Contrasts - Salt Lake City, UT - 9220 Miles

We spent our first day in Salt Lake City doing the obvious - a trip downtown to see the Mormon Temple and the Temple Square area. Noon on Sunday is slow for the city in general but it's peak hours around the Temple Square complex. Non-Mormons are not allowed in the temple so Terry toured the tabernacle and other buildings while I remained in the well air- conditioned visitor's center. I viewed the exhibits on how Mormons ended up in Utah and the 40-year construction of the temple. Also, computer terminals were available for searching family history databases. I understand the resources available through the Mormon church are the Mecca of genealogists.

The next day we visited the lake and the desert to the west of the city. Everyone should see the Great Salt Lake once but I have no desire to return. The shoreline is mostly undeveloped. Since the lake level can vary by 20 feet and the land is flat, the shoreline can move by 15 miles in some places. We visited one nearly abandoned beachfront facility that, at one time in the past, had to build a rail line to shuttle people to the water. Now the water is within walking distance. Terry stuck her hand in the water but that was as daring as we got.

The only life in the lake is brine shrimp. Ringing the lake is a cloud of sand flies. To me they look and move like fleas, but I'll take the word of whoever named them. The tourist literature says the flies don't bite or land on humans but I beg to differ.

Less than 10 miles west of the lake we entered some of the most inhospitable looking country I've ever seen. The further we went the more salt replaced the desert sand and even your normal desert vegetation disappeared. Even though we were on an interstate a sign at one exit said there were no services for the next 66 miles. That's the longest stretch I've personally encountered. Next we reached an exit (with no services) and a sign saying the next exit was 45 miles so we couldn't turn around before Nevada. That was far enough. We got off, took a picture, and made a u-turn back to Salt Lake City.















The following day we headed east. The changes encountered going 20 miles east versus west were remarkable. Rather than salt deserts we were in the mountains and ski areas of the 2002 Winter Olympics. At an intersection we saw a sign saying "Ski Resorts" and pointing up a mountain. Having nothing better to do we turned and quite by accident ended up at the Sundance Ski Resort. We rode a lift to the top of the ski slopes. Riding ski lifts in the summer has become one of my new favorite activities since it combines three enjoyable events - nice weather, beautiful scenery, and sitting in a relatively comfy chair. We did have the good sense this time to make it a round trip on the lift rather than walking down. For $10 each I thought Robert Redford would help us get on the lift but I guess he was busy elsewhere.















Coming back we saw a large waterfall coming off the mountains so we stopped. I got a picture of the waterfall along with several young and one not-so-young children playing at the base of the falls.















We leave Salt Lake City on Friday and head to Cheyenne, WY. I hear it's cooler there.