I say “Utah,” you say . . .
October 6, 2009
Mormons, right? Well most people would. I’ve been to Utah three or four times now and on every visit I’ve found Utahns to be friendly, polite, and happy people. Now, I don’t have an ounce of religiosity in me, but if that’s what Mormonism does for you then more power to ‘em. I was back in Utah this summer and had another great time. Man, I love this place.
I suspect Utah is overlooked when people list their favorite places in the western United States for one of three reasons:
1) Mormons scare them (this is nuts, people in Utah are wonderful, religion notwithstanding);
2) no ocean (OK, I’ll give you this one, you’re probably not going swimming in the Great Salt Lake. On the other hand though, there are more mountains than you can climb.);
3) wacky drinking laws (the drinking law stated you had to be a member of the bar, restaurant, club, whatever, to drink alcohol. It cost 3 to 5 dollars to get in a bar just to have a beer. That was crazy. Just this year (2009), joy of joys, the Utah powers finally got wise and decided this might be affecting tourism. Drinking in Utah is now the same as the rest of the world).
Utah has a lot to offer the outdoorsy type. We began with a couple of nights in Solitude, a ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains just east of Salt Lake City. I imagine Solitude is a busy place in the winter — Utah boasts “The Greatest Snow on Earth” — but it’s calm, peaceful, sunny, and cool in the mountains in the summer months. In fact, it’s 10 to 20 degrees cooler at the eight thousand feet altitude of Solitude than it is at the bottom of the mountain in Salt Lake City.
Last year, we took our little rental car north and east of Salt Lake, touching on Idaho, Montana, and ending up traveling through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming down past the Grand Tetons and eventually back to Salt Lake City. A photographers dream.
This year, after some relaxation in Solitude, we drove south towards Moab, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. You probably don’t want to visit Moab in July and August when it’s over 100 degrees but in September — well, it was still 85 to 90 — but, as tourists relentlessly say, it is a dry heat. Dry heat or no, water (and sunglasses) take on a surprising importance down here. This is the desert so when you go out for a walk you take water with you. The signs on park trails often recommended you take a gallon.
Arches National Park has, believe it or not, arches. The park is just north of Moab and has natural red rock formations and buttes galore making it the stuff of cowboy movies. Here are some more photos.
Canyonlands has . . . what? Can you guess? This is not the Grand Canyon, that’s a hundred miles or so down the road but Canyonlands is a bunch of smaller versions and picturesque regardless.
While downstate this far, we had to go to Four Corners, the only place in the U.S. where four states meet at one point: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Ok, it’s not the most exciting place in the world and it took a long drive to get there but hey, check, it’s off the list.
