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Published: November 27th 2015
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C: So after another extremely early start (I am not good at getting up at 4.15am!) we caught our next flight to Salt Lake City for the start of our Utah national parks adventure. We'd been told that there wasn't a lot to see in SLC so we'd only booked one night's accommodation and so just had the afternoon to look round. First though we had to pick up our hire car for the next ten days. Now due to the USA being the home of the big car we had done what we always do and booked an economy car knowing, from previous experience, that we would be upgraded. Wrong. Roger was not a happy bunny when we strode up to a Chrevolet Spark that would be our mode of transport for our road trip across Utah. I personally liked the fact that it was blue. We started off but after a couple of miles a warning light came on the dashboard. I think it was to do with tyre pressure but this was a perfect excuse for Rog to take the car back in he hope of getting something better. There were not keen but eventually gave us a
Hyundai Accent, still not much bigger but apparently much better to drive!
Well I have to say, Salt Lake City was really nice. I think it suffers a bit of a stigma because of the Mormon connection but we enjoyed our short time exploring. It's much smaller than other US cities we've been too and has a lot less high-rise. I studied the Mormons and their expedition to the Salt Lake during GCSE History and was quite intrigued to see the headquarters of the sect. The temple area was very impressive and beautifully landscaped and indeed surrounded by very friendly Mormon sisters. They weren't pushy, however, just keen to give helpful information. As a non-Mormon we couldn't go in the actual temple but the tabernacle (concert hall) and smaller chapel were attractive and interesting. We then walked uphill to the state capitol which was a magnificent building with a stunning marble interior. We were able to wander easily around the interior and got great views of the city and surrounding area. Meandering downhill we went through a pretty park in a small canyon before seeing Brigham Young's house and then walking through a very smart shopping arcade. All in
all a nice city, but an afternoon was enough to see all the main things. We were ready for the wilderness to come...
R: while Cate recovered from the 4am start, I went over to the Great Salt lake, well part of it. It turns out iMaps doesnt know this area of the world too well. its pretty bleak over there. The lake is impressive - three rivers flow into it, but none flow out, so all the water accumulates and evaporates, leaving minerals behind. It's pretty sulphury. I don't think many people make the journey to Great Salt Lake state park... I was there by myself with a wedding party. On the way back I acquainted myself with Sirius digital radio, including 90s on 9. Win!
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