The park Murray
The 63 acres this city is built around
Murray Park, and the creek that decided where it went
Murray Park is a 63 acre city park in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley, laid along Little Cottonwood Creek on ground that once held the county fair. Inside it are an amphitheater with a ticketed summer season, an outdoor pool, a year round recreation center, an arboretum, and five pavilions that book out months ahead. Here is what is in it, who runs each part, and how to use it well.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Murray Park is a 63 acre city park at 296 East Murray Park Avenue, in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley, with Little Cottonwood Creek running the full length of it. Inside the boundary are an outdoor amphitheater with a short ticketed summer season, an outdoor pool, The Park Center recreation complex with indoor pools open all year, an arboretum, five rentable pavilions, playgrounds, soccer and softball fields, and a gazebo. The park and the creek are free and open; the pools, the amphitheater and the pavilions are programmed facilities that carry their own hours and charges, and everything is run by the City of Murray rather than the county. The single best way to use it is to walk the creek line rather than the perimeter, and to book anything you are traveling for before you fix the date.
Start here
Sixty three acres arranged around a mountain creek
Murray Park is listed at 63.4 acres and it is the center of gravity of this city in a way that is unusual even by Utah standards. Almost every city park in this valley is a rectangle of irrigated grass with a play structure at one end. This one is a long green corridor organized around Little Cottonwood Creek, which comes out of the range to the east, crosses the city, runs the full length of the park, and eventually reaches the Jordan River at the northwest corner of Murray.
That water is the whole reason the park is where it is, and it is the reason the ground was valuable long before anybody thought of parks. It is also why the park feels cooler than the streets around it on a July afternoon: mature cottonwoods, moving water and shade do something that sprinklers cannot. If you only walk one thing in this city, walk the creek line rather than the perimeter path.
The rest of the park is a genuinely complete civic kit. An amphitheater with a ticketed summer season at the south end. An outdoor pool for the summer. The Park Center recreation complex with indoor pools open all year. An arboretum. Five rentable pavilions. Playgrounds, soccer fields, softball fields, and a gazebo that anchors the city's Fourth of July. Part of the ground once carried the Salt Lake County Fairgrounds, before newer facilities were built in South Jordan.
Murray Park by the numbers
63.4 acres
the listed size of the park
5
rentable pavilions, booked through the city
8 lanes
in the 25 yard pool at The Park Center
495 E 5300 S
the amphitheater, at the south end
The ground
A county fairground first, and a creek before that
Little Cottonwood Creek is the older story here by several thousand years. It leaves the canyon of the same name on the east side of the valley, runs west across the bench and the floor, passes the ground where the Wheelers built their farmstead in 1886, threads Murray Park, and joins the Jordan River at the city's northwest corner. A single line of water accounts for most of the historic geography of this side of the city: where the farms went, where the park went, and why either is where it is.
The more recent layer is municipal. Part of this ground once carried the Salt Lake County Fairgrounds, until newer facilities were built in South Jordan and the fair moved south with the population. What was left was a large piece of open, level, well watered land in the exact middle of a valley that was filling up fast, owned by a city with a habit of running its own affairs. The park is what happened next.
That history explains the shape of the place. A park designed from nothing on a blank site tends to be neat and symmetrical. A park that grew onto a fairground beside a creek is neither, and Murray Park is not: buildings sit where earlier buildings sat, parking lots are scattered around the perimeter rather than gathered at one entrance, and the paths follow older desire lines. It reads as a place that has been used continuously rather than one that was planned all at once.
The creek keeps the whole thing honest. In late spring it runs high and loud with snowmelt out of the canyon, in August it is a shallow braid under the cottonwoods, and in January it is the only thing moving. There is no other park in the middle of this valley where the season is that legible, and it is the single best argument for visiting more than once. Where the same creek finishes its run is covered on the river page.
The park is not on the creek by accident. Everything old in this city is on that line of water.
The kit
What is actually inside the boundary, and who to call about it
A park this size stops being one thing and becomes a set of operations, each with its own hours, its own charges, and its own phone number. Here is the practical map of it.
The park itself, at 296 East Murray Park Avenue, is free and open, with parking lots scattered around the perimeter rather than gathered at one gate. The arboretum and the creek run the length of it, also free, and they are the reason to walk between the buildings rather than drive.
The Park Center, at 202 East Murray Park Avenue, is a separate recreation complex with its own entry and its own hours; reach it on 801-284-4200. Murray Aquatic Center, at 5109 South Murray Park Avenue, is the outdoor pool and opens for the summer season only. The amphitheater sits at the south end, at 495 East 5300 South, and runs a ticketed, dated season from early June into September. The five pavilions are spread through the park and are reserved through the City of Murray on 801-264-2614; through the summer they book a long way ahead.
