By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahSee something at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center
2525 Taylorsville Blvd Ticketed, lobby art free Year round Directions
Salt Lake County put a real theater in a valley-floor suburb, which is rarer than it sounds. The Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center holds a 400-seat Main-Stage Theatre, a 200-seat black box called Studio 5400, and the Centennial Room for rehearsals and events, all staffed by the county's arts division. It is the arts anchor for the middle and southwest of the valley, and the strongest single reason someone from another city drives into Taylorsville on a weeknight.
The detail most people miss is the lobby. It holds a rotating gallery from the Salt Lake County visual art collection and two commissioned pieces: Adagio, an interior sculpture of 1,343 polished stainless steel spheres on a linear frame, which the New York artist Danielle Roney built from digital motion studies of a dancer, and One Hundred Items, an outdoor work by Tooza Design of Salt Lake City. You can walk in and see both without a ticket.
You can buy a downtown ticket here
ArtTix, the county's ticketing service, runs a staffed box office in this building alongside its downtown windows at the Capitol Theatre and the Eccles Theater. So someone on the west side of the valley can pick up tickets for a downtown show about ten minutes from home instead of driving into the city center. It is a small convenience, and an easy one to miss.
The two rooms are very different nights
The 400-seat main stage takes touring shows and larger local productions and behaves like a conventional theater. Studio 5400 is a 200-seat black box: a flat floor, movable seating, and a much closer view of whatever is in front of you. Check which room your ticket is for before you picture the night, because the difference is bigger than the seat counts suggest.
The details
Getting there
It sits on Taylorsville Blvd just off the I-215 belt route, a central address most of the valley can reach in one leg, which is why the county chose it. Parking is on site, and the Midvalley Express bus runs close enough to make a car optional from either end of the valley's rail network.
Before you go
- Check which of the two rooms your ticket is for; the black box and the main stage are very different nights.
- Tickets are through ArtTix, in person at the box office or online.
- The box office opens well before curtain if you would rather buy in person.
- The lobby gallery and both sculptures are free to see without a ticket.
- The calendar is the county's rather than one resident company's, so it changes shape season to season.
Spend a morning at Valley Regional Park
5100 S 2700 W Free to enter Year round Directions
About ninety acres officially named the Gary C. Swensen Valley Regional Park, and the busiest piece of open ground in the city. It carries an 18-hole disc golf course, a fenced four-field softball complex used for high school and league play, an outdoor basketball court, a sand volleyball court, horseshoe pits, an exercise track, a big playground, and a reservable pavilion that seats about 130.
What makes it more than a big lawn is that three things share it. The Taylorsville Recreation Center, the Taylorsville branch library, and an outdoor pool all sit inside the park, so one parking lot serves a swim, a book, and a round of disc golf. My full Valley Regional Park guide walks the whole site.
The disc golf is the sleeper here
Eighteen baskets on a flat, open, free county park, with discs to rent at the office if you did not bring your own, is a low-effort way to spend two hours. It also means the park always has people drifting across it in odd directions, which is worth knowing before you spread a picnic in the middle of a fairway. There is no charge to play.
There is no tennis here
This park has no tennis courts, whatever some listings say. Tennis in Taylorsville is at Southridge Park in the southwest, which has lighted courts, and at Millrace Park down on the river. It is a small error that can cost you a drive with a racket in the trunk, so aim for the right park.
The details
Getting there
It sits on 2700 West between 5100 South and the recreation center, on the corridor that also carries the state office complex farther north. There is parking at several points around the site; aim for the library lot if the basketball courts are your destination, since the hoops are right west of it.
Before you go
- The pool is run by the county, not the city, so its hours are on the county's schedule.
- Discs can be rented at the office if you show up without any.
- The branch library keeps county library hours, not city hours.
- This is the festival ground in late June, so the ordinary park is not itself that week.
- The pavilion is reservable and seats about 130, so a big unbooked group will not fit under it.
Walk the river at Millrace Park
5400 S 1150 W Free Year round Directions
The city's flagship on the water: about 23 acres with two pavilions, a ballfield, a soccer and football area, a playground, restrooms, a walking trail, a community fishing pond, and a fenced off-leash dog park. It is also the most-used way onto the river trail inside the city, so it is where to start if you want the water rather than the lawn.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources runs the pond as a community fishery, stocked with rainbow trout, largemouth bass, bluegill, black bullhead, and channel catfish, under community pond rules with a two-fish daily limit and fishing only while the park is open. The pond is also hidden from the parking lot, which fools almost everyone on a first visit. Walk toward the northeast corner and it appears.
