The west side Riverton
The only park in this city with a use at both ends of the year
Western Springs Park, and the hill somebody had to build
About twenty acres at 4570 West Goshute Drive, the biggest park on Riverton's west side and the only one anywhere in the city equipped for both seasons: a splash pad from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and a sledding hill on ground that has no natural slope at all. It was Salt Lake County's park until 2017. Here is what is in it, what it costs, and why three of the four parks that shared its name no longer do.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Western Springs Park is a roughly twenty acre city park on the far west side of Riverton, at 4570 West Goshute Drive, open every day from seven in the morning until ten at night. It is the only park in the city built for both ends of the year: a splash pad from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and a sledding hill on ground that has no natural slope of its own. The City of Riverton has run it since 2017, when it took the park over from Salt Lake County, and that is the one fact worth knowing before you look it up, because a lot of older maps and listings still point at the county and the wrong phone number. Bookings, rules and seasons all go through Riverton Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101. The reservable pavilion here, twelve tables for ten dollars on a resident half day, is the best value large booking anywhere in the city.
Start here
Twenty acres that work in July and in February
Western Springs Park sits at 4570 West Goshute Drive on the far west side of Riverton, runs to about twenty acres and opens every day from seven in the morning until ten at night. It is the largest park on this half of the city and the only one anywhere in Riverton that has a genuine use at both ends of the year.
The summer half is a splash pad, running on the standard city season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, plus a baseball and softball field that youth sport uses regularly, a sand volleyball court, two horseshoe pits and a playground. The winter half is a sledding hill, and on a valley floor with no bench inside the city boundary a sledding hill is something somebody built on purpose rather than something the ground provided.
It also has a story attached that no other park in this city has. Western Springs was a Salt Lake County park until 2017, when the City of Riverton assumed control of it. That handover is why older maps, older listings and a fair number of people still file it under the county, and it is why it is worth a look before you call anybody about it.
Western Springs Park by the numbers
20 acres
the size of the west side's biggest park
2017
the year the city took it over from the county
12 tables
in a pavilion seating up to about 120
10 dollars
a resident half day booking on that pavilion
The handover
A county park that became a city one in 2017
Municipal boundaries in a fast growing valley do not move, but responsibility does. Western Springs Park was Salt Lake County's, and in 2017 the City of Riverton assumed control of it. That is a small administrative sentence with a set of practical consequences that outlast it by years.
The first is that it changed who answers the telephone. Bookings, rules, maintenance and seasons here now run through Riverton Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101, and the county cannot help. The second is that it brought the park inside Riverton's own fee schedule, which is why a resident can reserve a twelve table pavilion here for ten dollars, the same rate as the small pavilion at the flagship park across the city.
The third is that it left a long tail of wrong information. Search results, map listings and older neighborhood guides still attribute this park to the county, and anybody working from them will call the wrong number and get the wrong answer. Nine years on, that is still the most common practical problem with this park.
It also tells you something about how Riverton has grown. A city that adds a twenty acre park to its own responsibilities is a city taking on the west side rather than waiting for somebody else to serve it, which is of a piece with everything else this city does for itself. The consequences of all that self reliance for a household are set out on a southwest valley address.
The park did not move in 2017. The desk that answers questions about it did, and half the internet never noticed.
The name
There used to be four Western Springs parks. Now there is one
This is the detail that makes finding anything on the west side of Riverton confusing, and it is worth ten seconds of explanation because it will save you a wrong turn.
| What it was called | What it is called now | The detail |
|---|---|---|
| Western Springs Park | Western Springs Park | About 20 acres at 4570 West Goshute Drive, and the only park still carrying the name |
| Western Springs Mini Park | Geronimo Park | 1.92 acres at 4659 West Geronimo Road, established 2009, with basketball hoops on the trail side |
| Western Springs Central Park | Western Hills Park | 3.5 acres at 4911 Western Hills Drive, established 2009, with a playground and a small pavilion |
| Western Springs Tot Lot | Diamondback Park | 0.46 acres at 12689 South Diamondback Drive, established 2009 |
| The Western Springs Trail | The Western Springs Trail | Still the name, and it is the thread that links the parks together |
Names, acreages and addresses current as of 2026. The three renamed parks still turn up under their old names in search results and older map data, so match the address rather than the name.
