749 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT | Directions 84102
40.758499 -111.869423So bad it's good!. This garden exemplifies all that's strange and delightful about Utah. A must see--especially the sphinx with the head of Joseph Smith!!
Interesting gardens. These gardens are secluded, quiet and SO weird. The principles illustrated must have been very important to its creator and the time taken must have been a lifetime. I just don't like it because it makes the Mormon religion look like it is from another planet. As a Mormon, I found some statues disrespectful & confusing. I don't know what the sculptor was thinking.
This unusual place mixes sculpture with Utah history and literary tidbits..
Overview
This local treasure is well worth the pain many people have gone through to preserve it. Gilgal Gardens mixes Utah cultural heritage with quotations from Emerson, Rousseau and the Bible into a tableau of statues depicting a variety of subjects. For example, the famous Joseph Smith Sphinx or the 20-foot soldier with a sword in one hand and a boulder for a head.
The Experience
There's not much out there in terms of biographical information, but there is a dazzling self-portrait of artist Thomas Childs in the garden itself. Childs is holding blueprints and scriptures and wearing an uncomfortable-looking pair of brick pants.
Want to Impress People? Go to Gilgal.. I have quite a few school friends from out of state and each one that I have taken to Gilgal has been really impressed and felt like they were being let in on some kind of cool secret. There are quite a few people from the state of Utah that have never seen it either, so if you want to impress people take them to Gilgal.
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