The name is the oldest thing here
Millrace Park is named for the pioneer millrace that carried water across this ground in the early 1850s, the ditch that grew the first successful crop on the west side of the river and was later extended north as the North Jordan Canal. The park is the modern end of that story: a city green with a stocked pond, on the same flat ground where the first irrigation on this side of the water was cut.
The dog park needs a permit and the trail needs a leash
The fenced off-leash area requires a city permit, a step more than most valley dog parks ask, and everything outside the fence is leash-only with a clean-up rule. The two sit about a hundred yards apart, so get the permit before you travel and keep the leash handy for the trail.
The details
Getting there
Turn north off 5400 South at about 1150 West and the park opens toward the river. You cannot see the pond from the parking area, so walk toward the northeast side rather than looking for water from the car. The Jordan River trail runs along the east side of the park and is the reason most people come back.
Before you go
- Get the off-leash permit before you travel; the fenced area requires one.
- Community pond rules apply, including a two-fish daily limit.
- Fishing is allowed only while the park is open.
- The pond is out of sight of the parking lot. Head northeast on foot.
- Everything outside the dog-park fence is leash-only.
Go to Taylorsville Dayzz in late June
Valley Regional Park Free admission Three days in June Directions
The city's one big weekend. Taylorsville Dayzz takes over Valley Regional Park for three days in late June, with a parade, a petting zoo, carnival rides, food booths, concerts, a 5K and kids run, a car show, and a fireworks finale, and it costs nothing to walk in. In 2026 it ran June 25 to 27 and marked its thirtieth year, the same anniversary as the city's own thirtieth birthday, since Taylorsville incorporated in 1996.
A volunteer committee runs it, not a city events department, and it shows in the friendly, hands-on way it comes together, with separate organizers for the parade, the booths, the 5K, the entertainment, and the sponsors. My full Taylorsville Dayzz guide has the schedule, the applications, the parking crunch, and what to expect from a park with a softball complex and a disc golf course under the carnival.
The 5K tells you what kind of festival this is
In 2026 the Dayzz 5K added a Ruckers category, for runners carrying a thirty-pound pack. That is not a usual suburban fun-run touch, and it is a fair sign of what this festival is: volunteer-built, a little idiosyncratic, and shaped by the people who show up to organize it rather than by an events agency working from a template.
Two z's, and locals will correct you
The spelling is Dayzz. It is not a typo and it is not a later flourish; it is the name. Spell it with one z in front of anyone who has lived here a while and you will be corrected, politely and right away.
The details
Getting there
The whole festival sits in the county regional park on 2700 West, served by the same arterials as the state office corridor and the recreation center. Parking around the park fills early on parade morning and fireworks night, so walking or biking in from the surrounding streets is the local answer.
Before you go
- Dates move each year, so take the current one from the committee, not from a listings site.
- Admission is free, so budget for rides, food, and vendor stalls rather than a gate price.
- Taylorsville police may fly drones over the event.
- Applications for booths, the parade, performances, and vending have their own deadlines.
- Unauthorized vending is not allowed, and the notice runs in English and Spanish.
Catch a game at Bruin Arena on the college campus
2055 Bruin Blvd Ticketed and free events Fall to spring Directions
There is a 5,000-seat arena in Taylorsville and most of the valley has no idea. The Lifetime Activities Center, known as Bruin Arena, was dedicated on the Salt Lake Community College Taylorsville Redwood Campus in 1996, the same year the city was created, and it has been home to the SLCC Bruins ever since. It also holds a fitness center, a weight room, and classrooms, so it works as a campus building on days when nothing is being played.
Its most reliable public draw comes in late winter. Utah's high school girls basketball state championships play their closing rounds here every February and March, quarterfinals through the final. For a suburb with no pro team, hosting the end of a statewide championship at the end of a bus route is genuinely unusual.
It has had pro tenants, but not now
The Utah Eagles of the CBA played here in 2006 and 2007, and the Salt Lake City Stars of the NBA G League used the building from 2016 to 2022. Both have since moved on, so older listings that call this a G League venue are out of date. Today it is a college arena that also hosts a state championship, which is the more useful thing to plan around.
