Salt Lake City Utah

We arrived in Salt Lake City Utah Friday evening, after deciding we had seen enough rocks for now and needed some city life. We stayed at a KOA campground right in town which provided a free shuttle run by the Mormons to Temple Square. We took advantage of the transportation and the free tour of the Mormon sights. Of course, at the conclusion of the tour we were asked to join their church....we politely refused. I have to say though, everyone was extremely nice! We then took the trolley through the city. The trolley is one of the benefits from hosting the 2002 Olympics. Salt Lake City is a small city and very clean and efficiently run. We spent the entire evening scoping things out.
The next morning, we drove our bikes downtown to see the big parade. July 24th is Pioneer Day, and is celebrated in remembrance of the settlers who fled religious persecution. The two hour parade was amazing with some of the most creative floats we had ever seen. We then rented a car and drove to Antelope Island to see The Great Salt Lake. I was a bit disappointed as it was not at all what I expected. The lake is basically "dead" the water extremely still and stinky. The brine shrimp were hatching so there were thousands, and I mean thousands of bugs along the shoreline. So, our desire to swim...or should I say float in the thick salt water was quickly thwarted. Since it cost $9.00 to enter the island, we decided to drive around and tour it by car. We did see some wild bison and stopped by the visitor center as well.

We then drove an hour to Park City which is where the 2002 Olympics occurred. We toured the Olympic Village, road the gondola up the mountain, hiked with the dogs on the ski slope where Picaboo Street won her gold medal and then sat on the village green to listen to an awesome Jazz band, all the festivities in honor of Pioneer day. We certainly picked the right day to visit. Two days were enough to get a feel for the city and surrounding sights and we decided to move north to Bear Lake on the border of Utah and Idaho for a day of water fun, jet skiing before heading to The Grand Tetons! We have certainly left the heat of the desert and there is a cool feel to the air....I even got out my fleece jacket :)