Salt Lake City
Arriving
We thought we arrived around 7 PM at our apartment at Salt Lake City. The apartment was listed on Airbnb at a reduced prize as we later found out. Our last-minute planning rewarded us not only with a great flexibility but as it turns out with a nice apartment to an even better prize.
The “thought” in the first sentence was a reference to the following occurrence: We were looking for a parking space in the inner city to grab something to eat. A couple who just arrived in their car pointed out that parking it’s free to park at this hour. That was a little confusing for us, the sign we just read said that we have to pay for parking until 8 PM and our watches told us that it’s just 7:20 PM. Our confusion soon cleared up when we were told that Arizona and Utah are not always in the same timezone, the Mountain Time. In Salt Lake City it was already past 8 PM and therefore free to park =)
As it turns out our hosts were a well-traveled couple. This was reflected in all the little details they cared about in the apartment. For example, the free of charge washing machine or the basic supply of food (eggs, orange juice, coffee, some snacks, etc.) waiting for us. The next night they even came over for a entertaining talk and some tips on what to do in Salt Lake City.
Cottonwood Valley
One of our day trips while staying in SLC lead us in the Cottonwood Canyon. Driving east from SLC we first drove through the Big Cottonwood Canyon. After 10 to 20 minutes of driving the first ski resort appeared to our right. The road then changed from the already steep “Big Cottonwood Canyon Road” to the even steeper “Guardsmann Pass Road”.
The climb
At nearly 10’000 feet our climb came to a halt as we reached to top of the pass. Infused with American exploration spirit we (especially I) decided to tackle the last few hundred feet by foot. After an exhausting climb to the top walked on a path not worthy of being called a path we finally passed the 10k feet mark (3048 m). As you can see in the pictures the landscape differs from the mountains in our Swiss Alpes. I wouldn’t call the peaks mountains but rather hills compared to the stiff landscape in the Swiss skiing resorts, regardless of their height above sea level. Without having had the pleasure of riding down those hills with my skis I’m comfortable enough to say I would prefer the (steeper) slopes in my beloved mountain village Zinal =)
Gold-Simi Begins
After enjoying the beautiful sights, we descended, first by foot and then once back in the Jeep by car. But not the same way we came but the other side down. This path was worthy of the “Rough Road” sign. Luckily it wasn’t long before we had properly paved road under our wheels again. After driving through some other ski resorts and Park City we visited one of the sites where the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 took place, the Utah Olympic Park. The two ski-jumps and the bobsled run are part of this Park. As you can see we could go right to the top of the bigger ski-jump. Simon Ammann won his first two Olympic Gold medals on the two jump here in Utah.
Antelope Island
Another trip took us to the State Park on Antelope Island. If you look at it on a map you would say that it is a peninsula. That is not the case, you could easily walk to Salk Lake City on the direct way without getting wet feet. Right now the water level of the Great Salt Lake is on an all-time low. This allowed us to take some great looking pictures.
The Ranch
The first ranch built on this island (back when it was an island) is still standing. The oldest building dates to when we in Switzerland got our constitution. For us Europeans this isn’t an old building, nonetheless it was worth visiting. Until only a few dozen years back this ranch was still in use.
This enables a nice insight in the development in agriculture here in America. In the 19th-hundred Europe, we didn’t have any incentive for progress and inventions unlike they did in America. With limited land, we only could plant a limited amount of plants. Without being short of people to harvest there was no reason to improve the methods.
But here in America there were so few people and such abundance of land that improvements in harvesting methods made a big difference. If you would invent a machine that made it possible to farm twice as fast you wouldn’t just be done with the same harvest in half the time but you could farm double the land in the same time. I hope you could see why most of the inventions in agriculture came from America back to Europe.
The Bison
The island is home, together with some other place, to the healthiest bison living today. Normally the bison are all over the island but when we were visiting they were gathered in one place. The reason behind this gathering is that all the bison get checked once a year and the owners decide which bison to sell and which to keep (for breeding and eating).
Bison are strange animals. They look like hairy cows and it looks awesome when they are walking (or whatever you call it when they move forward). It seems that they are very simple animals, when it’s dark they calm down and rest (they are lined up before being inspected and to calm them down they are kept in the dark). As soon as they see light they move towards it and you must be aware of that when you want to calm them down. They can jump up to 6 feet and run over 35 mph (ca. 1.8 m and 56 km/h in non-retard units) and they can die from stress. Amazing creatures but unfortunately for them very easy to hunt down.
The Mormons
Back in Salt Lake City we strolled through the inner city. Two of the most notable and impressive buildings were the Mormon Temple and the State Capitol. SLC isn’t an old city and was founded by members of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (aka. Mormons) in 1847. The Mormons were no longer welcomed in the east so they traveled to the west in search of a place to stay. SLC wasn’t the most fertile area back then (and still isn’t) but they saw the potential of this place when travel between the coasts would increase.
The fact that the Mormons founded SLC is clearly visible until this day. Most of the nice and big buildings in the inner city belong to them. It’s either clearly written on the outside or you must look it up. For example, the most beautiful shopping center I have ever been to right next to their temple belongs to them. I only became aware of this fact by accident while looking up how old the shopping center was.
One of the perks that a church owns the most beautiful buildings in the city is that they are well maintained and well decorated. If you want to have a nice view in New York, you pay a lot. If you want to have a nice view in SLC you just enter a building recommended by a friendly woman on the outside handing out maps and take an elevator to the top for free. You even get a private escort that guides and informs you while you take pictures and feast your eyes upon the beautiful sights.
