The big park West Jordan
West Jordan's biggest park, on Redwood Road
Veterans Memorial Park, West Jordan's crown jewel
Veterans Memorial Park is West Jordan's largest park, 69 acres beside the Civic Center on Redwood Road. On one address it carries a rodeo arena, five baseball fields, a fitness center with indoor pools, a senior center, a museum, several playgrounds and the memorial it is named for. It is free to walk into any day of the year, and for a few days around July 4 it becomes a rodeo ground for the Western Stampede.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Veterans Memorial Park sits at 1985 West 7800 South, next to the West Jordan Civic Center on Redwood Road, with city hall and a library as neighbors. At 69 acres it is the largest park in the city, and it holds more on one site than any other address here: a rodeo arena, a five field baseball complex, a softball field, an accessible ball field, the Gene Fullmer Fitness and Recreation Center with its indoor pools, the senior center, the Historical Society museum, several playgrounds and the veterans memorial. It is free to walk into every day of the year. The one week to plan around is the first of July, when the Western Stampede rodeo takes over the whole site.
What's on the site
One address, and most of the city's public life on it
West Jordan grew up without a traditional town square, and Veterans Memorial Park is what it built instead. The park sits beside city hall and a library on Redwood Road, so a library run and an hour outdoors fold into one trip, and it is the closest thing the city has to a civic center. The city's parks code calls it the crown jewel of the system, and for once the label is earned by what is packed onto the ground.
The list is long for a single park. There is a rodeo arena. A five field baseball complex, a softball field and an accessible Field of Dreams ball field. Sports courts. The Gene Fullmer Fitness and Recreation Center, with indoor pools. The county's outdoor West Jordan Pool beside the park is closed for the 2026 season, and the county plans to reopen it on Memorial Day weekend 2027. The senior center. The Historical Society museum, which is the place to go for the record of these blocks before the houses arrived. Several playgrounds. And the veterans memorial the park is named for. Very few single addresses anywhere in the valley carry that many separate things at once.
West Jordan runs more than 475 acres of open space and 350 acres of developed park land across the city, so this one site is a real share of it. The park has its own parking rather than sharing a shopping street, it is free, and it is open all year. The city is also adding two mini pitch courts here in 2026, small hard surface courts built for fast, informal soccer that work after dark and stretch the season past what a grass field allows.
The details
Booking a pavilion
Two pavilions, five ball fields, and a calendar that opens in January
If you want a pavilion for a reunion or a birthday, the timing matters more than the process. Reservations for the whole year open on a single day in early January, rather than on a rolling window that creeps forward through the spring. That is the most useful thing to know about this park: the good summer Saturdays are claimed within weeks of the calendar opening, and there is no second chance later. Book through the city's own reservation system, and confirm the current dates and rules before you commit, because a city can move them.
The outdoor season runs from spring into the second week of October, and outside that window the park stays open while the pavilions come off the booking list. Pavilions go as a full day rather than a two hour slot, and the five ball fields book separately from the pavilions, on their own longer daily window. The one choice worth making early is which of the two pavilions you want, because they are not the same.
| Pavilion | Large | Small |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 70 feet by 32 | 42 feet by 28 |
| Tables | Twelve | Two |
| Electricity | Yes, on site | None |
| Water | Fountain and spigot | Fountain |
| Restrooms | On site | Nearby |
| Listed capacity | 200 | 20 |
Pavilion dimensions and capacities as published by the City of West Jordan parks department. Confirm the current reservation rules and dates with the city before you commit to a booking.
Electricity is what decides most bookings. The large pavilion is the only one of the two with power, which settles most catering questions on its own, and its twelve tables seat a real crowd. The small pavilion has two tables for a listed capacity of twenty, so if your group is near that size, plan to bring your own seating. Either way, the month to act is January, not May.
The playground
A community built one, then a professional one on the same ground
The Wild West Jordan playground has two histories, and most write ups only carry the first. The original went up in 2005, built over ten days by volunteers from the community, adults and children both, some nights in the hundreds. Around a hundred companies gave money, services or time, and local schoolchildren chipped in 400,000 pennies, which is four thousand dollars raised a coin at a time. It covered about half an acre, rose to roughly 35 feet, and the schoolkids voted on its name.
That structure came down in November 2018, and a replacement opened in October 2019. The new one kept the western theme rather than dropping it: an old west town front with a bank and a jail, a train standing in for Promontory Point, separate zones for older and younger kids, a zipline, shade sails over the swings, and a cushioned surface a wheelchair or a stroller can cross.
Which one you will actually find is worth saying plainly, because a lot of writing about this park still describes the tall timber castle from 2005 as if it were standing. What is there now is a good playground, and it is the 2019 rebuild. If you grew up on the original and are bringing your own kids back to it, that is the thing to know before you park.
Four hundred thousand pennies bought a playground that lasted thirteen years, and the story outlived the timber.
The Western Stampede
Four days in July when this park is not a park
The city's biggest event lands on this ground every year in early July, usually July 2 to 4, and it takes the whole site. The Western Stampede is a PRCA sanctioned rodeo that runs three nights in the arena, wrapped in a carnival and a vendor fair, with a grand parade down Redwood Road on the morning of July 4 and fireworks that night. It is genuinely good, and it is the opposite of a quiet afternoon in a park.
