SALT LAKE CITY, UT

You’ll see acres of sky in Salt Lake City.

Located in a valley (the Salt Lake Valley) that abuts the Great Salt Lake to the northwest and the Wasatch and Oquirrh mountains to the east and west, Salt Lake City offers you breathtaking scenery and vistas. As well as fantastic outdoor activities.

Do you love to ski? The Salt Lake City area is well known for its winter wonderland possibilities (the 2002 Winter Olympics were held here). Park City, for example, is but 36 miles away from the Salt Lake International Airport. You can ski, go snowboarding, ice skate and take a hike on snowshoes in the winter; spring, summer and fall will see you hiking, mountain biking, swimming, camping and fishing for trout.

Down in the valley, Salt Lake City offers those who prefer their “recreation” to be of the cultured kind a wealth of art galleries, historic buildings, theater and fine dining.

In fact, Salt Lake City is host to a variety of festivals throughout the year. Music lover? Check out the Bluegrass Festival and the Blues Festival. There’s a Greek festival in September, the Festival of Trees during the winter holiday season, even a Hispanic Fiesta Days.

Of course, should you be in Salt Lake in January, no visit to the area would be complete without taking in the internationally famous Sundance Film Festival, founded in 1981 by movie actor, director and producer Robert Redford to showcase up and coming movie directors and writers.

Mormon prophet Brigham Young and his followers founded Salt Lake City in 1847. The city now celebrates its Mormon heritage every summer with different events during the “Days of  '47" celebrations. If you’ve never seen a rodeo, the Days’ rodeo event is a must-see. And if you love parades, then you must be in town for the Days’ parade, which is one of the state’s oldest and largest parades, complete with clowns, bands and even a parade princess!

Salt Lake City is the headquarters for the Mormon Church (also known as the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints, or the LDS Church). As such, the city is home to many important Mormon buildings, including the famous Tabernacle, in Temple Square. The Tabernacle is where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs; some performances are open to the general public.

And yet another must-visit site is the Family History Library. Run by the LDS Church, it is considered by many to be the largest genealogical research center on the planet. Anyone may research their family history here and at no cost.
A great way to see how early Mormons really lived is a visit to This Is The Place Heritage Park, where the life of 19th century Mormons is recreated. The park gets its name from the famous words spoken by Brigham Young when he and his followers arrived in the area. The park is located where Young first saw the Salt Lake Valley.

Finally, any and all Olympics fans will want to visit Olympic Cauldron Park in the Rice-Eccles Stadium. It’s here where you’ll be able to see the Olympic Cauldron from the 200 2002 Winter Olympics. There’s also a terrific visitor’s center that will help you find other Olympic venues, many of which – such as the former site of the 2002 Games’ speed skating events – are now open to the public.