Salt Lake City, Utah. It invests itself and its beliefs on the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, and ancestry. Its people are very passionate about the history of their ancestors and the close family traditions that have been passed down generations. It inspires them to be as religious and devote as they are. Though it strikes you as a fairly average city, with a shopping centre downtown and your usual Starbucks, the hills surrounding you left right and centre remind you that you aren’t quite in New York. The temperature is sizzling hot and quite humid, the streets are very wide, the buildings are low and the city itself is rather small. The downtown itself is very concentrated and quickly dissolves as you walk just one or two streets away from the main square. The hills and mountains, though at a distance, are easily seen from any point in the city, no matter how central: the buildings are that low and there is that much unutilised space. Just lots of empty space.

 

As I walked out of the airport, the heat was unbearably hot. It had been hot in Santa Fe and many other places, but it reached around 33 degrees Celsius and was incredibly humid. It was very easy to get from the airport to my accommodation. I hopped on a tram/train which dropped me just one block away from the hostel (fortunately, since I was carrying my very heavy bag and the heat made just walking one block difficult enough). Sadly, the hostel was very impersonal. There were no staff on site, and check-in was done with codes and basic computers. The hostel had very strict rules about check-in and check-out, and was very small with no social aspect or opportunity to meet other travellers. With nothing to do but explore, I headed straight downtown to visit Temple Square. The Temple itself had beautiful features and was very well maintained. The Mormons would come here on a regular basis to keep up their familial traditions and feel closer to G-d. There was the visitors centre and the Family Centre were you could discover your ancestry and map out your family tree. A harmonic Gospel choir sang daily at the Church.

 

Having seen most of Salt Lake City is the one day that I had been exploring, I decided last minute to visit Park City, which is just a one-hour drive away, but is known for having hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. There are some world-class ski-slopes there, so it is a very popular haunt for sports enthusiasts and those looking for an adventurous escape. Of course, it was summer at this time of year, so instead of the mountains being swamped by skiers, they were instead used by mountain bikers and hikers. So on my second day in Utah, I sat in a coffee shop working on my blog and report, since the first bus was not until late in the afternoon.

 

The hostel in Park City was much more welcoming and also much bigger than that in Salt Lake City! Since the skiing town attracts so many visitors over the summer, many are travellers or students, so the hostel has a lot of capacity for this demand! At this time of year, I was only one of the three or four people staying in the hostel. Nevertheless, there were a cohort of staff who organised activities and events for visitors and were very easy-going and welcoming. I walked with the hostel staff to a local skate park, and the staff all hung up their hammocks between trees and sat swaying with a beer in their hand. This was the vibe of Park City during the summer. Teenagers came for the easy life. They came to spend their time with friends, lounging around, taking a break, skiing, skating or some other physical activity. The skate park was popular and talented boys with long hair reaching their shoulders showed off their skills with friends. I heard a lot of “dude”, “awesome” and “right on” slang. When I returned to the hostel that evening, we all sat a while talking and getting to know Utah and what there is to do there.

 

In the morning, for the first full day in Park City, I woke at 7:15am, having not had much sleep however. A shower, a mug of coffee, and a big bowl of oatmeal energised me for the day ahead. On the agenda: hiking. The hike was 4 hours in total. I hiked along the Armstrong trail, Mid Mountain and Iron Trail. After a slight detour, I somehow managed to find out way back and located a very steep route down which would quickly get me back to civilisation. Usually reserved as ski slopes, the snow was almost non-existent so it was more useful for hiking at that time of year. As I walked, I passed men whose everyday job it was to chop down precarious trees and maintain the forest. The fleur and fauna was different from elsewhere – everywhere, there were Aspen trees. They are popular in Utah, and believe it or not, there is a colony of these trees known to be 80,000 years old. They are usually very tall and very thin, but strong to support itself and stand very upright. They are distinctive thanks to their stark white bark and rustic black cuts. If I hadn’t bumped into the maintenance men on our detour, I would have continued down a 7km hike! And all that time I thought I was heading for the end of the trail at the bottom.

 

I had somehow made it into a residential area, but the roads were a long way to follow down. Just in time, a car passed me and the couple inside asked about the hike we had just completed. I recognised the girl inside the car – she had just been on the bus to Park City with me the day before. Small world!

 

Once back down, I headed into the main town, which is usually alive and incredibly busy during the winter and Christmas period. It is all you would expect of a ski resort: chalets, small boutique winter stores, and cosy bars to grab a pint in. I walked along the Main Street, grabbed some ice-cream, wandered around the book store and took in the atmosphere. The houses in Park City were large but impressively built and constructed with beautiful wood to withstand the winter days. Not many lived here, so when they did, they had a lot of space and the property was at the higher end of the market.

 

For the evening, I returned to Salt Lake City with a friend to test out their bars and nightlife. IPA is a popular drink in America, much more so in comparison to the UK, and can be as popular as beer. However, the night life is not too lively and the night quickly fades.