SALT LAKE CITY and the fascinating Utah

[Klazu]

These days, my work takes me rather often to different parts of Utah, so I shall be posting some of my travel photos on this thread.

My second latest trip was in early May to visit our office deep in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. I had a early morning flight in and arrived to a spectacular view of the Wasatch Range, which is the eastern border of Salt Lake Valley.







Driving is the primary transportation method in Utah and it has been made incredibly easy. New road investments are common and Interstate 15 (not shown here), the main arterial through the entire metropolitan area, is between 12 and 14 lanes wide. It's something someone from Vancouver just cannot comprehend, although I do marvel driving on it.



There are so many things we don't have in Canada, like the legendary In-N-Out, which was a my place for lunch.





It's a simple menu.





Mount Timpanogos is the second tallest mountain on the Wasatch Range, rising some 11,752 ft (3,582 m) . With record snow on the mountain this winter, it was a sight to behold wherever one was.







Eating out





On my return day I had some time to kill, so I drove to Salt Lake City. The State Capitol has a nice view of downtown.















I didn't have that much time, so I only quickly walked few streets up and down in downtown. It's a rather small place but overall very clean.





I also have to give it to the SLC airport. The entire airport is getting not renovated, but fully rebuilt. I would wager that it is currently the most modern airport in United States and a pleasure to fly through.



That's one trip down with more to come.

[Wigs]

Thanks for the quick tour!
Man, I just love those Wasatch mountains. So impressive looking and so close to the city

Bonus: having such a modern airport looks like a great gateway to the city/region

[Murphy de la Sucre]

What kind of people driving BMW X5 in there? Is it an easy buy?pricewise

[Wigs]

Murphy, Salt Lake City Metro is overall a younger and wealthier area by North American standards.

The total Gross Metropolitan (Metro GDP) product is around $118.5B USD ($98.6B Real GDP) which is pretty impressive for a metro (MSA) of 1.25 Million people. Mormons make up about 45% of the MSA, and they are generally good at: producing children, and earning money

[Klazu]

On another recent trip I had few hours to spare to check out Kennecott Copper Mine, which is the largest man-made excavation and deepest open-pit mine in the world. Mining in the Bingham Canyon area has been ongoing without a break since 1903 and is slated to keep going for several more decades.





Beautiful view of the Salt Lake Valley below.







Rock crusher is where huge dump trucks dump all the rock hauled from the pit.







An eight-kilometer long conveyor belt takes the crushed rock to a concentrator, where the ore is floated to be pumped another 27 kilometres to a smelter, where it is enriched into 99.99% purity.





Huge equipment hauls rock around the clock, every day of the year. Kennecott Copper Mine has produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than 17 million tons. Other metals it produces on the side include tons of gold, silver, molybdenite and tellurium.







Is it impossible to grasp the size of the place from photos and how an entire mountain has been moved.





The main pit is four kilometres (2.5 miles) across and 1.2 kilometres (0.75 miles) deep.









Bottom of the pit is not even visible from the visitor outlook.



Rock walls can become unstable and there was a massive landslide in April 2013. Thanks to constant satellite monitoring, no lives were lost in this gigantic event and only some heavy equipment was lost.



The mine is visible not only from a plane, but all the way from international space station with naked eye.



It was a super cool place to visit and costs only $6, so a huge thumbs up for the experience. It is truly something else in person and something one is normally not able to experience anywhere so close to a major city.

[xzmattzx]

Interesting pictures so far!

[Wigs]

That copper mine is something else! Those huge trucks look like kids Tonka toys it's so massive

[geomorph]

I agree, the mine images are stunning.

[Comrade]

Cool photos!

For those who don't know - most the city photos were taken in Utah County, the Provo-Orem area, which is about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

The Kennecott Copper Mine is the deepest open-pit mine in the world and has produced more copper than any mine in history.

It's located in the south-west corner of the Salt Lake Valley.

[Evo5Boise]

Great pictures!! Thanks for posting. I love the SLC area. While In-N-Out is always a good stop, next time you're there, find yourself a Crown Burger. I really enjoy stopping there when I'm visiting.

[delts145]

A wonderful walk down memory lane. My hometown is at the base of that snowy mountain in the background. I hope to retire there someday, such a beautiful area. Thank you for the great pics, and I hope you'll keep them coming on your future visits.

[Klazu]

It's not just the Salt Lake City area that I get to visit on my trips and here is a cross-posting of previously posted photos from the desert town of Moab in South Utah.





The city only has a population of 5,300 but it still has a very lively little downtown.











There is even a year-round Food Truck Park with around a dozen great food vendors.





Colorado River flows by Moab and has some nice canyon views.





Moab is well-known as a mecca for 4x4 vehicles and you see so many heavily modded Jeeps and sand buggies casually driving around town.



