Kimball Whitney Cemetery

 The Kimball Whitney Cemetery is a very small park, with an even smaller family cemetery plot located in downtown Salt Lake City. The small park features an interesting grave marker, and two large sequoia trees! Which is what brought us out here today. We are on a small redwood scavenger hunt. We have redwood trees here in Utah. Who knew?

Quick Details:

Length: It is about 1/10th of a mile from State street, a little shorter from Main Street, and about 2/10ths of a mile from City Creek Park where we had parked today.
Trail Type: Out and back
Difficulty: It is fairly flat, but there is a small set of stairs. Unless you parked where we did, then there is a bit of a steep hill. DR3.
Elevation Gain: NA or 30 ish feet from North Temple.
Restroom: No. Closest public restroom I can think of is at The Capitol.
Dogs? No.
Other Info: I am pretty sure you can not park on State Street, but you can on Main Street, or some areas below with a bit more walking.

To Get Here:

Take North Temple to Main Street and head north for half a block. Find parking. Then you will need to find the narrow alley on the east side of the road between Deseret Apartments and The Kimball at about 167 North Mainstreet.

You can also access the park on foot from State Street. There is no parking on this part of State Street. So take a scooter or hoof it to that side. If needed, you can find street parking down by City Creek Park about 1/10th of a mile away.

The Trail:

Climbing up State Street towards The Capitol.

In 1847 when SLC was founded, Brigham Young deeded this block to his friend Heber C. Kimball. After he died the block was divided and became Gordon Place. All that remains of the original property is the old cemetery,’

Private parking for residents. I didn’t notice any scary signs, but seriously, don’t be that guy. Very few things suck more than coming home after a long day at work to seeing your designated parking space taken by some rando. If you want a shorter trip, park on Main Street.

The park gate, and area rules.

The first sequoia. Wow, its a biggun. According to the site I have been using it is about 60 feet tall!

The trunk. As you can see, it is in the little gated off cemetery.

Vertical panoramic.

The 2nd sequoia.

It’s trunk.

There is a little gate above a couple steps to enter the fenced in cemetery, but it is not locked, so I assume it is okay to enter. My general rule is the leave gates as I find them, unless otherwise signed. So we closed it after us.

Pretty bluebird. I want to say it’s a mountain bluebird.

In memory of Heber Chase Kimball.

The full monument.

If I am understanding this sign correctly, all of these people are buried here. Uhm… That seems like a lot for such a small area. Seriously its only 72 x 72 feet. Messing around on findagrave I located 56 graves here. I manually counted from the picture, and that appears to match. Neat, I thought findagrave was only what had been reported. Well, maybe all of these have been reported.

Sequoia tree.

Vertical panoramic.

They have rather distinctive, rough needles.

North side of the monument.

Little closer.

The east side.

Sequoia again.

Monument and sequoias.

Vertical panoramic.

Looking up through the branches.

Leaving the small cemetery.

The little alley leading to Main Street. If I had thought about my destinations a little bit better, I would have continued through there and up to the McCune Mansion, but I did not plan so well today. But, that was our next stop.

Heading back east through the rest of the park which is also pretty, it just wasn't what I was after today.

The park gate again.

See, directly across State Street is the top of City Creek Park. But, as I mentioned, then you have to scramble across the very, very busy State Street, on a steep hill. So yeah, I am glad we did not do that today. However, if you want to continue up to The Capitol, and then back down to here, that is a totally valid, and safer option as well but will add at minimum another half mile out and back.

Heading back down State Street.

Downtown Salt Lake City.

Bonus Content:

We tried to see Brigham Young Historic Park, which is on the other side of North Temple, but it was locked up and closed. Come to think of it, I cannot recall it ever actually being open. Which I find a bit weird, Utah just loves to stuff LD$ history down our throat's whenever they can.

Poking the camera through the fence. It does seem like a nice little park.

Water wheel.

That was a really weird, but interesting little side trip. We do like a good cemetery, and this is by far the most unique one we have seen yet. Plus, oh my gosh, redwoods in Utah. Amazing. I think I am gonna go with 8 squirrels out of 10 today (ignoring the closed Brigham Young Park).

As for difficulty, If you find a good spot on Main Street, it is super flat and paved with a small set of stairs. If you come up from City Creek Park, it is still paved and easy, but with a bit of a steeper hill. Either way I think it is a DR3.

Dogs are not allowed in the park, so be sure to leave Fido home.