Liberty Park
600 E 900 S, Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City, UT
The green heart of Salt Lake City, a leafy square of old cottonwoods, a bird sanctuary, and a pioneer mill that has anchored the neighborhood for generations.
Liberty Park is the oldest and best loved of Salt Lake City's public parks, an eighty-acre square of lawns, ponds, and towering old trees just south of downtown. It has been the city's shared backyard for well over a century, a place where families picnic, joggers loop the perimeter, and generations of children have learned to ride bikes under the cottonwoods.
The park holds more history than a casual stroll reveals. Inside its boundaries stand a pioneer-era mill and adobe farmhouse, and its southwest corner is given over to the Tracy Aviary, one of the country's oldest public bird sanctuaries. It is a green island in the grid of Salt Lake City, and one of the easiest places to feel the rhythm of the city itself.
What Guests Love
- Wandering the paths under enormous mature cottonwoods and shade trees
- The Tracy Aviary, one of the oldest public bird parks in the country, tucked inside the park
- The Chase Home and old mill, a surviving piece of pioneer Salt Lake City
- Warm evenings when neighbors fill the lawns, courts, and picnic tables
Worth Knowing
- The park is busiest on summer weekends and during festivals; mornings are calm and shaded
- Parking around the edges fills up quickly on warm days, so arrive early or come on foot
- The Tracy Aviary is a separate attraction inside the park with its own admission
- It sits at valley elevation and can be hot and dry in midsummer, so bring water and sun cover
Details
Salt Lake City, UT
Learn about Liberty Park
From pioneer farm to city park
The land that became Liberty Park was first the homestead of Isaac Chase, an early settler who arrived with the pioneer companies of the late 1840s. Chase built an adobe farmhouse and a water-powered gristmill here in the early 1850s, grinding grain for the young settlement during years when flour was scarce and precious. Both the Chase Home and the old mill still stand within the park, among the oldest surviving structures in the valley.
The city acquired the property in the 1880s and set it aside as public parkland, naming it Liberty Park. Over the following decades it was planted with the shade trees that now define it, laced with walkways and ponds, and fitted with the courts, pavilions, and playgrounds that generations of Salt Lake families have used. Long before Isaac Chase farmed it, this valley was the homeland of the Northwestern Shoshone, Goshute, and Ute peoples, who traveled and gathered across the Great Salt Lake basin for thousands of years, and whose descendants remain part of Utah today.
The Tracy Aviary
In the southwest corner of Liberty Park sits the Tracy Aviary, founded in the 1930s when a Salt Lake City banker donated his private collection of birds to the city. It grew into one of the first free-standing public bird parks in the United States and remains a working sanctuary, caring for hundreds of birds from around the world along shaded paths and ponds.
The aviary is as much about local wildlife as exotic species. Its keepers run conservation programs for native Utah and Great Basin birds, and its bird shows and flight demonstrations have introduced generations of children to eagles, owls, and condors. For visitors it is a quiet, unhurried counterpoint to the busy lawns of the park just outside its gates.
A day in the park
The heart of Liberty Park is simply its open green space, wide lawns broken by ponds and shaded by some of the largest cottonwoods and elms in the city. A paved loop rings the park and draws a steady stream of walkers, runners, and cyclists, while the interior fills with picnickers, pickup games, and families spread out under the trees.
The park also gathers the neighborhood together. Farmers markets, music, and festivals rotate through in the warm months, and the surrounding streets hold some of Salt Lake City's most walkable small business districts, from the 9th and 9th shops to the cafés of Central Ninth. It is the kind of park a city grows around rather than sets aside.
Trees, water, and the seasons
Liberty Park is one of the best places in the valley to see the change of seasons. In spring the cottonwoods leaf out and the ponds draw migrating waterfowl and songbirds, and the aviary's collection sings loudest. Summer is the busiest and greenest season, when the deep shade of the old trees makes the park a refuge from the valley heat.
Autumn turns the cottonwoods and maples gold and thins the crowds, and the low light through the big trees is a favorite time for a slow walk. Winter is quiet and often dusted with snow off the Wasatch, the ponds edged with ice and the paths mostly to the joggers and the birds. Set at valley elevation, the park runs hot and dry in high summer, so shade and water matter.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Salt Lake City
Temple Square
About 3 miles north, a 10 minute drive
The historic center of Salt Lake City, with the pioneer-era temple grounds, gardens, and visitor centers.
Utah State Capitol
About 4 miles north, a 12 minute drive
The domed capitol on its hill above downtown, with wide grounds and long views across the Salt Lake Valley.
9th and 9th district
About 1 mile east
A walkable neighborhood of independent shops, cafés, and restaurants just up the hill from the park.
Wasatch canyons
About 15 miles east
The mouths of Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, gateways to hiking, waterfalls, and world-famous ski terrain.