Day 2: Utah, More than Just Mormons!

We woke up early in Boise and had a quick breakfast of kibble and frosted flakes (for Zoe and ourselves, respectively), then hit the road. Our campsite was about an hour north of Salt Lake City, so we made a pit-stop on the way to drop off our camping stuff before heading into the city. After we weaved our way through the campground, we were thrilled to see that our site was right on the lake. After a quick dip in the surprisingly warm water, we were able to pull ourselves away from the lake and mountain views to take the trip into the city.

Since we were in SLC, our first stop was in Temple Square, where we were able to revel in some Mormonry. We took some photos of the newer temple (heathens like ourselves were not allowed inside), but were able to take a peek into the Tabernacle, where we caught a demonstration of a woman ripping a piece of newspaper, which could be heard clearly, sans microphones, throughout the entire building. Just a recording of the entire building full with the sounds of a choir in song made our spines tingle.

 

After leaving Temple Square (without being approached by any actual Mormons!), we took a stroll through downtown SLC and were sorely disappointed. The city was dead, it was super hot, and aside from a few bars and restaurants, there were not a ton of places that even seemed interesting. We ended up driving up the mountain to see the University of Utah’s campus, and, although it had nice views, we weren’t able to find much of a fun, social life there, either.

On our way back to our campsite, we stopped by a Whole Foods to buy some overpriced dinner ingredients, and headed back to our site to make a seriously tasty dinner. After watching the sun set over the mountains on the far side of the lake, which not only exploded into a sky full of colors, but also beautifully illuminated the mountains behind us, we fired up the grill for dinner.

We figured we’d embrace the region, and grilled some Buffalo rib eyes to a perfect medium-rare. They were way leaner than beef, but still were quite flavorful and tender.

After enjoying a few beers (Wasatch brewery’s Evolution Amber, which was created to protest Utah’s decision to teach “intelligent design” in their schools) and watching dusk settle and the sky full of bright stars appear over the lake, we headed into the tent and drifted off to sleep.