Salt Lake City (FST Training), Aug 26-30

I had a beautiful week in Salt Lake City. The lack of humidity was amazing!! The city itself was even a pleasant surprise. There were nice parks and I was able to wonder around inside the state capital (I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize this was the state capital prior to seeing the capital building). Another surprise was that Donna's friends, Rick and Jenny, live here and they took me on a fabulous hike and even treated me to dinner. The only disappointment was that the Mormon Tabernacle was covered in scaffolding so I did get to tour that. Oh well, a good excuse to return.

I was so excited to see this area of the country and the neat (oh-so-different-for-me) landscape that my face was glued to the window as we made our approach into KSLC. This picture shows how the city is built right up to the edge of the mountains. These mountains are the western edge of the Rocky's. So dramatic!!

On Monday night I did a quick survey of the city close to the hotel and found a beautiful city park call Memorial Park. Obviously there were lots of monuments commemorating the fallen of various battles over the years. The park was meticulous, which is surprising because it was well used. I lost count of how many dogs were out there. And they didn't require you to have your dogs on a lease so they were running around chasing balls and playing with each other. They looked so happy, you couldn't help but be happy with them.

On Tuesday after work I went to the capital with the intention of just walking around the grounds. Then, at the last minute, I thought I would ask if I could go inside to a have a quick look around and guess what... the building was open to the public until 8pm and there was four floors of exhibits. The first and second floor was mostly historical, the third floor was all about the construction of the capital building and the dome, and the fourth floor was an exhibit on 100 years of Utah in the movies. All very interesting and the building was beautiful. I truly enjoyed my visit.

   

 

On Wednesday after work I, on the recommendation of the FSR, I went to the ski destination town of Park City. It was very touristy and kind of crowded. I would hate to see it in the height of tourist season. I walked around the town and down a few residential street but was overall, not too impressed. I may have been more impressed if I was with family or friends or if I knew where the nature trails were. But, since I was alone, I stuck to the populated paved streets.

On Thursday after work I met up with Donna's high school/college friends, Rick and Jenny. They took me on the most amazing hike way up in the mountains. It was only a mile from our car to the lake, but it was rocky and a great challenge. It took about an hour to drive to the trail head, so they live in the city, but still, I couldn't image have easy access to this type of scenery anytime I wanted. This was also a ski destination, but not touristy like Park City. I think the ski town we passed by was called Altus. 

Look at me!! I was loving every step.

This is Jenny on the left, the upper switchback, and Rick on the right, coming up on the lower switchback. This was the most strenuous part of the trail. It wasn't long, but it got your breath going!

The lake was a mirror. And full of salamanders :)

 

And here is our selfie back at the trailhead... we're all still smiling. It was a great hike and we earned our beers that night with dinner. We had burgers at Squatters with their son, Nick.

 

A very nice, unexpected, visit with great people!

Overall, Salt Lake City was a good trip. The work portion was a little bit trying, but that's the price I pay to get to travel the way I do and I'm not complaining.