Salt Lake City - Apart from the Lake

Salt Lake City also has a couple of canyons around, not all too surprising given the number of mountain ranges and lakes that seem to be around. We visited the larger of two famous canyons - Little Cottonwood Canyon, giving the smaller - Big Cottonwood Canyon (ah, irony? wit?) - a miss. There was an aerial tram ride (sort of like a cable car ride for a large number of people) to the peak, Hidden Peak, which was 11,000 feet above sea level. In a manner of speaking, that's like getting to Everest Base Camp, or so I thought. Everest Base Camp is actually at an elevation of nearly 18,000 feet!

I was a little apprehensive about this, because we were attired to stand in the waters at the beach, not to hike along Everest Base Camp (or a little below relatively speaking). But it was a really hot day (we both tanned, quite a bit) and the weather at the base was very bearable. So we bit the bullet and went along - and it was really quite doable! As much as I'd like to suggest that I withstood Everest Base Camp (or an American version) in beachwear, the temperature was probably not below 10 to 12 degrees at any point in the twenty minutes that we were there. 

After this wonderful achievement, we went back to our base camp, our hotel room. After a short break again, we headed back to the city, to the famous Mormon church around which this city was built. This church was built in the late 19th century, and has been laid out in a number of buildings collectively called the Temple Square. Visitors are also allowed to roam their beautiful gardens, and there are a few visitor centres to provide further information to interested visitors.

Salt Lake City was beautiful! But now, onwards to the Rocky Mountains! :)