The practical effect is straightforward. If somebody tells you to meet at Western Springs, there is now only one park it can be, which is an improvement. If you are working from a map or a listing more than a few years old, it might mean any of four sites up to a mile apart, which is not. Check the address rather than the name.
The trail is the thing that ties them together and it kept the name. It runs between the parks, carries two public half basketball courts along it near Geronimo Park, and is one of the small set of Riverton trails that actually connects places rather than looping around one of them. For a household on this side of the city it is the useful piece: parks on one walkable line.
The two seasons
A splash pad for July and a built hill for February
Almost every park on this valley floor has one good season and a long dead half year. This one has been equipped for both ends, which is a deliberate piece of design rather than an accident of ground.
| The warm half | The cold half | |
|---|---|---|
| The draw | The splash pad, on the city's standard Memorial Day to Labor Day season | The sledding hill, for however long the valley floor holds snow |
| The field | A baseball and softball field with youth sport on it regularly through the summer | Empty, and usable by anybody willing to be cold |
| The courts | A sand volleyball court and two horseshoe pits | Open and unused |
| The pavilion | Booked, and a ten dollar half day for a resident is the best value in the system | Available, and nobody wants it |
| The catch | Youth sports programs mean the field is not always free when you arrive | The hill needs snow, and this valley floor does not always have it |
| What is open regardless | Playground, picnic tables, benches, restrooms, drinking fountain, parking and trail access | The same, minus the water |
Splash pad seasons across the city run Memorial Day to Labor Day. Confirm current hours, rules and program use with Riverton Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101.
The sledding hill deserves a paragraph of its own because of what it says about the site. There is no natural slope of any consequence anywhere on the western half of this city; the ground is bench and it is flat. A hill in a park here is landscaping with a purpose, and it is the only thing in Riverton that gives a household something to do outdoors in the one season when every other flat green rectangle in the southwest valley is a cold flat green rectangle.
The splash pad matters for a different reason. There are two in the city, one here and one at the flagship park on the eastern side, and the drive between them is real. For a household on the west side, having water in the park at the end of the road rather than four miles away across an expressway is the difference between using it three times a summer and using it thirty. The flagship park page covers the other one.
The bookings
The best value pavilion in the whole city, by a distance
The reservable pavilion here holds twelve picnic tables and seats somewhere between about ninety six and a hundred and twenty people. A resident pays ten dollars for a half day and twenty for a full one. That is the same rate as the nine table small pavilion at Riverton City Park, for a shelter with a third more tables and a considerably larger group capacity.
Non residents pay sixty for a half day and ninety for a full one, which is the standard six times premium Riverton applies to its cheaper facilities. If you live in a neighboring city and the venue is negotiable, price your own city's equivalent first, because a sixty dollar half day here is no longer obviously the bargain it is for a resident.
The comparison worth making is against the large pavilion at the flagship park, which seats about four hundred across fifty tables at seventy five dollars for a resident half day. If your group genuinely needs four hundred seats, that is the one. If it needs a hundred, this pavilion does the job for a seventh of the money on the side of the city where most of the new housing is, and that is why it books out.
One rule overrides all of it and it is the same rule everywhere in this city. Bounce houses are not allowed at any Riverton city park. It is worth repeating on this page specifically, because a large cheap pavilion beside a playground and a splash pad is precisely the booking somebody makes with an inflatable in mind.
Youth sport uses this park regularly through the summer, and it is not a hire you can see. Youth sports programs use Western Springs on a regular basis during the summer. That means the ball field, and often a share of the open ground and the parking lot, can be committed on an evening or a Saturday when nothing about the park looks reserved from the road. If the field or the space is the reason you are coming, call Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101 first rather than driving over and finding out.
What comes next
The west side is still having its parks built
Riverton keeps more than thirty community parks across the city, and a striking number of the west side ones were established from 2000 onward, several of them in 2009. That is what a park system looks like when it is chasing a housing front rather than serving a settled city, and on this side of Riverton it is still chasing.