Directions to each part
A city that programs its own venues revises its own season, so confirm anything you are traveling for with Murray Parks and Recreation on 801-264-2614 or with The Park Center on 801-284-4200.
The park and the recreation center have different front doors and different rules. This catches people constantly. Murray Park is free public open space with no gate and no closing time posted at the entrance. The Park Center is a staffed recreation facility a couple hundred yards away with its own opening hours, its own admission and its own booking system, and reservations are scheduled in advance. Walking into the park tells you nothing about whether you can swim, and showing up at the pool without checking is how an afternoon gets rearranged.
Two ways to swim
One pool for the summer, and one for the other nine months
Murray runs both an outdoor seasonal pool and a year round indoor complex inside the same park, which is a genuinely unusual amount of municipal water for a city of this size. They serve different purposes and it is worth knowing which one you actually want.
| The Park Center, indoors | Murray Aquatic Center, outdoors | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | 202 East Murray Park Avenue | 5109 South Murray Park Avenue |
| Season | All year | Summer only |
| The serious pool | Eight lanes at 25 yards, used for swim teams, meets, water polo and lap swimming | An outdoor season pool rather than a competition facility |
| The fun pool | Zero depth entry, a lazy river current, water toys, bubble couches and a three story slide with a 48 inch height rule | Open air swimming through the warm months |
| Beyond swimming | Fitness floor, basketball court, indoor track and group classes | Nothing; it is a pool and it closes for the school year |
| Hours | Posted year round hours, with an early open on weekdays and shorter weekend hours | A summer season that narrows to weekends late in the run |
Pool schedules move with school terms, swim team meets and maintenance closures more than almost anything else a city runs, so call The Park Center on 801-284-4200 rather than relying on a printed hour.
The three story slide and the 48 inch height rule are the two facts most worth carrying into a first visit, because between them they decide whether a particular child has the afternoon they were expecting. The lazy river and the zero depth entry cover the ones who do not clear the mark, and the eight lane pool next door is where the serious swimming happens, which means the two do not compete for the same water.
For a household in this city, the practical version is that the outdoor pool is a summer habit and the indoor complex is a year round routine. Reservations at The Park Center are scheduled in advance rather than taken at the door, which is normal for a facility of this kind and is still the thing most first time visitors get wrong. Sort it before you drive over rather than in the parking lot.
The summer season
A ticketed program in an outdoor room at the south end
The amphitheater is the reason this park has a calendar rather than merely opening hours. The city publishes a fresh season each spring, so the shape below is what to expect rather than a schedule to book from; for current dates and prices, call Murray Parks and Recreation on 801-264-2614.
A typical summer runs from early June into September and mixes a few kinds of night. The city fields both a symphony and a concert band and puts them on its own stage at a modest ticket, which is a level of municipal culture that has quietly disappeared from a lot of American suburbs. Around them the season carries one or two full musicals, and it usually closes with a tribute concert or two in September at a higher price. Outdoor movie nights, children's storytime and family fitness sessions fill in the rest of the calendar.
The musicals are the part worth planning around, because they tend to run several nights each rather than a single weekend, so a sold Friday often has an open weeknight behind it. Reduced prices for seniors, youth and military are the norm on the city's own ensembles. None of the specifics survive from one summer to the next, so treat the current season as the only reliable source.
The venue itself sits at 495 East 5300 South at the south end of the park, with two parking lots: one southeast of the amphitheater off 5300 South and one northwest in front of the parks office, both joined to the venue by a path rather than by road. On a busy night the second lot is the answer, and the walk between them is short. Arrive with that already in mind rather than discovering it at ten to eight.
The other fixed date in the park is the Fourth of July, when Fun Days fills the whole site from a sunrise service at the amphitheater through to fireworks after dark. It has run since 1958 and it is free, and the ranked list on the top 8 page sets out the day in order.
It is an outdoor venue with no roof, in a valley that gets summer storms. August afternoons on this valley floor build thunderstorms over the range and push them west, and an amphitheater has nowhere to put an audience when one arrives. The city posts weather decisions rather than leaving them to the gate, so check before you drive over on an unsettled evening. Equally, a September evening concert finishes in genuine cold once the sun is behind the Oquirrhs, so take a layer even if the afternoon was warm.
How to use it well
The habits that separate a resident from a first visit
Book the pavilion before you decide the date, not after. Five pavilions across 63 acres sounds like a lot until you consider that this is the default venue for reunions, birthdays and office parties in a city of about fifty thousand people, plus a share of the neighboring ones. Through summer they go a long way ahead, and the weekends either side of the Fourth of July are effectively spoken for. The reservation runs through the City of Murray rather than the county.
