The park Murray
The 63 acres this city is actually organised around
Murray Park, and the creek that decided where it went.
Sixty three and a bit acres in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley, laid along Little Cottonwood Creek on ground that used to carry the county fair, holding an amphitheatre with a ticketed summer season, an outdoor pool, a year round recreation complex, 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 properly.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Murray is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Salt Lake County partner agent.
Start here
Sixty three acres arranged around a mountain creek.
Murray Park is listed at 63.4 acres and it is the centre of gravity of this city in a way that is unusual even by Utah standards. Almost every municipal park in this valley is a rectangle of irrigated grass with a play structure at one end. This one is a long green corridor organised 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 north west 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 amphitheatre with a ticketed summer season at the south end. An outdoor aquatic centre for the school holidays. The Park Center recreation complex with indoor pools open all year. An arboretum. Five rentable pavilions. Playgrounds, soccer pitches, softball diamonds and a gazebo that the city programmes on 4 July. Part of the ground previously 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 amphitheatre, 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 north west 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 used to carry 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 that was designed from nothing on a blank site tends to be neat and symmetrical. A park that accreted onto a fairground beside a creek is neither, and Murray Park is not: buildings sit where earlier buildings sat, car parks 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 ring about it.
A park this size stops being one thing and becomes a set of operations with separate hours, separate charges and separate telephone numbers. The table below is the practical map of that, as published by the city in August 2026.
| What | Where in the park | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| The park itself | 296 East Murray Park Avenue | Free and open, with car parks scattered around the perimeter rather than gathered at one gate |
| The Park Center | 202 East Murray Park Avenue | A separate recreation complex with its own entry and its own hours, on 801-284-4200 |
| Murray Aquatic Center | 5109 South Murray Park Avenue | The outdoor pool, open for the summer season only |
| The amphitheatre | 495 East 5300 South, the south end | Ticketed, dated, and running from early June into September |
| Five pavilions | Spread through the park | Reserved through the City of Murray on 801-264-2614, and booked well ahead through summer |
| The arboretum and the creek | Along the length of the park | Free, open, and the reason to walk rather than drive between the other five rows |
Addresses, hours and facilities as published by the City of Murray in August 2026. A city that programmes its own venues revises its own season, so confirm anything you are travelling for with Murray Parks and Recreation on 801-264-2614 or with The Park Center on 801-284-4200.
The park and the recreation centre 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 of 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 turning 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 | The summer school holidays |
| 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 storey slide with a 48 inch height rule | Open air plunge 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 |
| Published hours | Weekdays 5.30am to 9pm, Saturday 7am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 2pm in August 2026 | A published summer season that shifts to weekends only late in the run |
As published by the City of Murray in August 2026. Pool timetables move with school terms, swim team schedules and maintenance closures more than almost anything else a city runs, so ring The Park Center on 801-284-4200 rather than relying on a printed hour.
The three storey 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 subscription. Reservations at The Park Center are scheduled in advance rather than taken at the door, which is normal for a municipal 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 car park.
The summer season
A ticketed programme in an outdoor room at the south end.
The amphitheatre is the reason this park has a calendar rather than merely opening hours. The published 2026 season is set out below as an illustration of the shape of a Murray summer, not as a schedule to book from: the city publishes a new one every spring.
| When | What | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| 6 June | Murray Symphony | 10 dollars adult, 7 senior, child and military |
| 12, 13, 15, 18, 19 and 20 June | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a musical | 20 dollars adult, 15 concession |
| 27 June | Murray Concert Band | 10 dollars adult, 7 concession |
| 7, 8, 10, 13, 14 and 15 August | The Pirates of Penzance, a musical | 20 dollars adult, 15 concession |
| 5 September | Ronstadt Revival | 30 dollars general admission |
| 12 September | Always Tina, a Tina Turner tribute | 30 dollars general admission |
The 2026 season as published by Murray Parks and Recreation, checked 7 August 2026. Evening performances ran at 8pm through the summer and at 7pm for the September concerts. Confirm the current season on 801-264-2614 before making plans around any of it.
Two things about that list are worth pulling out. The first is that a city of this size fields both a symphony and a concert band and puts them on its own stage, at ten dollars a seat, which is a level of municipal cultural provision that has quietly disappeared from a lot of American suburbs. The second is that the two musicals run six nights each rather than a weekend, which means a sold Friday genuinely does have a free Tuesday behind it.
The venue itself sits at 495 East 5300 South at the south end of the park, with two car parks: one south east of the amphitheatre off 5300 South and one north west in front of the parks office, both joined to the venue by footpath rather than by road. On a busy night the second one 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 4 July, when Fun Days occupies the whole site from a sunrise service through to fireworks at ten at night. That 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 amphitheatre 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 concert that starts at seven 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 every reunion, birthday and works party in a city of about fifty thousand people, plus a share of the neighbouring ones. Through summer they go a long way ahead, and the weekends either side of 4 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 car parks 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 amphitheatre 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 municipal 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 neighbour on a July evening with a musical running, and both versions are worth standing in. The movers page takes that further.
Keep reading
More of Murray on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
A 63 acre park on a creek, a theatre 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 centre
Murray City Centre
Five form districts adopted in 2025, a 1938 theatre 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 centre 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 centre, 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 centrepiece of the city's park system and one of the larger municipal parks on the Salt Lake Valley floor. Little Cottonwood Creek runs the full length of it, and the park carries an amphitheatre, an outdoor aquatic centre, The Park Center recreation complex, an arboretum, five rentable pavilions, playgrounds, a gazebo, soccer pitches and softball diamonds. 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 consequence of accreting onto older uses rather than being planned at once.
A year round municipal recreation complex at 202 East Murray Park Avenue, inside Murray Park but operating separately from it with its own hours, entry and telephone 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 storey 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 published hours. Murray Aquatic Center at 5109 South Murray Park Avenue is the outdoor pool and runs for the summer school holidays only, moving 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. The published 2026 programme ran the Murray Symphony on 6 June, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory across six nights in mid June, the Murray Concert Band on 27 June, The Pirates of Penzance across six nights in August, and two tribute concerts on 5 and 12 September. Musicals were 20 dollars adult and 15 concession, the city ensembles 10 and 7, and the September concerts 30 dollars.
The venue is at 495 East 5300 South at the south end of the park and has two car parks of its own: one to the south east off 5300 South and one to the north west in front of the Murray Parks and Recreation office. Both connect to the amphitheatre by footpath 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 works parties across the mid valley, so through the summer they are reserved a long way ahead and the weekends around 4 July are effectively spoken for. Book the pavilion before you fix the date rather than the other way round.
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 amphitheatre 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 municipal park of this size.
June, if you want the park at full volume, because the amphitheatre 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 programme. 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 municipal 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.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.