 801-567-7285, because a volunteer run museum is not a staffed one
- Restroom and splash pad status with the Parks Department, since the city publishes both as seasonal
- What time it gets dark, if the plan includes the park that closes at dark rather than at ten
- Whether the softball field is in league use, which is a county calendar rather than a city one
- Harvest Days road arrangements, because the parade route closes to parking from six in the morning
Turn up and it is fine
- The murals on Main Street, outdoors and free on any day of the year
- Midvale City Park itself, which is free and published as open until 10pm
- Bingham Junction Park on the west side, free, with courts, a playground and a hill
- The river trail connections, which cost nothing and work in every month
Two of these seven are private businesses and a third is run by volunteers, which changes who can answer you. The driving range and the Main Street shops, eateries and theatre set their own hours and prices, and no city page controls any of it. The museum is the Midvale Historical Society and Museum's rather than the city's, on 801-567-7285. Everything else here, including both parks, the disc golf course, the murals and the festival, is the City of Midvale's, and 801-567-7232 for events or 801-567-7235 for parks is the number that helps.
What this list leaves out, and why
- The two Cottonwood canyons and their resorts, which are east of this valley floor and belong to the whole county rather than to any city on it. Being a short drive from something famous is a reason to live somewhere; it does not make the famous thing yours.
- The Jordan River Parkway as a system, with its length, its water trail and its connections at both ends of the valley. The region page reads the whole line; this list takes only the access the city itself publishes.
- The Great Salt Lake and the exposed lakebed on the far side of the valley, which have their own county page and their own park at the end of somebody else's road.
- Downtown Salt Lake City, which is a short run north and carries an entire county page of its own. Twelve miles of freeway is proximity rather than ownership.
- The retail and dining strip along the eastern arterials, which is genuinely useful if you live here and is an errand rather than an outing. The city guide covers what it means for an address.
