UTAH

SPOT THE MAN IN SKIS

THE TEMPLE

SISTER MISSIONARIES AT TEMPLE SQUARE

DELICATE ARCH

We left Jackson at 7.30am to drive south roughly along the Wyoming/Idaho state border to Utah. Our destination was Salt Lake City (SLC), founded by the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Fellow traveller Katy teaches History at her school and is a bit of an expert on how the Mormons became established, so she has already given me some background information.

Before we got to SLC, however, we stopped for lunch at Utah Olympic Park, 28 miles east of the City. The Park was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and continues to be used for training and competition. 

We stayed at the Shilo Inns Hotel in SLC, which was a welcome upgrade from the tent. After depositing my bags in my room, I walked to the famous Temple Square to see the buildings and find out a more about the origins of Utah State and the Mormon faith. Once I had toured the Temple, the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle, two charming young ladies, Sister Missionaries, sat down with me to explain the differences between the Mormon and the Anglican versions of Christianity. They were very open in answering my many questions and didn't avoid the awkward ones.

I then continued my walk to the fine Capitol Building which overlooks the City from the hill. The lack of any need for security checks on entry surprised me because with every other government building I have entered, security guards have either searched or x-rayed my rucksack, and sometimes even got me to empty my pockets and walk through a metal detector. Here I just walked straight in the building to see a beautifully marbled interior with lots of informative displays.

On my walk back to the hotel I passed through the Creek Centre, which had a fountain that danced to music and also projected gas flames to accompany the water jets. It was brilliant.

SLC is in a beautiful location so I can see why Brigham Young said "This is the right place" (you will have to Google this to find out more). It is clean and seems safe, even late at night, but I was surprised that in a City with a dominant Mormon population there were still many homeless people sleeping on the streets.

I was also surprised to find that the City virtually closed shop after 9.00pm so I couldn't find a place to eat and had to make do with the two oaty bars in my rucksack for supper.

After a compensatory free breakfast in the Hotel next morning we headed off to the City of Moab, still in Utah, our base for visits to Arches National Park 5 miles away and Canyonlands National Park 32 miles away. Not surprisingly, the terrain became more desert-like as we drove south.

We arrived at the campground in Moab late afternoon and had an early supper. This was so we could do an evening hike in Arches NP. We would be staying at this campground for three nights.

There are about 2000 natural sandstone arches in the Park and some are particularly noteworthy. Our evening hike involved an ascent of about 480 ft to 'Delicate Arch'. After photographing it at sunset, we walked down again in the dark. The terrain in Arches NP is just amazing, with weird rock formations and the colours of the sandstone ranging from salmon pink through red to brown. The experience of walking in this terrain around sunset was quite surreal.