Unfortunately, what you can't see in the picture is the air quality around the park. Just across the highway is a number of refineries and just behind them a mining operation.
In the mornings when it was cool enough to turn the a/c off and open the windows, we were 'treated' to a mixture of chemical smells. And to add another sensory experience, an outdoor motocross course is just a few hundred yards down the road from the park. Enthusiasts were out bright and early to roar over and over and over the course. Thank goodness for the heat, so we had to run our air conditioners most of the time. :)
We visited the capitol building there. It is huge!
It sits atop a hill with views all around it.
The inside is just as impressive with its marble, gold leaf, and paintings.
Temple Square is the heart of the city. In fact, streets are named in reference to their position from the Square. Such as, one street south of the Square is named '100 South', three streets west of the Square is named '300 West', etc. Visiting the Square, we were able to see the cathedral from the outside only.
The doors were all locked, not allowing visitors in. We were surprised to find a church with locked doors, especially one that obviously wants tourists to visit. All around the cathedral, wedding parties and their guests were happily taking pictures, apparently just having exchanged vows. We counted no less than 7 different parties around the cathedral's very pretty grounds.
We were able to get into the Tabernacle. Its outside appearance is so very different from the cathedral, domed for acoustics we're sure. Unfortunately, neither the choir nor the organ was practicing there that day.
When researching things to do in Salt Lake City, we saw many reviews regarding visiting the Great Salt Lake itself. There were many references to horrible smells, dead sea gulls, and voracious bugs. SheM was not really sure she was up for it, but HeM insisted. As it turned out, it was not that bad. We drove to Antelope Island, a state park on the largest island in the lake. As we approached the lake, we were impressed by its calm, which presented nice reflections as in this picture.
And the birds! Many, many birds feast on the brine shrimp in the lake. The day we were there, an exhibit was set up to examine the annual spider population explosion. We didn't participate. We did walk down to the water's edge and put our hands in the lake. HeM did a salinity taste-test but that's as far as we went, even though several folks had waded out waist deep.
Even though it wasn't as bad as SheM feared, it still was rather smelly, and there were a lot of bugs around the edge. We're glad we went, and don't really need to do it again.
We took the drive up to Park City, and walked up and down Historic Main street.
It's the usual tourist mecca with lots of shops, restaurants, and bars. We would need to stay here at least a month in order to sample all the food and drink opportunities. In our travels, we've found a Harley Davidson establishment in just about every city. They are usually large, with a sizable parking lot. Park City's Harley Davidson is in a class of its own.
We'd like to see what this area looks like in the winter. We wouldn't likely ski, but we could certainly enjoy ourselves sipping refreshments around warm fireplaces. We took a ride up one of the chair lifts.
As we were being carried along toward the top, a black rain cloud floated over and drenched us. In fact, when we arrived at the top we were told that they were going to shut the ride down because of lightning strikes. We would be transported back down via a van--us and about 15 other people. That didn't sound like fun, and fortunately, that didn't happen. After about 20 minutes, the operators were given the 'all clear' and started the ride again. We were able to ride the chair lift down, and the view was much better than on the way up.
We're glad that we came to see Salt Lake City, even with less-than-pleasant smells. We'll continue going south from here, heading toward Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.
The Cathedral was locked? But of course. On the occasion of my family's visit there in 1964 my dad told me that only Mormons are ever allowed inside.
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