Blogs from Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, North America - page 7

While not my first choice for a mid-autumn vacation, a quick trip to Salt Lake City proved to be just what I need. Some time away from it all, hanging out with encouraging friends (new and old), fresh air, beautiful sites, and a bit of wonderment at the life of those living in the great state of Utah. We spent many moments throughout the weekend on Wikipedia answering questions and learning about Mormon's (60% of Utah is Mormon!!), Utah's drinking laws, the stomping grounds of the Olympics, were we really not allowed in the Tabernacle? With a rental car as carriage, we ventured in and out of town, to Park City, Snow Bird, up in the hills, to several breweries that were not only unexpected but impressive. It was a much need to time to vent ... read more

Today was another long day on the bus, from Jackson Wyoming to Salt Lake City Utah. Through some very pretty, but very snowy, mountains. And an added bonus, we actually cut through Idaho, so I can tick that off my list of states visited. The funniest bit of the day was when our bus suddenly slowed down and stopped on the highway. There were a bunch of puppies on the road, and our tour guide got out of the bus and shooed them back onto the farm they seem to have wandered off from. They were adorable. Lunch stop was in Logan, Utah, and when we got into SLC, we stopped at the State Capitol Building and then had an hour at the Temple Square. I remember taking a tour through a big visitors' center last ... read more

After leaving Caldwell, we headed on down to Salt Lake City. The drive was fairly uneventfull and really not all that scenic. Most of Idaho has been having fires, so you could always see the haze of the smoke and in some places, even see the fires. There was a really flat section where the wind would sneak up on in gusts...one time it nearly blew us off the road and into another vehicle. Most of the scenery was either brown, flat, burnt or all 3....very little green due to the dryness....we think we had a draught in NY??? not even close! We could see, what we soon found out were little mini dust cyclones. But at first from a distance they looked like weird cloud formations straight up from the ground into the sky. As ... read more

The time had come to turn back West and return the car to San Francisco, 1500 miles lay ahead of us..with 6 days to do it in. Us being us thought we would cram Yosemite National Park in on the way, so we had to get our skates on. The day we left Pine Ridge we decided to drive into the night to get some mileage in; when we left the reservation, we saw a lot of homeless Indian men drinking on the streets and saw the dark side of how modern life were affecting these native people; this was upsetting but thought provoking. We drove through a bit of Nebraska; miles and miles of farmland and it was hot; we got the cheapest drink in the world 25c for a huge cup of lime juice, ... read more

Here are some photos during a recent training run on my favorite route from my house to the top of City Creek Canyon and back for a total of 14.5 miles. This run begins at the base of Capital Hill (where I live) and climbs about half a mile to the Utah State Capital with another quarter mile of gentle climb up to Bonneville Blvd. Running down Bonneville Blvd. toward the mouth of City Creek Canyon is fairly flat until the base of the canyon where the 5.75 mile climb begins. The 5.75 mile section is a rolling uphill climb through a narrow paved road along City Creek. In the spring this creek can be dangerous as the current is strong with water runoff from the melting snow. Even in July the Wasatch mountains still have ... read more