The address is a campus road, so check your route
Bruin Blvd runs inside the campus, which is why navigation apps sometimes behave oddly here. The arena sits on the campus loop rather than on Redwood Road, so if your route drops you at the college's main Redwood Road frontage, you are at the right campus and the wrong end of it.
The details
Getting there
The campus sits on Redwood Road with a loop road running around it, and the arena is on that loop rather than on the highway frontage. The Midvalley Express stops on campus, which makes this one of the easier arenas in Utah to reach without a car, and campus parking is signed but fills for big events.
Before you go
- Check the schedule with the college or the group running the event; this is not a venue with its own year-round calendar.
- The state high school girls championship rounds are the busiest dates in the building.
- It is a working campus, so class-day parking and event parking are different problems.
- The G League tenancy ended in 2022, so do not count on a pro game.
- The building also holds a fitness center and classrooms, so not every open door leads to the arena.
Stand at the Little Confluence where the creek arrives
675 W 4800 S Free Open 24 hours Directions
Nine acres of open space at the point where Little Cottonwood Creek ends its run and joins the Jordan River. The creek starts near Cecret Lake at about 11,500 feet, comes down through Little Cottonwood Canyon, and crosses Sandy, Midvale, and Murray over roughly 27 miles before it arrives here at about 4,490 feet, on the quietest ground in the city. Standing at the confluence and knowing where the water started is a better ten minutes than nine acres suggests.
The site has a nature trail, a boat ramp, and small picnic shelters, open around the clock, with fishing, paddling, and birding the main things people do here. Salt Lake County has planted hundreds of cottonwoods and willows along it through its Million Trees Program with TreeUtah. It is still a work in progress, more restored riverbank than finished park.
It is genuinely unfinished, and that is the honest note
Do not come expecting a manicured park. What you will find is a real access point with a real boat ramp and real planting, on ground that has not been landscaped and is not meant to feel like a lawn. Go for the water and the trees, not for facilities.
One site, a couple of addresses
You will see it listed as both 675 West 4800 South and 4800 South 677 West. They are the same place, a driveway apart. Worth knowing before you drive, so finding one form after searching the other does not make you think you are in the wrong spot.
The details
Getting there
It sits on the west bank of the Jordan River where 4800 South meets the water. Parking is right at the trailhead. The nature trail runs north and south along the river, starting on gravel and turning to real dirt farther along, which is a different feel from the paved parkway trail nearby.
Before you go
- It is county open space, so the county is who to ask if you need to check anything first.
- The boat ramp is for craft you bring; nothing is rented here.
- Check the Jordan River water-trail rules before you put anything on the river.
- The nature trail turns from gravel to dirt, so it is not the paved parkway.
- It is open around the clock, which is not a reason to arrive in the dark on unlit ground.
Visit the 1906 farmhouse at the Heritage Center
1488 W 4800 S Free Three sessions a week Directions
The Taylorsville-Bennion Heritage Center is a city-owned local history museum inside the 1906 Jones family farmhouse, on the last two and a half acres of the old Jones Dairy Farm, which the city bought in February 2002 so the house would survive. Its focus is the first hundred years of this ground, 1848 to 1948, when everything here was farms and canals rather than streets.
The grounds hold more than the house: a replica one-room schoolhouse, a replica blacksmith shop, a farm-implement barn, the old dairy store, and a research room full of local family histories. For a city created in 1996, a museum that stops at 1948 is a useful corrective, and the research room is the one place in town where the pre-suburban record is gathered up.
The hours are the whole difficulty
It opens Tuesday from 9am to 2pm, Wednesday from 6pm to 9pm, and Saturday from 2pm to 6pm. Three short sessions in three different parts of the day, and it is the one place on this list where the wrong day, not the wrong hour, is what beats you. Call ahead on 801-281-0631.
The hyphen in the name is the city's other half
Bennion was a separate settlement that grew up beside Taylorsville and kept its own name, and it still anchors the southwest of the city, in the junior high, the water and sewer district, and this museum's title. The hyphen is not decoration: this is a museum for two communities that were distinct for nearly a century and a half before they shared a city name.
The details
Getting there
It sits on 4800 South, the same street as the confluence open space down at the river, which makes the two an easy pair on one trip. Parking is on site. The house is the landmark; the schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, implement barn, and dairy store are on the grounds around it.
