Salt Lake City-Arches National Park-Park City-Great Salt Lake-Salt Lake City
After I had finished teaching in summer school at Duke, I went on a short trip to Salt Lake City with my friend Long. American Airlines was nice enough to give us a "free" ticket (i.e., we used frequent flyer miles).
Map of Utah
Mormons are recognized throughout the world by their typical black suits and the little plastic name tags they wear. These Mormons are on their "mission trip", on which every young mormon (boys after they turn 18, girls after they turn 21) is encouraged to go. When the "babies" come back home, they get a big welcome - as we could witness when we arrived in Salt Lake.
The first night, we just checked into our hotel and got some food at a local diner. Salt Lake city is dead after 10, at least during the week. The next morning, we made our way to the temple - this famous white building, which is much more impressive on postcards than in real.
Salt Lake City with its temple is so special to the Mormons that many of them come here just to marry. The temple area seems to be a permanent wedding stage; even on a regular weekday morning several couples promenade the place at the same time. The building structure in the background is the huge new conference center the Mormons have built.
After the official part, the newly-wed and their guests celebrate in so-called "reception houses", typically some "historic" mansion.
The Mormons have also converted an old luxury hotel in a multi-functional building and named it after the founder of their church "Joseph Smith Memorial Building". An old lady played piano in the lounge, newly-wed had their pictures taken in the beautiful lobby, and Japanese tourists occupied the comfortable armchairs. A separate entrance houses the "family search center" - it seems to be a hobby of Mormons to trace their family back as far as possible... Perhaps "purity" of blood is important to them? Many Mormons are blond and have blue eyes - they probably trace their origins back to Germans or Nordish folks.
Right in front of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building an unexpected sight: homeless people begging for money. We would see that in many places, especially around Mormon sites.
The temple square is full of beautiful flowers and fountains. In their midst a small statue of Joseph Smith, who led the first Mormons from New York (where people didn't like their ideas) all the way to the Great Salt Lake, where they could finally settle down.
The current leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS): President Hinckley. About two thirds of Salt Lake City's population are Mormons.
View from the roof garden of the LDS conference center over downtown (temple on the right, Joseph Smith Memorial Building in center). As we strolled the gardens, one of the many older men in suit and tie told us that we cannot be there without a guided tour - "after 9/11" he said. Most likely, however, security is not the real reason; rather this seems to be a convenient way for the Church to get the attention of tourists.
The conference center holds 21.000 people.
Utah is the state with the youngest population: 32% are under 18 years old. The reasons are certainly religious, although it is - officially - not polygamy. The LDS officially ended this popular practice in the late 19th century.
Salt Lake City is not very big and we explore much of it in our first two days. We therefore decided to extend our trip beyond the city itself. We rented a car and went on a trip to Arches National Park in the Southeast of Utah. That's a five-hour ride - but what an interesting ride! The busy city roads...
...quickly turn into endless highways...
...along impressive mountain ranges.
The landscape changes constantly; from red to green to yellow; from soft hills to steep cliffs.
The trip itself was a great experience - but it was only the beginning. You have seen nothing until you have been to the Arches National Park.
The "North Window"
"Park Avenue"
The "Petrified Dunes"
"The German" in front of the "Balanced Rock"
The park administration recommends that every visitor drink one gallon of water per day...
The sandstone comes in many different shapes...
...including the "Devil's Garden".
The park lies atop an underground salt bed. Salt under pressure is unstable; the underground shifted, buckled, and repositioned itself, creating the many different artworks in the park. Of course, wind helped giving the final touch.
The probably most famous arch: "Delicate Arch".
We watched how the sun painted the arch in ever-changing shades of red...
...until it finally disappeared behind the horizon...
...turned the rocks into black shapes...
...and finally handed the night over to a full moon.
After a night in a unique hostel close to the Arches National Park, we made our way back to Salt Lake City. The next day, we ventured out again - this time into the mountains that formed the stage of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
They look green in summer...
... but one feels that this is only an unavoidable break before the real thing starts again.
Until snow comes back, tourists shop in the stores that line the historic main street...
...eat in one of the nice cafes...
...or turn the area into a mountainbike-heaven.
The final trip took us to the Great Salt Lake. One might think that Salt Lake City is at the lake - think again. It is a 20 minutes drive to the Lake. The first settlers were probably more concerned about security (which is higher at the base of a mountain) than tourism.
The lake is really huge and quiet. Several islands with barren land create interesting landscapes. At a place that was invitingly labelled the "Marina", we looked for a beach but found nothing - the water had retreated and had left only dark smelly mud and a few boats. The sea gulls didn't seem to care, but we did.
So we made another attempt and drove to Antelope Island, a State Park that was said to have nice beaches and interesting wildlife.
Antelope Island offers an amazing landscape and finally we could float in the salty water. Regular sea water has about 3% salt, this Great Salt Lake has about 12%. The Dead Sea in Israel has 19!. But 12% were enough to let us float, and the drying water left large salt crusts on the skin. I brought a bottle of salt water with me and had it not that green slime in it, it would make for an excellent cooking ingredient.
The sunset was so impressive that we decided to stay at the beach, leaving the wildlife enjoying their evening without human disturbances.
After these trips, we spent the final days in Salt Lake City with its wide open streets. The gate spanning across this street is the "Eagle Gate" and indicated the beginning of Joseph Smith's property.
Because the streets are so wide, traffic lights for pedestrians show green only for a few seconds and then turn back red, indicating the seconds one has to finish crossing the street (usually 25 seconds).
If a crossing has no light, it has a bucket with big orange flags and a sign that says "Look left and right when crossing. For added visibility carry orange flag across with you". These flags would have made for a perfect souvenir :)
Utah number plate with a picture of the delicate arch.
View from the State Capitol over the Eastern part of the city and the mountains.
The city has many ugly modern buildings, but has also preserved some older nice ones, especially around state street. Some of the Mexican workers who moved here more recently and start to change the city's appearance were more concerned about their wages, and we saw several banners like this one.
Salt Lake City has a small street-car system and we took the train to the University of Utah with its small but interesting arts museum.
The city hall reflected in the modern courthouse.
This impressive building seems somewhat lost outside of the downtown and we always wondered what it is. A walk there solved the riddle - it is the Grand America luxury hotel. We made our way up to the 25th floor - but there were no windows :(.
On Sunday, we joined many other tourists and Mormons for the weekly "Music and the Spoken Word" in the conference center (the Tabernacle building, where this event is usually held, was currently under construction). This performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been broadcast on radio for over 75 years. The music was nice, the organ is really big, and the speaker of the spoken word epitomized the Mormon stereotype.
After the event, missionaries offered guided tours of the conference center - and probably endless talks about their church.
Salt Lake City hosted the Annual Meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars this year. The city was full with veteran soliders and their wifes, the former often wearing caps and hats with their military history (e.g., "Commander of XYZ, 1956-1966"). The restaurants ran out of food, and the roads were blocked because President Bush came into town Monday morning to greet the Veterans.
A Mormon family after Sunday's "service", taking a family photograph. Recall that Utah has the largest share of under 18 year olds in the US.
We left downtown and explored some of the neighbouring areas. To our surprise, the faces turned from blond and blue to mostly black and brown - we entered the African American and Mexican part of Salt Lake City.
The Liberty Park south of downtown is open to everyone - A typical American family takes some space up for their Sunday BBQ...
... and "Hippies" gather around the drums.
The sun sets behind the spires of the Mormon temple on our last evening.
We left Salt Lake City with a whole group of Missionaries that were ready to sprad the Word throughout the world. And they started right away - at the airport.
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