The city has described two further parks in early planning. One is about ten acres on land in a development adjacent to the Welby Jacobs Canal, south of 13400 South and just north of 13800 South, sitting next to a public park on the Herriman side of the boundary. The other is about sixteen acres at the north west corner of Old Liberty Way, which is 4050 West, and Majestic Rise Parkway at 13200 South. Both were described as being reviewed for design rather than under construction, and a described park is not a built one.
Recent completed work has been upgrades rather than new ground: new playground equipment at Monarch Meadows, Morning Cloak and Peggy Green parks in 2024, following an earlier round at Autumn Hills, Oquirrh and Swensen Farms parks and a splash pad update at Old Farm Park. That is the pattern to expect on this side of the city for the next few years, and it is worth separating firmly from what has actually opened. The same discipline applies to the roads, and a southwest valley address takes that up.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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The west side, answered
About twenty acres, at 4570 West Goshute Drive, open every day from seven in the morning until ten at night. The published amenities are a baseball and softball field, a playground, a splash pad, a sand volleyball court, two horseshoe pits, a sledding hill, picnic tables, benches, a drinking fountain, restrooms, dedicated parking and trail access, plus one reservable pavilion with twelve picnic tables seating roughly ninety six to a hundred and twenty people.
The City of Riverton, and it has done since 2017, when the city assumed control of the park from Salt Lake County. That change is why a good deal of older map data, search results and neighborhood guides still attribute it to the county, which sends people to the wrong telephone number. Bookings, rules, seasons and maintenance all go through Riverton Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101 or [email protected].
Yes, and it is a built feature rather than a natural slope, because there is no hill of any consequence on the western half of this city. It is the one thing in Riverton that gives a household somewhere outdoors to go in the season when the splash pads are drained and the fields are frozen, and its usefulness depends entirely on whether the valley floor is holding snow at the time.
The season runs Memorial Day to Labor Day, which is the standard window across Riverton's park system. Outside those dates it is shut. There are three city splash pads, this one on the west side, one at Riverton City Park on the eastern side, and one at Old Farm Park, which was closed in 2026, and the drive between them is real, so which side of the city you are on decides which one you actually use across a summer.
Ten dollars for a resident half day and twenty for a full day, with non residents at sixty and ninety. A half day is 10am to 3pm or 4pm to 10pm and a full day is 10am to 10pm. Twelve picnic tables seating up to about a hundred and twenty people at that price makes it the best value large booking in the city, and reservations go through Riverton Parks and Recreation on 801-208-3101.
No. Bounce houses are not allowed at any Riverton city park, and this one is no exception whatever you have reserved. It is worth stating here specifically because a large, cheap pavilion sitting beside a playground and a splash pad is exactly the booking somebody makes with an inflatable in mind. Check the full current park rules with Parks and Recreation before you hire anything in for an event here.
There were, and now there is one. The city's own park pages now serve Geronimo Park, 1.92 acres at 4659 West Geronimo Road, at the address that used to be Western Springs Mini Park, and Western Hills Park, 3.5 acres at 4911 Western Hills Drive, at the address that used to be Western Springs Central Park, and Diamondback Park, 0.46 acres at 12689 South Diamondback Drive, at the address that used to be Western Springs Tot Lot. Only Western Springs Park itself and the Western Springs Trail still carry the name, so check an address rather than a name if you are working from old data.
A city trail on the far west side of Riverton that links Western Springs Park with the two smaller parks nearby, and it carries two public half basketball courts along it near Geronimo Park. It is one of the small number of Riverton trails that connects places rather than looping around a single park, which makes it genuinely useful for a household on that side of the city rather than merely pleasant.
Two have been described in planning and neither is built. One is about ten acres in a development next to the Welby Jacobs Canal, south of 13400 South and just north of 13800 South, adjacent to a public park on the Herriman side. The other is about sixteen acres at the north west corner of Old Liberty Way, which is 4050 West, and Majestic Rise Parkway at 13200 South. Recent completed work has been playground upgrades at several existing west side parks rather than new ground.
Twenty acres that work in the month everything else here does not
A park at the end of the street changes how a household actually uses a week, and on this side of Riverton the difference between the road that reaches this one on foot and the road that does not is a few hundred yards nobody records on a listing. Tell me which streets you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who knows the west side grid, while I take the homework and the financing side.
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