This is the Place Heritage Park, Salt Lake City

Had a great day for our spring break outing. Lots of fun little activities for the kids to do. I wish they would have told us at the visitor center what the boxes on our bracelets was for at the beginning instead of finding out midway through. So the 3 boxes are for doing the different crafts. So we did the leather pounding, arrowhead necklaces & 1 craft at the hospital which one of my kids did the windchime and the other the spinner toy. The animals were cute and fun but there wasn't as many "babies" as I was expecting with all the fb posts made it seem like. But still fun to go hold the baby chicks and pet the goats, sheep & pig.

We went to Christkindle in December. It is a German Christmas celebration. The ark is filled with houses and other village buildings from pioneer era. They reenact the nativity including Mary riding down the street on a donkey. It was fantastic.

IMPORTANT: Be aware that all but 3 buildings will be locked in the winter, fall and spring (meaning, about 50 of the homes are closed off to the public). All bathrooms locked also. All there is to do is walk around the buildings and (supposedly) ride a train, but the train never came and was out of commission when we wanted to ride it. Not worth your money or time if you go in the springtime. We just went today (March 21st) and were never informed that everything would be locked up. If we knew we would have gone to the zoo across the street and not wasted our time. We spent forever with our 3 year old walking around to each home hoping one would be opened. Three were, but had maintenance equipment inside...a bag full of spray paint, someone's water bottle, and odds and ends of maintenance stuff. It was confusing and frustrating for us, and especially our 3 year old. My daughter almost had an accident because the only bathroom was clear across the park in the gift shop. They were filming a movie there so the streets were lined with moving trucks and vehicles and equipment everywhere. They were painting and fixing many of the other buildings. We just felt like we were in the way and the workers and the people filming just glared at us like we weren't supposed to be there. We opened a door that was unlocked in the BF Johnson Saddlery and there was a uniformed worker who was rude and slammed the door in our faces, saying the building was closed. We politely discussed the disappointment to the front desk workers and they became very combative and rude. She literally came around into my face from behind the counter and scolded me, pointing her finger at me saying that she had told me there wouldn't be much to do because the baby animals weren't there. But how was I to know that I was supposed to translate that to- every home is locked and there's literally nothing to do but walk around? She didn't say that. I quote, she said, "The baby animals will be here Saturday. You should come back Saturday because there will be a lot more to do". Well, quite frankly I could go to the zoo for animals so I didn't think much of it. I thought she was just trying to get us to come back again Saturday. Then they said, "Well, you've been here a few hours so you obviously enjoyed it." No. We were there a few hours walking to every freaking house to try to see which ones were open or not and because the train wasn't working, we had to walk very far (which takes forever with a 3 year old who thinks that a mound of dirt needs to be looked at for 20 minutes). Then, get this, she said, "Well, we saw you up by the teepee. [insert a lot of sarcasm and sass here] I hope you had a lot of fun being in the place that's closed and you weren't supposed to be in." I asked her why it was closed and how I was supposed to know that. Worker: "You are supposed to take the train everywhere and the train doesn't go up there, so you should know. And by the way, it's closed because we have a bad problem with lots of rattlesnakes". I clarified if there was a sign or a rope to say it was closed and she said no. However, when we walked up there we saw the train (last time we saw it running) dropping off a mom and 3 kids to the teepee area. So...in recap, she saw us up by the rattlesnake infested area that was "closed to the public" with our 8 month old and 3 year old, and she didn't come tell us?! And then she passive aggressively got angry at us for being there? Other things to note: there was a lot of trash along the sidewalks (even a huge peanut butter sandwich) and an overall unkempt feeling. There was a dog running around crazy and wild by the children's area near us.Finally, be aware that the top of the boat is a deathtrap for children. We went up there with our daughter and there's a hole forming and it looks like the material the top layer is made out of will sink in at any moment.We wanted to love it, we really did. Just know before you go.

We love This is the Place so much we bought a membership. The train around the park makes traversing with kids easy. My kids love the mini village and the Indian village. They also enjoy the pony rides and the leather stamping. We usually bring a lunch and eat at one of the pavilions.

The park is a nice place, but don't forget actual action is in summer, some come at summer in case you can, unless you come for the Christmas Village activity.