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The Conservation Nature Park in West Jordan is a wonderful little park that teaches you how to save water in your yard. I noticed they had a fun little Halloween activity so I decided we should come check it out. We’ve been meaning to come in the fall anyway. It was exactly what I expected, just a bunch of cute Halloween decoration added to the various garden displays as well as a couple fun play along activities you can do as you explore. I thought it was pretty neat for a free activity.
Quick Details:
Length: Depends how much you wander. We did about 3/4 of a mile.
Trail Type: Meander
Difficulty: DR2. It is paved and ADA compliant.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: 2 but the outside one is seasonal.
Dogs? ? I saw one today, but can’t find the policy on the website. I generally lean towards not bringing ours without knowing the full policy.
Other Info: Almost the entire thing is located outside, so be sure to dress appropriately.
To Get Here:
From i15 take the 90th south exit heading west for 1.5 miles. Turn right onto 13th west. Go about 9/10ths of a mile and it will be on the right.
The park signs (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP)).
The Trail:
Adorable Frankenstein Arch outside the main entrance.
After this there is a little lobby area with a bunch of information pamphlets and such. This is where you will find the fun self serve activity sheets.
Back outside into the gardens. Fun pumpkin display.
The garden is split into several sections, each teaching you something different. We tend to like to start with the Design area, and do a counter-clockwise loop.
Cute scarecrow.
Cute witch hats. You can find some cute ones of your own at nearby Gardner Village.
Wewt! I already got a bingo!
I didn’t see the sign saying what these are, but they are pretty.
They need to come harvest their vegetables. The plants are looking a little sad.
Some sunflowers.
This was my favorite! They put the headless horseman on the bison statue. According to my bingo card they called it the Headless Bisonman. Yay.
Again.
Butterfly bush. We planted one of these from seed 2 years ago, and it just decided to bloom this year, near the end of summer. We were starting to think it was a weed until it bloomed.
Mountain view in the back.
Inflatables.
Spider and fall color.
Ned. I love how they dressed all the skeletons like employees. They called this scavenger hunt the Skeleton Crew.
Fun big spooky eyes. I kind of wish I had a big bush to get a set of these.
Hah, this one made us giggle. The sign says “Oops, I used to much water” and is a melted witch. I love that the little activities are educational as well.
Pretty tree lined corridor. We ran into some unknown coworkers here.
Some color.
Fun ghosts.
Little graveyard.
These flowers totally got us. We were both just like, wow! these are stunning this late in the year! And then we noticed the eyeballs. Doh! But still, fun!
Neat spooky tree.
Another fun hedge monster with giant eyes.
Looking back along the tree lined path.
Into the little pergola with a tree growing up it.
Seed pods.
Another Skeleton Crew.
The ghostly pergola again.
The Outdoor Classroom.
Some color and some pumpkins.
The classroom is in the Localscapes area.
Fun witch hats.
Fun ghost witches.
Another Skeleton Crew. I just loves them!
Cows at the farm next door.
Some lovely color.
A fun scarecrow, plus a pumpkin of pumpkins.
Got another bingo here. Wewt.
They put spiders in almost all of the water pipe displays. Fun!
Quite a few of them.
Even in the superpipe!
Information sign. I didn’t take pictures any of the other ones.
The sign says these giant pipes have replaced open canals because they protect water from contamination, evaporation, and seepage. However we still have quite a few canals throughout the valley.
I thought this was a canal at first too, but now I am not 100% sure.
Cute ladybug art.
Pest control methods.
Some honeysuckle hanging on.
Color.
Well, that is a super creative thing to do with a big planter!
Canal again.
Upstream.
The cauldron plus fun ingredient names.
Color.
What do we have here? It looks like they have a deciduous conifer! In other words, a cone bearing tree whose needles change color and drop each fall. At first I thought it might have been a dawn redwood, but those cones just didn’t seem right. So after a little bit of digging around I think it is a Bald Cyprus. I was under the impression that there were only 2 types of deciduous conifers, but with a little digging today I learned there are 5 genera. The Larch which we found not to long ago. and the dawn redwood, which I think I found, but want to go back and double check if it is changing color (guess I need to get my but in gear for that) this guy, the Cyprus, and 2 other Cyprus types. Sorry, I think this is absolutely fascinating! Plus, look at how beautiful this one is!
Again.
Another one right next to it! So neat! I guess these are much more common than larch for general landscaping, but I honestly can’t say I have seen one before now.
Again.
The first one again.
Both of them. How neat is this? I will have to come back a few more times to check out what they are doing over the next few weeks.
The orange needles.
Both trees again.
Another happy scarecrow.
Grilling Skeleton Crew. These really are still tickling me.
I love these bright red bushes. I failed to see what they were.
Giant chess board.
We also quite enjoyed that they are wearing the employee clothes.
The big chess board again.
Pretty red bushes again.
We just came out of the Maintenance section.
Fun pumpkins.
The Irrigation section… we will come back out of that in a minute.
We decided to head back into the inner loop via the Planting section.
It’s not a perfect loop in a loop, but pretty close. Doing a little … scooting around you can see it all without too much overlap, but it is a little awkward.
These pumpkins were telling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (a projection onto them). But, we both found it to be quite neat! I want one.
More pumpkins.
Neat plant.
Different types of grass and their water use.
Ghosts.
Some daisy like flowers still hanging on.
Okay, I am totally loving the giant eyes in the hedges. I kind of wish I had some hedges to do this with.
Pretty red bushes again.
Interesting leaves.
The sign again (PSP).
Well, poop. I did not get a blackout on my bingo card, I missed one of the Skeleton Crew, and I missed more of the water spell than expected. In my defense I didn’t notice the games until after we were done and hoped I caught what was needed, but obviously not haha. But I still had a fun time and enjoyed doing it. This is kind of what I was hoping the Murray Haunted Woods would be, but that was way closer to one of the big spook alleys, so it was nice to find just a little chill walk with fun spooky decorations. Plus, it was free! 10 out of 10 squirrels.
As for difficulty, it is paved and easy going. DR2.
As for dogs, I am not 100% sure, but leaning towards only service dogs are allowed.
