As I had to work in Salt Lake City recently, we took the opportunity to tick the state of Utah off our list and turn it into an extended trip. I had to work during the week but we stayed the weekend and explored further afield.
Salt Lake City is a four hour flight from NYC. It is very clean and nicely laid out. The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young (the Second Prophet). Known as the 'American Moses' he became the leader of the Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons.
This is not our picture but it shows how close the mountains are to the city:
A brief history of the Mormon faith: New York, 1820s, Joseph Smith (the first Prophet, i.e. the first head of the Mormon faith) was debating which religious denomination to join. Asking God to guide him, he received the answer - 'none', for none were right. The Lord, instead, wanted him to start a new church. An angel guided him to some Golden Plates that were hidden in a mountain in New York. These square tablets contained the writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. They, for some reason, were written in Ancient Egyptian text, which God helped Smith to translate. Once translated, Smith returned the plates to the angel. The translated text formed the Book of Mormon, which followers use in conjunction with the Bible.
Utah is known as the 'Beehive State'. Road numbers are encased in a little beehive as below. The carvings beneath the sign are in the grounds of the State Capitol Building.
And this is the Utah State Capitol building itself, overlooking the city:
The Utah State Capitol is the house of government for Utah. The building houses the chambers and offices of the Utah State Legislature, the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, the State Auditor and their staffs.
Gemma was incredibly excited to finally visit a Cheesecake Factory:
Banana cream pie cheesecake, anyone?
We hired a car for the weekend and drove about an hour north of the city to the Great Salt Lake, driving across a causeway to Antelope Island.
We drove across the island to an old bison ranch:
You couldn't beat the views:
The island is known for the bison that roam across it.
We were lucky - we saw some right by the road, and they are huge!
We found a great spot to walk down to the lake.
The water was freezing!
The sand on Antelope Island is special - it is all spherical:
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