Things to Do in West Jordan

Since its inception in 1931, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art has become a renowned haven of culture in the Salt Lake City community. The museum is a multi-year recipient of funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and its numerous accolades include Best of State in 2011 and 2012. Its four gallery spaces have hosted exhibitions by local artists, such as LeConte Stewart and Anna Campbell Bliss, as well as famous names, such as Ignacio Uriarte, Christian Jankowski, and Jennifer West.

In addition to gallery displays, the museum hosts film screenings, classes, and other activities that promote appreciation of the arts. A museum educator drives an art truck to schools along the Wasatch Front, introducing students to contemporary art and activating windshield wipers that spray paintbrush cleaner. Kids and parents can see the current artwork and create their own collaborative, hands-on projects during free Family Art Saturdays, and adults can get a crash course in art appreciation during Art Fitness Training.

Trees sway with the breeze alongside the fairways at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. A fierce wind whips off the Pacific Ocean, knocking drives off-course at Pebble Beach’s famous 18th hole. At Global Indoor Golf, players take on the signature challenges of 66 international golf courses without leaving the comfort of their hitting bay. Instead, they queue up the course of their choice on the bay’s control monitor and watch as the terrain takes shape on a 14-foot screen, with the slopes, swale, and likelihood for seismic activity accurately recreated via advanced computer technology. Using their own clubs or the center’s complimentary set of TaylorMade R11s, players hit golf balls off an artificial turf mat into the screen, where two 360-degree curtains of infrared light-wave technology capture the golf ball’s flight information and spit back instant feedback on the shot’s flight data. The entire experience—from choosing a dream course, to sipping on between-shot beers in the lounge-like setting, to screaming “fore” in binary code—does away with the hassles commonly associated with real golf, such as uncooperative weather, hefty greens fees, and difficulty attaining a tee time.

The clatter of victimized pins echoes across Orchard Lanes's 18-lane alley and family-fun center. Unless there is a league on the floor, Orchard Lanes's staffers are happy to bring down the lights for glow-in-the-dark bowling at a customer’s request during any of its daily open-bowling hours. For special occasions, party packages are available to equip revelers with the necessary pizza, ice cream, and goody bags, and Orchard Lanes has even played host to a wedding. A computerized scoring system logs each player’s achievements, and between frames, a stop at the full-service snack bar yields pizza and soda to refuel sphere-tossing muscles. The center is also home to billiards tables and an arcade that, like the fairest time-out corners, has a redemption center.

Mulligans Golf and Games entices golfers to grab their clubs and pole-vault into the universe of gentlemanly sportsmanship across two nine-hole golf courses. Golfers can steadily slice their way through The Meadow's nine par-3 holes, or line up their swings to conquer on The Ridge's tricky combination of par-3, par-4, and par-5 holes. Both courses present unique challenges for players of all skill levels, tucking water hazards into verdant greens and commissioning tennis players to play defense. Those who prefer putters can traverse the bubbling lagoons of two immaculately landscaped mini golf courses.

Mulligan Golf and Games' driving range, open day and night, unfurls 33 covered hitting areas so golfers can practice their strokes and acquire the accuracy to peg their neighbors' rooftop satellite dishes. During golf lessons, Jeff Wathen and other PGA golf professionals analyze swings and approaches using years of experience as well as the latest in video and computer teaching aids. Baseball and softball players can also club white orbs into the sky from eight slow- and fast-pitch batting cages.

At Castle of Chaos, the most fearless of participants can sign a Hands On Horror waiver, allowing ghouls to touch them as they traverse the creaky hallways of the haunted mansion. Whether opting for the add-on or not, spooks await visitors within the mansion, asylum, and dungeon at the Taylorsville location, four new attractions such as the Bedlam Institute and the Phobias Research Center greet guests at the Orem location, and the Riverdale facility coaxes guests into its creepy 3-D carnival and a haunted house modeled after the seven deadly sins. Riverdale participants can also settle into a coffin for a simulated journey from mortuary to graveyard or explore a menacing midway's games, live entertainment, and concessions. Continually rearranged rooms at both houses ensure that feng shui is maintained and repeat scare-seekers will frequently embark on new trips of terror.

A living museum of rare and important flora, Red Butte Garden covers more than 100 acres of verdant natural and display gardens, walking paths, and hiking trails. Seasonal events—from sponsored camping nights and family picnics to celebrations of the winter solstice—often take place among the flowers as well as educational programs led by amateur and expert gardeners that focus on plants such as orchids, lilies, and bonsai trees. During the warmer months, the Garden's outdoor concert series features popular musical performers, their guitar strings buzzing like the bees that water the flowers with tiny buckets one by one.