Memory Grove Park and Freedom Trail

Memory Grove Park is a beautiful park located in The Avenues of Downtown Salt Lake City. It has a lot of neat old memorial structures. Beyond the park is a nice little trail system that is apparently now an off leash dog park and has been named The Freedom Trail. It has been quite a few years since we have been here so I thought we would take the dogs up here to enjoy the creek and trail.

Quick Details:

Length: About 2 Miles out and back.
Difficulty: DR4. For the most part the trail is super easy, but there are a few thin parts with drop offs
Elevation Gain: 223 feet.
Restroom: No. Closest public restroom I can think of would probably be at the visitor center near the capital.
Dogs? Yes! Once you get past the Austin Stairs it even becomes an off-leash area.

To Get Here:

Take North Temple Street east. Take the first left after State Street (the signage sucks but this is Canyon Road. Follow Canyon Rd for about 3/10’s of a mile to the gate the closes the road off. Find street parking.

Outside the park you will pass by Ottinger Hall and neat old historic building.

And this nice little cascading creek diversion.

Beautiful flowering tree.

Memory Grove Park:

The entrance gate.

I think this is the first time I have seen this fountain actually flowing.

Neat memorial.

I just wanted a picture of the pond, and I happened to catch a dog diving in haha.

So, let’s get real for a second, there are a ton of signs saying this area is NOT off-leash. The amount of people just outright ignoring them and letting their dogs free was mind boggling.  People, this is not cool. Aside from the fact that you can be fined for that, be respectful of the rules. Some people go to areas they know are leash only because they don’t like dogs, or maybe they have dogs that don’t like other dogs. Okay, sorry, end rant.

The pond again.

Hawk hunting above.

A little closer, but not much. I didn’t bring out the telephoto today.

Meditation Chapel.

A cool obelisk. I think I got a better picture of this on the way down.

The first of several little waterfalls.

The Austin Stairs.

Beyond this is the Freedom Trail.

Freedom Trail Off-Leash Area:

Pretty purple flowers.

City Creek.

Mickey is out little water loving pup. He is always so happy to just jump in and enjoy the water.

I feel more comfortable keeping my pups on a leash. They have kind of proven that when they see a critter they want, they are going to go for it so I like having some control right now. Also, maybe I am paranoid, but I just like the comfort of being able to snatch them up if there is an aggressive dog.

Another little waterfall.

It is so pretty through here.

Most of the trail is nice and wide and flat.

Neat old bridge.

Occasionally Mia joins Mickey in the water.

The Freedom Trail is definitely a lot less crowded the the park.

City Creek again.

Another little waterfall.

We used to come up here as teenagers all the time, and we used to call this the Witches Hut. I imagine it was an old mill, or even just an old house, but you know, teenagers.

Either way, it is pretty neat.

Neat little pillars. I didn’t go investigate what they were about.

Neat old pipe.

If at any point you have enough, you have a ton of opportunities to cross the creek and head to the road.

Pretty wildflowers.

Another little cascade.

Plenty of wading opportunities.

Random pipe.

Nice bridge. So, heads up, this is where the trail starts to thin and get a little rough.You can cross here and go down the road, or back down the trail.

Heading up along the cliff.

Yeah… I really didn’t like that section.

Another pretty flowering tree.

More pretty flowers.

The creek again.

Weird cliff.

Closer. This conglomerate rock is weird.

This section through some tight trees.

The last segment had this really steep section. Landis braved it and struggled back down. the trail guide I used said the trail was about a mile, and we had done that so I called it.

Looking at the maps, I think this was maybe, 25 feet shy of the end. So, we did most of the trail anyway.

Pretty forest.

The pups are having a great time.

Pretty flowering tree. This trail is quite fragrant right now.

Closer to the flowers.

Looking downstream.

I seriously considered crossing here to avoid the short drop-off section. I probably could have made it across without getting too wet, but decided to just tough it out with the drop-off.

It’s not even THAT bad. Just a little thin is all.

The one way road above that takes you out of City Creek Canyon. We also used to call this gravity hill. Because even though it looks like you are going uphill, you car will roll down it. Optical illusion as I understand it, it appears you are facing uphill due to the surrounding hills throwing your horizon off, but in actuality you are facing downhill.

I didn’t get a picture of this nice sitting area on the way up because well, it was full of people.

There is a short upper trail that will take you through this nice meadow. The trail reconnects to the lower trail not too far down so no backtracking needed.

Some kind of large bird hunting above. I didn’t try pulling out the telephoto lens to get a closer shot.

Pretty field.

I think this is Arrowleaf Balsamroot.

Where the trails join back up (or split if you are on the way up).

More flowers.

Back down to the old foundation.

View of the creek again.

Upstream.

We randomly decided to cross a bridge.

And back over another bridge about 20 feet down.

The first bridge we crossed.

Back to the Austin Stairs.

Note: If you let your pups off leash, now is where you should re-leash them.

The stairs have a pentacle on each of the 4 corners. When we were teenagers of course we thought all sorts of things about that. Now it’s just an observation.

Back to Memory Grove Park.

The eagle obelisk monument again.

City Creek is walled in throughout the park, but it is still nice.

We took the short side trail up to the Meditation Chapel.

From the side.

The State Capitol above.

The little pond and the Capitol.

The fountain again.

Pentacles at the park entrances as well.

Pretty pink tree.

The little diversion canal again.

Ottinger Hall again.

Officially a Utah Historic Site.

Looking up.

Downtown (DBP).

The Utah State Capitol from the top/end of State Street (DBP).

That was a lovely adventure! I am super glad we decided to come check it out again. Memory Grove was really crowded, but the Freedom Trail Off-Leash Trail was not nearly as bad, and it thinned out the further along we got. So it was lovely. Going with an 8 out of 10 today.

As for difficulty,  there were a couple spots that had drop offs and were a little steeper, but overall the trail is pretty easy going. I would put it at about a 3.5

Dogs are allowed in the park, leashed. And off leash on the Freedom Trail. Please clean up after your furry friends.