Snowbird and Salt Lake City | National and State Parks | Best hidden secrets | Advice |
More information about Snowbird, Salt Lake City, and
Utah can be found at www.snowbird.com,
utah.citysearch.com,
www.visitsaltlake.com,
and www.utah.com. Tickets for
many performances in Salt Lake can be obtained through
www.arttix.org.
A collection of outstanding Utah photos can be found at
http://utahpictures.com.
In Salt Lake City there is a wide selection of restaurants,
microbreweries, bars, dance clubs, entertainment and shopping. In the downtown
area, popular tourist attractions include
Temple Square, the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Ballet West, and the Utah Symphony.
Outside downtown
the Hansen Planetarium,
the Utah Museum of Natural History,
the Museum of Fine Arts,
the Red Butte Garden,
Deseret Village,
Tracy Aviary and the
Hogle Zoo are worth visiting.
Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas hosted the Winter Olympics
in February 2002.
Recreational opportunities in summer at Snowbird include
hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, tennis, swimming, extensive spa
facilities, and the Aerial Tram which takes passengers to the top of Hidden
Peak in 6 minutes. Deer, elk, mountain goats, and the occasional moose may be seen
in the vicinity of Snowbird. Alpine flowers are abundant.
There are many other options in the surrounding areas,
including
bird watching,
golf,
fishing,
boating,
hot air ballooning,
horseback riding,
mountain biking,
mountaineering and canyoning, and
river rafting.
Within reasonable driving distance of Salt Lake
City are many of America's best National Parks and National Monuments;
including to the east (about 4 hours drive)
Dinosaur;
to the southeast (about 4.5 hours drive)
Arches,
Canyonlands, and, further
away, Mesa Verde;
to the south (about 6 to 8 hours drive)
Bryce and
Cedar Breaks,
Capitol Reef,
Grand Canyon,
Grand Staircase-Escalante,
Natural Bridges,
Rainbow Bridge (boat trips leave from Wahweap near Page, Arizona), and
Zion;
to the southwest
Great Basin;
to the north (about 7 to 10 hours drive)
Grand Teton and
Yellowstone;
and nearby (about 1 hour drive) Timpanogos Cave.
Also worth visiting are a number of State Parks including
Antelope Island
(see also these photos)
in the
Great Salt Lake ,
Dead Horse Point,
Goblin Valley
(see also the nearby
Little Wild Horse Canyon),
and
Kodachrome Basin.
Additional attractions include
Antelope Canyon,
the
Bingham Canyon Copper Mine,
Buckskin Gulch,
Flaming Gorge,
Glen Canyon
and
Lake Powell ,
the Great Salt Lake ,
and the Uinta mountains,
and the
Wind River Range, resort towns such as
Deer Valley,
Jackson Hole, Moab,
Park City, and
Sundance Resort, and there are also a number of
ghost towns
and
hot springs.
In Cedar City there is the
Utah Shakespearean festival
with outdoor play performances during the summer. Further afield,
but still within a day driving distance one way by car or bus is
Las Vegas
Mountains and other high elevation areas (including Bryce, Zion and the
north rim of the Grand Canyon) are pleasant during summer.
In general the desert areas
are very hot in summer and you should be careful to carry plenty of water
when driving on remote roads or hiking, and be aware of danger of
flash floods in the
desert canyons caused by thunderstorms upstream and not necessarily where you are. Be aware of rattlesnakes in the wilderness.
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