Utah's grand new garden - Thanksgiving Point gardens - Brief Article

Sunset, April, 2001 by Kurt Repanshek

Near Salt Lake City, a destination to delight the senses

With their dancing waters and bursts of color, the 55-acre gardens of Thanksgiving Point, 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City; are the perfect antidote to a long, snowy winter. Opening for the season on March 31, the gardens should be erupting with blooming primroses, pansies, tulips, and daffodils; the heady fragrance of crocuses will fill the air.

To get oriented, stop in at the new garden visitor center, with a cafe, gift shop, theater, and more. Next, head to the 80-foot-tall Amphitheater Waterfalls. Nine cataracts plummet from the 600-foot-wide cliff face, made from casts taken of rock cliffs in a nearby canyon; nooks and crannies are lush with ferns. From a bridge, you can gaze across the gardens below.

The gardens delight--and they might even provide some ideas for your own yard. How can you fail to be inspired by the French water garden with its broad lily pads, or by the rose garden with its graceful arbor? In the parterre garden, whimsical carousel ponies, shaped from sedums, seem to gallop; their floral saddles bloom with lobelias, yellow daisies, licorice plants, and petunias.

Laughter permeates the discovery garden, which boasts two child-size vegetative mazes and a Bear Cave best experienced on hands and knees. At the garden railroad, master hobbyists have raised tiny towns, miniature forests, and even mining camps as backdrops to the model trains that chug along the mile or so of track. Also popular with kids, Thanksgiving Point's Dinosaur Museum is worth a visit on its own.

Strolling these vast gardens can be tiring, so leave the secret garden for last. Here, a peaceful harbor hides behind high walls. Inside is a fountain surrounded by leafy nooks and benches, perfect for relaxing in spring's warm sunshine.