Salt Lake City

We rarely venture into cities in our motor home - parking spaces can be hard to come by, and a wrong turn can send us through streets too narrow to negotiate or back out of.   Being in Salt Lake City, however, we just had to see the Mormon Tabernacle - the site of those televised and recorded Mormon Tabernacle Choir concerts at Christmas.

To our delight, we found Salt Lake City to be an easy city to negotiate, and were also impressed with the city's infrastructure, cleanliness, and beauty.  Our RV park was right in the city and only a couple of miles from Temple Square, but the grounds were tree-lined and away from traffic.  The city has a streetcar system that runs from the center all of the way out to Salt Lake City International Airport.

We had no problem finding an RV-friendly parking lot ($6 for the day) a short walk from Temple Square, and were further impressed by the grounds of the 10-acre Square.   

The buildings in Temple Square include two visitor's centers - one with interactive exhibits about the history of the Mormon settlers in the area (led by Brigham Young), as well as a scale model of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple: the Temple itself is not open to the general public but is restricted to use for sacred rites such as baptisms and marriages for practicing Mormons; it has different rooms for reflection about life's origins, purpose, and the afterlife.   It took 40 years to build and was dedicated in 1893.

The Salt Lake Temple - not open to the general public

A scale model of the Temple's interior

All of the buildings were staffed by courteous volunteers, mostly young women, and many from other countries.  As we walked through Temple Square and the surrounding area, we noted an inordinate number of smiling, well-dressed people  --- women in dresses, many sporting name tags that identified them as "Sister So-and-so"; and men in suits, ties, and white shirts - reminiscent of IBMers in the past, there were few pastel shirts.   We wandered into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (Smith was the founder of the Mormon Church, succeeded by Brigham Young), a structure that proved to be a huge hotel and conference center.

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

What also struck us was that there were no admission fees to any of the buildings, no donations boxes, and not even a gift shop (nor any vagrants on the premises).  We had to walk out of Temple Square even to find a postcard of the site.  Nevertheless, the wealth of the well-maintained facilities was evident at every turn. 

Leaving Salt Lake City on I-80 eastbound, we went through Cottonwood Canyon, the same path (in reverse) that Brigham Young and his followers took as they sought religious freedom back in the 1840's.  Granite from the canyon was used to build the Salt Lake Temple; these days, the hills near the canyon are lined with impressive homes with views of the city below.