Suicide Rock & the Reservoir

The red sandstone tower at the mouth of Parley's Canyon was a landmark long before it held water. Salt Lake City built its first municipal culinary reservoir beside it in 1892, drawing on Parley's Creek; a wet spring later breached the dam, and once cleaner supplies arrived it was never rebuilt. The rock's grim name attaches to a legend of an Indian maiden leaping to her death for a lost lover, but the same story is told of rocks across the West, a tourist-era invention rather than history. The name predates the tale; the rock itself is simply old.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 3.2 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Emigration Canyon — 3.7 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 4.1 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 4.4 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views

More markers nearby

• Mormon Pioneer Trail, Centennial Trekkers — 0.3 mi
• 1997 Sesquicentennial Trekkers — 0.3 mi
• Horace A. Sorensen — 0.3 mi
• Early Pioneer Mills — 0.3 mi