There are many famous off-road trails in the area with Lion's Back being one of the most famous one. People have died driving up (and down!) the 65 degree incline.

• Video Link

• Video Link





Over one million people visit Moab annually due to its proximity to two national parks. We visited Arches National Park for an early morning hike to see sunrise over the red sand desert.







While temperatures of over 100F and +40C are common in the summer, mornings especially in October can have temperatures close to freezing.







The national park is most famous as the location of over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. Landscape Arch is the longest natural stone arch outside of China with length of 88,4 metres or 290 feet.









The final destination of our hike was Navajo Arch which looks different from all the others.







Red rock bathing in the morning sun.







On the way back we made a quick stop so see Sand Dune Arch which is located inside this rock formation.









Driving in before 6am it was still pitch black, so one couldn't tell how beautiful the scenery around us was before heading out of the national park.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Comrade

For those who don't know - most the city photos were taken in Utah County, the Provo-Orem area, which is about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

That's right. Our office is in the Lehi - American Fork area, which is also known as "Silicon Slopes". So, I spend most of my trips there and with views like this, I do not regret the location one bit.

Originally Posted by Evo5Boise

Great pictures!! Thanks for posting. I love the SLC area. While In-N-Out is always a good stop, next time you're there, find yourself a Crown Burger. I really enjoy stopping there when I'm visiting.

Thanks for the tip! It seems that SLC has almost every burger chain in the country. On my latest trip I tried Zaxby's, Super Chix (really liked it!) and Culver's. I will add Crown Burger on my list for the next trip in January.

Originally Posted by delts145

A wonderful walk down memory lane. My hometown is at the base of that snowy mountain in the background. I hope to retire there someday, such a beautiful area.

Really cool! It's a beautiful area but especially Lehi and American Fork are changing so quickly that one probably cannot recognize it anymore. I am also being told that fast population growth has made affordability a huge issue these days, which seems to be such a common story.

[Klazu]

Earlier this month, I once again found myself back in town and just in time to see the beautiful autumn colors.



Mount Timpanogos is the second tallest mountain in Utah at 11,752 feet (3,582 meters) tall and always a majestic sight, especially after a dusting of fresh snow.







Timpanogos is actually so tall that I hadn't previously noticed forests down its slopes that were now completely red due autumn.





Before heading back home, I had few hours to kill and decided to drive up the American Fork Canyon.



Up there, autumn colors were definitely on!









Tibble Fork Reservoir is a beautiful picnic spot deep in the Wasatch Range.



Water level was very low as it is the very end of summer, but the reservoir will soon start filling up again.



The colors were just out of this world!





As discussed in other posts, there is so much junk food to enjoy in Utah that I think I always gain few kilos during my trips.







And that was it for October! My next trip will be in January, which should again look a bit different than this.

[Wigs]

Utah is gorgeous. On your drive up the American Fork canyon that looks like prime cougar/mountain lion habitat, rocky outcrops, beautiful streams.

The Mormons forgo everyday vices like coffee so they make up for it with fast food and junk food, desserts

[skizzo]

Amazing pictures!

Utah is a fabulous state

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by Wigs

The Mormons forgo everyday vices like coffee so they make up for it with fast food and junk food, desserts

The SLC coffee scene is actually amazing. Better than Denver's, imo.

[AviationGuy]

In my travels, I haven't found a more beautiful place that Utah, particularly the southern part of the state.

[Klazu]

As anticipated, I was back in Utah last month and this time I got to spend some time in Salt Lake City itself.



The Grand America Hotel is the most prestigious hotel in the state and its interior oozes Old World charm, which is why it is so surprising to learn that the hotel was built in 2001.











It being Sunday, basically all stores in Salt Lake City are closed due to religious reasons and Downtown is dead. Unfortunately this made the homeless population and drug addicts a lot more visible than they have ever been on my previous trips.













On Sundays it is possible to go listen to a free organ recital at the historical Tabernacle, which is said to be one of the acoustically best buildings in the world.







I hadn't previously visited The Gateway which used to be a popular open-air shopping center but has since morphed into more of an entertainment center. Even it was very quiet on a Sunday afternoon.







Clark Planetarium is a strong recommend, being completely free. The IMAX theater is also very good and I killed some time watching a new James Webb Space Telescope document.







Sundance Film Festival was happening on that week and a cinema megaplex in The Gateway was one of the locations.







Just by luck, I happen to stumble upon The Friends Experience, which was in town for the last week. Thinking it could be really cool, I paid the high entry price to check it out.









The sets are fun and can make for some funny photos, but overall the experience was still disappointing and not worth the price.







PIVOT!!





This was another work trip, but there was some fun being had as well.





More photos to come as more trips will likely happen.

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures!