Salt Lake City, Utah

After we left Ogallala, NE, we spent one night in Rawlins, WY. Not much going on there!

Following are some pictures of our trip after we left Rawlins. It was a beautiful drive through Wyoming. Lots of smoke for most of our trip, so far. That is really interfering with my picture taking!

Another truck runaway ramp…

Our next stop was Salt Lake City. We spent 2 nights there. On Tuesday, we took a city tour of Salt Lake City. It was very interesting to learn how the Mormons settled there. Actually, it’s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some refer to it as the LDS. There are about 1 million Mormons in Salt Lake City. That’s about 30% of the population. They originally settled in an area that is now called Pioneer Park. There’s not much to see as they are trying to renovate it.

All the trees in Salt Lake City have been planted by the residents. None of them grew there naturally.

We went past several landmarks of the city.

Home of the Utah Jazz.

The University of Utah

The Family History Library. Anyone, of any religion, can use this facility to look up their family genealogy. It would be interesting to have time to go in and look up our family’s history!

One of our stops was the Heritage Park. “This is the Place” where Brigham Young decided that he and his followers would settle. There were original buildings, and also recreated ones.

From there we went to Temple Square, where the Mormon Tabernacle, the Temple, and all the Mormon administrative buildings are. It is referred to as the Vatican of the Mormon church. There is a concrete wall around the square. It covers 35 acres and is in the downtown area. All the streets in Salt Lake City are configured from Temple Square. That is the center of the grid and addresses are figured from there.

We were hoping to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it wasn’t to be!! Rats!! We were there on the wrong day. We did get to go into the Tabernacle and see the absolutely beautiful organ!

There was to be an organ recital there that afternoon, but it was moved to the Convention Center. It didn’t matter as that organ was just as awesome. We heard a recital by Andrew Unsworth. It was awesome! (John won’t quite agree, but he stayed awake for it!) It was only 1/2 hour long, but showed all that that organ can do.

The choir sits just below the pipes. The orchestra is on the front of the stage.

The grounds are beautiful! Lots of flower beds!

The Temple is off limits, especially to tourists. The building is beautiful and has a gold angel on the top spire. We were told that this gold angle is the only statue ever displayed by the LDS. The second and last picture shows the reflecting pond in front of it.

One house on the property is The Beehive House, where Brigham Young lived and had his offices.

The Lion House was built for Brigham Young’s wives and children.

After spending some time in Temple Square, we headed to the State Capitol. What an awesome building, too! This is the second largest capitol building in the US. Following are some pictures of the rotunda, different sides of the building and parts of the interior.