Salt Lake City
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Salt Lake City - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Salt Lake City - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Rolling grassy hills, athletic fields, multiple playgrounds, a creek, and a pond provide plenty of room to fly a kite or have a picnic at this big and popular neighborhood park. Take in stunning mountain views or head to the hill on the south end of the park—a go-to destination for sledding in winter. Odd fact: the park once housed a federal prison famous for incarcerating Utah's polygamists.
Although the Salt Lake Temple just to the west is Salt Lake's most prominent religious landmark, this 1909 cathedral stands high above the city's north side and is a stunning house of worship in its own right. The exterior sports gargoyles, and its Gothic interior showcases bright frescoes, intricate wood carvings, and a 4,066-pipe organ. The highly regarded Madeleine children's choir gives concerts regularly (especially during the Christmas season).
Sometimes dubbed Salt Lake City's "living room," the John W. Gallivan Center anchors downtown and offers an amphitheater, ice rink, and various art projects, and it hosts numerous events, including popular Food Truck Thursdays and several annual festivals. Down the stairs on the south side of this bustling plaza, you'll also find a strip of popular fast-casual restaurants, including Monkeywrench ice cream and Bangkok Terrace.
Salt Lake's only museum devoted to the convergence of science, art, and technology hosts large-scale national touring exhibits as well as hands-on permanent exhibits dedicated to inspiring the imaginations of children. In this former library building, you'll be greeted by a main-floor lab space where revolving artists-in-residence offer a variety of free programs for kids to sculpt with clay, draw, design, or write. Head upstairs to the workshop, where volunteers help you build with repurposed household objects and deconstructed electronics.
The Salt Lake City Tabernacle, also known simply as the Tabernacle, is home to the famous Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and an impressive organ with 11,623 pipes. Visitors can hear organ recitals Monday through Saturday at noon (and also at 2 pm across the street in the Conference Center) and Sunday at 2 pm. You're also welcome Thursday from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm to listen to the choir rehearse Sunday hymns, as well as from 9:30 am to 10 am as the choir performs for the world's longest-running continuous network broadcast, Music and the Spoken Word. During the summer months, choir rehearsals and Music and the Spoken Word take place at the Conference Center.
Brigham Young and his band of Mormon followers descended into the Salt Lake Valley here. On July 24, 1847 (now a statewide holiday that is bigger than July 4 in many communities), he famously declared that this was the place for the Latter-day Saints to end their cross-country trek. A 60-foot-tall statue of Young, Heber Kimball, and Wilford Woodruff stands prominently in the park, which includes Heritage Village, a re-created 19th-century community and visitor center. In summer, volunteers dressed in period clothing demonstrate what Mormon pioneer life was like. You can watch artisans at work in historic buildings and take wagon or train rides around the compound. A 20-minute movie at the visitor center depicts the pioneers' trek across America.
Easily walkable for even the smallest kids, this family-friendly facility in gracious Liberty Park features more than 100 species of birds found on the Western Hemispheric Flyway, a migratory pattern that includes Great Salt Lake. You will see emus, bald eagles, flamingos, parrots, several types of waterfowl, and maybe even a wandering peacock. There are bird shows and educational activities daily.
From 1908 to 1945 this sprawling redbrick structure held nearly 150 trolleys and electric trains for the Utah Light and Railway Company. As trolleys fell out of use, the facility was closed. In the early 1970s the mission-style edifice was completely overhauled. Today it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and houses a Whole Foods Market in addition to dozens of boutiques and restaurants.
Spanning 74,000 square feet and offering more than 20 galleries, this well-regarded art museum on the University of Utah campus contains a vast permanent collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman relics, Italian Renaissance and other European paintings, and Chinese ceramics and scrolls. Special exhibits are mounted regularly, and a café and a sculpture court offer further diversions.
Now a 75-acre park and living history museum with numerous historic structures and a country store selling snacks, toys, and farm-related gifts, this verdant oasis and still-working farm on Little Cottonwood Creek in suburban Murray was settled in 1898 and is one of the only pioneer-era farmsteads left in the metro area. Activities here include cow-milking, observing the farm animals, tours of the impressive Victorian homestead (which is packed with farming implements and artifacts), and wagon rides and easy hikes on an extensive trail network. A very popular farmers' market is held here on summer Sundays. There's no charge to walk around the property, but tours and various activities have small fees.
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