More from Park City (Park City, Utah)

I’m guessing that on Wednesday, Aug 22nd, we did the two most traditional activities in the Salt Lake City area. We began our day visiting Temple Square. I think it’s accurate to say that Temple Square is the showcase, the heart and the headquarters of the Mormon Church.

It encompasses 35 acres and includes endless gardens with truly spectacular flowers,

 fountains,

THE Temple of the church,

historical buildings, the genuine headquarters building and a conference center that seats 21,000 people and has 9 acres of gardens on the roof.

Those trees are on the roof of the convention center

According to one website Debbie checked, Temple Square receives five million visitors annually, more than the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park!

We started with the Visitor Center. It was interesting, with lots of spiritual stuff and an impressive model of the Temple showing the many rooms inside the temple, which non-Mormons are not permitted to enter.

From there we roamed the grounds on our own.  Lastly, we got a brief (at our request) tour of the conference center and rooftop gardens. Since 9/11 all guests are escorted through the building.
While researching this portion of our day (we all know that means Debbie) we read on line numerous comments from folks who said they received a lot of pressure from Mormon missionaries. We didn’t find that to be true at all. The few people we did speak with were simply pleasant.

From there we headed to the Great Salt Lake, specifically Antelope Island State Park. The island comprises 28,022 acres and is 15 x 4.5 miles. According to the Utah State Parks website, in 1969 Antelope Island State Park was created with the purchase of 2,000 acres on the northern tip of Antelope Island. In 1981, the rest of the island was purchased for recreational purposes. Prior to becoming a state park the island was dominated by varied agricultural activities. The ride there is across a narrow two lane causeway with magnificent views and lots of shorebirds.



The Fielding Garr Ranch is a great intact ranch that is free to tour.  Again, according to the website,  this ranch is distinctive for two reasons: first, it is the oldest continually inhabited Anglo home in the state of Utah (from 1848 to 1981 when the island became a state park), and second, it is the oldest Anglo built house in Utah still on its original foundation.

Check out the curtain rod brackets

How clever!

Quite interesting.  There’s also a Visitor Center where a variety of birds appear to love to hang out,

What a cutie!

a beach, the salty lake, some buffalo (I know, they’re really Bison), some hiking trails (we did a short but steep hike that took us to a panoramic overlook), two campgrounds and unique views.

Like the Mormon stuff (I say respectfully) people on line said they were bothered by biting flies and gnats. We didn’t have flies but OMG the gnats. As we walked toward the lake it looked like the dirt on the beach was moving. But no, this was like 100 trillion gnats per square inch getting into position for the kill. In reality, they didn’t bite but I guess if you’re a gnat your job is to hover at the ankles and work their way up on any available human.

 

Yes, those are gnats!



We stayed on the beach about a nano second and departed. The gnats win! The island is one of those sites with unique scenery coupled with an interesting history.   From there we headed home, stopped at Walmart then back to the camper at Jordanelle State Park.

Duane