We drove out of Ogden and took the Interstate to Park City, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the Sundance Film Festival. This Interstate is considered one of the more scenic routes in the US, and it did not disappoint. Nice to take curves at 75 miles and going down hill.
Even in summer, freestyle skiers are perfecting their craft. They ski down the wet slides, summersault, twist and whatever in the air and land in the water that is pumped with bubbles to soften the landing.
There’s a nice museum there about how skiing began there. Park City was originally a mining town. The first skiers in the area used the mine shafts to deliver them up the slopes. The fun part of the museum are the arcade-like games on skiing that kept me occupied.
Then we headed up Main Street the heart of Park City. We took the free trolley to get us up and down for an overview of the place. There are many old buildings there, but now occupied by trendy shops. Not my cup of tea, but fun for those who shop, I guess.
We stopped at the Tanger Outlet just outside the Olympic Park for a bit of shopping. I bought a pair of Columbia pants for US$9.99! Down from US$60 originally.
Then it was off to Salt Lake City. We only had a few hours to check out the Mormon Temple Square before it was time to repack for our flight to Las Vegas.
I don’t really have much of an impression of Salt Lake City except that it’s filled with construction everywhere. I don’t think it’s an especially nice city. But the roads are wide, even in the city, because they were designed so that horse carriages could u-turn.
As usual, between my nervous city driving and my mothers lousy navigational skills, we got lost and chanced upon the SLC State Capitol Building.
In Mormon fashion, it is big and expensive looking. You are free to walk around to explore and you can hear the chatter of tourists echo through the building. But when they leave, it is so quiet, it’s as if you’re walking through some eccentric rich man’s mansion and are being watched by secretly hidden cameras.
Just look at this piece of marble. One large piece, selected for it’s natural pattern, makes one big wall. And this is only one particular piece.
The Mormons are big on industry. The beehive motif also appears on the doors of the Mormon temple.
Maybe it’s because all of their buildings were built by volunteers by hand, driven by faith and belief alone.
Brigham Young led the Mormons out of New York and other cities where they were being thrown out of to Salt Lake City and they built up their first temple here.
And the tabernacle where we heard the pin drop.
Oh those pins could be heard. But as for voices? The person talking accross the hall was hard to hear.
You can take a tour by the volunteer Mormon guides who serve and come from all over the world, at their expense. But unlike the tour at Paris, Idaho, these youngsters were more keen on giving testimony and at the end of it, give you a card to fill to get more info (Mormon bibles etc) from them.
We stayed near the airport in Salt Lake City for our flight to Las Vegas in the morning.