Before you go
- Call 801-281-0631 before you go. Three sessions a week leaves little room for error.
- Private tours can be arranged with the heritage committee outside the regular sessions.
- The research room holds local family histories and is the reason to come if you are tracing a family.
- The story stops at 1948, so do not expect the suburban or incorporation era here.
- Pair it with the confluence open space; both sit on 4800 South.
Two halves of one flat city
What sits on the river side, and what sits on the corridor side
For a visitor, the city splits along its north-south arterials. East of Redwood Road, toward the water, is the quiet half: the confluence, the trail, the fishing pond, and the open space. West of it, along 2700 West, is the busy half: the county park, the recreation center, the library, the theater, and the festival ground. Both are worth half a day, and they ask different things of you.
| The river side | The corridor side | |
|---|---|---|
| What is there | The confluence open space, the parkway trail, Millrace Park and its pond, the 1906 farmhouse | Valley Regional Park, the recreation center, the county library, the outdoor pool, the theater, and the festival ground |
| Who runs it | A mix of city, county, state, and utility ground, four separate landlords within a mile | Mostly Salt Lake County, with the college campus and its arena on Redwood Road between the two halves |
| What it costs | Free almost throughout, apart from a fishing license and a dog-park permit | Free to enter, with charges for the pool, the pavilion, rentals, and theater tickets |
| Best hours | Early morning, before the trail fills and while the water is still | Late morning through the evening, when the scheduled buildings are open |
| Turn up or plan | Turn up. The trail runs 5am to 11pm and the confluence is open around the clock | Plan. The theater, the pool, and the library all run to set schedules |
| How to arrive | By car or on foot from the surrounding streets; the trailheads have their own parking | By car, or on the MVX line, which serves the 2700 West corridor and the college campus |
Neither half is the better one. The river side is what surprises people, and it costs nothing. The corridor side is what fills a Saturday in bad weather, and it holds almost all the scheduled events. Anyone weighing an address should walk both, because the contrast is the loudest thing about the city.
Before you go
Three phone calls will save most of the wasted trips on this list
The ways to waste a trip here are small and specific: showing up at the museum on one of the four days it is closed, reaching the dog park without the permit it needs, or arriving at a park expecting something a listing got wrong. All three take about two minutes to rule out.
Sort before you drive
- Museum hours, on 801-281-0631, because three sessions a week is a narrow target
- The off-leash permit for the fenced dog area at Millrace Park, which the city requires
- A theater ticket through ArtTix if the county venue is the reason for the trip
- Whether anything is on at the campus arena, since it has no standing schedule
- Pool hours if a swim is part of the plan at the regional park
Check on the day
- Salt Lake County Library hours for the branch inside the regional park
- Current festival dates from the Dayzz committee if you are aiming at late June
- Roadwork on the Redwood Road corridor, where projects come and go
- Whether the softball complex has league play, which changes the feel of the park
- Trail conditions on the river; most sections run 5am to 11pm
Turn up and it is fine
- The confluence open space, open around the clock and free
- The disc golf course, free to play on a free county park
- Millrace Park and its walking trail, on any day the park is open
- The theater lobby and both of its commissioned sculptures, which need no ticket
Five of these seven are not the city's, and that changes who to call. The theater and the regional park, with everything on it, belong to Salt Lake County. The arena belongs to Salt Lake Community College. The confluence is county open space. The festival is run by a volunteer committee. What the city itself runs on this list is Millrace Park, with its pond and dog park, and the heritage museum. Figuring out the operator before you pick up the phone can save you an hour.
What this list leaves out, and why
- The Utah Olympic Oval just west in Kearns, which has a page of its own. Twenty minutes away is a real selling point for an address, but it is not something Taylorsville owns.
- The big arena and the amphitheater north of here, both in West Valley City. They are close and they are good, but putting them on a Taylorsville list would be borrowing a neighbor's marquee.
- The shopping corridor across the river, which is in Murray. The Jordan River is the boundary, and the far bank belongs to Murray.
- Southridge Park in the southwest, about forty county acres with five baseball fields and a multipurpose field used for soccer, rugby, and cricket. A good place to play, not really a place to visit.
- Autumn Meadow Park, at about seventy-seven acres the largest park on the city's list, but a grassed retention basin with no amenities. Naming it as an attraction would be padding the list with a drainage pond.