For those few days the arena, the lots and the lawns are given over to the rodeo, the carnival midway and the crowds that come with them. If you are coming for the Stampede, that is the plan. If you were hoping for a calm walk or a picnic on that particular weekend, pick another park or another date. Dates, ticket prices and the run of events shift year to year, so take the current schedule from the event itself before you set out.
Not every Stampede event is at this park. Some pieces of the weekend are staged at other city venues, and the box office and a few events sit at addresses away from the arena, so check where each event you want is before you drive. If the rodeo itself is the plan, the arena at Veterans Memorial Park on Redwood Road is where you are headed.
If you live nearby
The other fifty one weeks, and the two ends of the city
Take the rodeo weekend out and this is an ordinary civic park, which is the highest compliment a park can earn. It is free, open all year, tree covered, with its own parking and city hall, a library and the museum a few steps away. For most of the year the loudest thing here is a ball game. The museum is also the one place in the city that holds the record of these blocks before they were suburban, which the newer half of West Jordan cannot offer at all.
For anyone weighing an address, the useful comparison is between the two ends of the city. This park sits at the older, established, river end, where the lots are larger and the trees are grown in. Ron Wood Park is the west side equivalent, about thirty acres out toward the mountains, and as of 2026 it is in the middle of a rebuild, with new fields, parking and pavilions fenced off and a municipal well going in. Its all abilities playground stays open through the work. Which of the two your street is closer to is a real difference in what the next couple of years look like.
West Jordan runs from the Jordan River on the east to the Oquirrh foothills on the west, and a home near this park is a different proposition from one on the newer ground under the mountains. If you are trying to place yourself between the two, that is exactly the kind of question worth talking through before you write an offer.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
The park, answered
Veterans Memorial Park is at 1985 West 7800 South, beside the West Jordan Civic Center on Redwood Road, with city hall and a library right next door. It has its own parking lot, with more at the adjoining civic buildings. The nearest rail stop is the West Jordan City Center TRAX station at 8021 South Redwood Road, which works for a walk in the park but not for a car load of picnic gear.
It is 69 acres, the largest park in West Jordan, and the city's parks code calls it the crown jewel of the system. A few travel sites list higher figures, but the city's own number is the one to trust. For context, West Jordan runs more than 475 acres of open space and 350 acres of developed park land across the whole city.
You book through the City of West Jordan's own reservation system, and the timing matters more than the process. Reservations for the whole year open on a single day in early January, rather than on a rolling window, and the outdoor season runs from spring into the second week of October. Pavilions go as a full day. That one January opening date is why popular summer Saturdays are gone before spring, so confirm the current dates with the city and book early.
Size, power and capacity. The large pavilion is 70 feet by 32 with twelve tables, a water fountain and spigot, electricity and restrooms on site, and a listed capacity of 200. The small pavilion is 42 feet by 28 with two tables and a fountain, no electricity, restrooms nearby, and a listed capacity of 20. Electricity decides most bookings, and two tables for twenty people means bringing your own seating.
Usually July 2 to 4. The Western Stampede is a PRCA sanctioned rodeo that runs three nights in the arena, wrapped in a carnival and vendor fair, with a grand parade down Redwood Road on the morning of July 4 and fireworks that night. Exact dates, times and events shift year to year, so take the current schedule from the event itself.
The name is, the original structure is not. The playground built by community volunteers over ten days in 2005, funded in part by schoolchildren donating 400,000 pennies, covering about half an acre and rising to roughly 35 feet, came down in November 2018. A replacement opened in October 2019 and kept the western theme, with an old west town front, a bank and a jail, a train standing in for Promontory Point, a zipline, shade sails and a cushioned, accessible surface.
More than any other single address in the city. The rodeo arena, a five field baseball complex, a softball field, an accessible Field of Dreams ball field, sports courts, the Gene Fullmer Fitness and Recreation Center, which has indoor pools, the senior center, the Historical Society museum, several playgrounds and the veterans memorial itself. The county's outdoor West Jordan Pool beside the park is closed for the 2026 season, and the county plans to reopen it on Memorial Day weekend 2027. Two mini pitch courts for small sided soccer are being added in 2026.
Yes, to walk into, any day of the year. What is charged for is specific: pavilion reservations, ball field bookings, memberships or entry at the fitness and recreation center, and rodeo tickets during the Stampede. Everything else on the site, including the playgrounds and the memorial, costs nothing.
For the next couple of years, this one, and the reason is construction rather than quality. Veterans Memorial Park is finished, established and near the older river end of the city. Ron Wood Park on the far west side is about thirty acres and, as of 2026, is mid rebuild, with new multi use fields, a lit turf field, more restrooms, extra parking and two pavilions fenced off while the work and a new municipal well go in. Its all abilities playground stays open throughout.
The civic center of a city that never had a town square
This park does the job a Main Street does elsewhere, which is why the city hall, the library, the museum, the recreation center and the rodeo arena all share one address. The streets around it are the older, more established half of West Jordan, with the lot sizes and the tree cover that come with age, and they are a different proposition from the newest ground under the mountains. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who works both halves, and stay on the file for the homework and the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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