Park at the end you actually want. Because the parking lots are scattered around the perimeter rather than gathered at a single entrance, the difference between arriving at the north end and the south end is a ten minute walk with whatever you are carrying. If the amphitheater is the destination, use its own two lots off 5300 South. If The Park Center is, use its own. If the creek is, park anywhere and walk the water.
And come back in a different season, because this park changes more between March and August than most city parks manage in a decade. The creek is the reason. If you are weighing an address near it, the same advice applies with more force: a park that is quiet on a February Tuesday is a very different neighbor on a July evening with a musical running, and both versions are worth standing in. The movers page takes that further.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Murray on The Local
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
A 63 acre park on a creek, a theater back after eight dark years, and a farm from 1886.
Read the guideThe smelter ground
Where the smokestacks stood
Two stacks, 455 and 295 feet, gone in one morning, and what marks the ground now.
Read the guideThe center
Murray City Center
Five form districts adopted in 2025, a 1938 theater reopened, and a mansion turned museum.
Read the guideThe river
The Jordan River through Murray
Five miles of paved trail, five trailhead parks, a confluence and a wetland classroom.
Read the guideMoving here
A center of the valley address
What three rail stops, two freeways and a round the clock hospital do to a week.
Read the guideThe companion
Murray, the whole picture
The park, the smelter ground, the city center, the river and the address, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The park, answered
It is listed at 63.4 acres, which makes it the centerpiece of the city's park system and one of the larger city parks on the Salt Lake Valley floor. Little Cottonwood Creek runs the full length of it, and the park holds an amphitheater, an outdoor pool, The Park Center recreation complex, an arboretum, five rentable pavilions, playgrounds, a gazebo, and soccer and softball fields. The main address is 296 East Murray Park Avenue.
Part of the ground carried the Salt Lake County Fairgrounds until newer facilities were built in South Jordan and the fair moved south. Before any of that, the site's real qualification was Little Cottonwood Creek, which comes out of the canyon of the same name on the east side of the valley and runs across this ground on its way to the Jordan River. The park's slightly irregular layout is a result of growing onto older uses rather than being planned all at once.
A year round city recreation complex at 202 East Murray Park Avenue, inside Murray Park but run separately from it with its own hours, entry and phone number on 801-284-4200. It holds an eight lane 25 yard competition pool used for swim teams, meets, water polo and lap swimming, plus an activity pool with zero depth entry, a lazy river current, water toys, bubble couches and a three story slide with a 48 inch height rule, along with a fitness floor, a basketball court and an indoor track.
Two separate swimming operations, which is more than most cities of this size manage. The Park Center holds the indoor pools and runs all year on posted hours. Murray Aquatic Center at 5109 South Murray Park Avenue is the outdoor pool and runs for the summer only, narrowing to weekends near the end of its season. They are different facilities with different hours, so check which one you actually want before driving over.
A short ticketed season from early June into September, published fresh by the city each spring. A typical summer mixes the Murray Symphony and the Murray Concert Band on the city's own stage, one or two full musicals that usually run several nights each, and a tribute concert or two to close in September, alongside outdoor movie nights and children's programming. For the current lineup, dates and prices, call Murray Parks and Recreation on 801-264-2614.
The venue is at 495 East 5300 South at the south end of the park and has two parking lots of its own: one to the southeast off 5300 South and one to the northwest in front of the Murray Parks and Recreation office. Both connect to the amphitheater by a path rather than by road, so on a busy night the second is a short walk rather than a long drive. Arrive with that alternative already in mind.
Through the City of Murray rather than through Salt Lake County, on 801-264-2614. There are five pavilions in the park and they are the default venue for reunions, birthdays and office parties across the mid valley, so through the summer they are reserved a long way ahead and the weekends around the Fourth of July are effectively spoken for. Book the pavilion before you fix the date rather than the other way around.
The park itself is free and open, including the creek, the arboretum, the playgrounds and the open ground. What carries a charge is everything programmed or enclosed: The Park Center has its own admission, the outdoor pool has its own season and entry, the amphitheater is ticketed, and the five pavilions are reserved and paid for through the city. That split, free open space plus charged programmed facilities, is the normal shape for a city park of this size.
June, if you want the park at full volume, because the amphitheater season is running, the outdoor pool is open and the evenings are long. Late September and early October are better if you want the creek and the cottonwoods without the program. Winter is the quietest version and the only one where the creek is the loudest thing in the park. Anybody weighing an address nearby should stand in the park in at least two of those.
A park is the reason people stay in a city like this
Sixty three acres with a mountain creek through it, two pools, an arboretum and a summer season is a serious civic offer, and how close a property sits to it changes a week more than most buyers expect, in both directions. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who knows which streets around this park work and which absorb the summer.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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