Summer Adventures in Salt Lake City

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve made a new post. My life in 2023 has been so out of control and indecisive I couldn’t even fathom how to narrate it! For a quick recap — I’ve been in and out of New Zealand on standby twice, I spent three months taking orchestra auditions back in the states, and I worked for a month in Charleston; South Carolina for the Spoleto Music Festival.

When Spoleto concluded in early June a fun distraction presented itself. A good friend of mine who is on a touring Broadway show invited me to stay with her in Salt Lake City for a couple of weeks. I LOVE mountains and I’ve wanted to visit Salt Lake for years — this was the perfect opportunity to check it out on a budget!

Arriving in Salt Lake the dry summer weather was a welcome change from the constant rain in New Zealand, the snowy winter in Wisconsin, and the muggy heat in Charleston (though I should have bought a hand cream for my stay). Salt Lake sees a lot of sunshine in the summer — I hadn’t seen so much sun in the entire first six months of the year!

My friend’s company put her up at a hotel downtown. Since I typically frequent basic backpacker hostels it was a luxury for me to spend a couple weeks in a proper hotel. The hot tub may have been broken, but the continental breakfast and in-room kitchenette were definitely nice.

I spent the first few days exploring downtown. Now, I’ll get this out of the way real fast — I don’t love the city part of Salt Lake City. The streets felt disturbingly wide with little natural shade. Even downtown felt like it was a suburb, and like many American cities the urban sprawl is real. Public transit was decent, and it could typically get me where I wanted to go (including the airport).

I did find the park directly south of the Utah state capital to be a fun place to chill. I envisioned having a golden hour picnic here, but my friends were always heading to work in the evening. (I did end up spending my final evening here, no picnic, but with music to vibe to).

The most impressive feature of Salt Lake City is its unrivaled access to nature. Simply put, there’s no other major US city with such glorious hikes and mountain peaks within a 15-35 minute drive. To the east is the Wasatch National Forest, and to the west is the Great Salt Lake. During the entirety of my stay I kept comparing my experience to the visits I’ve had in Denver, where the mountains are over an hour away from the city (typically far more with traffic).

The first big hike of my stay probably should have been saved for last. As one local put it: “a lot of people who live here have never done it” –– “it” of course referring to Mt. Olympus. This city-side trail is practically vertical from start to finish, and I was NOT ready for the elevation gain.

A stream flowing 1/4 the way up saved me from passing out, as I was already running low on water. I pulled it together for the final portion of the hike, which was all boulder climbing. The view from the top was epic — with the city, the Great Salt Lake, and snowy mountain peaks all visible from the 360 degree lookout.

One day my friend got a rental car and we journeyed 90 minutes west to the Bonneville Salt Flats, a large expanse of salt that was once part of the lake. I had seen pink salt flats in Turkey a few years back, but I was blown away by these in Utah. The Bonneville flats are often used for car commercials, and there were many tourists driving their own cars out there. For photography purposes the strong light at mid-day was perfect to bring out the intense white of the salt.

Eventually I wanted to rent a car for myself, mostly to reach hiking spots within the Wasatch National Forest. The price of a rental was cheap, with my rate being $43/day. I generally found prices in Salt Lake to be quite reasonable (except for in the fancy ski town of Park City). I think the Mormon church has cast somewhat of a shadow over Utah, and people elsewhere in America seem to use it as an excuse not to visit. But that’s fine with me, I appreciate the lack of crowds and good prices!

The first thing my friends and I did with the car was visit Antelope Island state park. Located on the Great Salt Lake, this island felt like another world while simultaneously reminding me of real, distant places (i.e. Queenstown, New Zealand and the Komodo Islands in Indonesia). Just simply driving south on the island was one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever had!

In the final days with my car I ventured off to experience some of the best hiking the region has to offer. One of Salt Lake’s best alpine lake hikes — Lake Blanche, was only a 30-ish minute drive from downtown. I got up early to do this hike, starting at 8:00 AM and arriving to the post-card ready summit with Sundial Peak by around 10:30. I had never hiked to an alpine lake, and this was a memorable first. There were two additional lakes just nearby, and I spent a couple of hours wandering the area and enjoying a simple packed lunch.

Later that same afternoon I drove just 12 minutes down the road for a shorter, but no less beautiful hike up to Willow Lake. The appeal of this trail isn’t as much the lake itself, but the abundant Aspen trees that comprise the forest. I was exhausted from 6+ hours of hiking already that day, but the warm afternoon sunshine made for gorgeous trail photos.

A second day of hiking gave me a completely different experience. For this hike I drove to the Brighton ski resort, where I parked my car and walked directly up the ski hill and onto the trail to lakes Mary, Martha, and Catherine. While the Lake Blanche trail had no snow cover, this one from Brighton was a patch-work of snow. (For this reason, check the weather and ask about potential snow cover ahead of time –– given the conditions this hike was not easy, or family friendly!)

On the ascent I made my way from one picturesque lake to another, all while DIY’ing my way to try and avoid snow patches. It was surprisingly still warm as I reached Lake Catherine at the top, despite the surrounding snow. The descent was more chaotic. I gave no consideration to where the trail was, and was full-on making my own way — sliding down safely where I could (all while keeping an eye out for black bears).

By the end of my nine day stay I felt that I had seen the best of the Salt Lake City region’s nature. I don’t typically visit US cities for such long periods of time, as they are never budget friendly — but I’m grateful to my friend for sharing her space with me.

This trip has inspired me to eventually do more exploration of the USA, and its national and state parks. As someone who typically spends more time traveling abroad than domestically I was reminded how beautiful my own country is — there’s so much color and variation, particularly here in the American west!

Up Next: “Copán Ruinas, Honduras“