Salt Lake City : Utah Jazz and The Backyardigans
Posted by admin on Oct 21, 2008
Olympic Cauldron Salt Lake City - Courtesy upload.wikimedia.org
Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City is the gateway to the state’s renowned ski resorts, scenic national parks and recreational areas. Well-known as a ski destination it has the credentials for hosting the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Skiers continue to flock here to enjoy world-class facilities and the “greatest snow on earth.” With close proximity to several world-class ski and summer resorts, including Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley, and Snowbird the place attracts tourists from all over. Resorts here cater to them each year besides offering year-round activities. The scene gets so hectic that its best making reservations early on through Salt Lake City Downtown Hotel site to get a foothold.
This populous mid-west city christened S.L.C. for short is also known as the Crossroads of the West. Besides its strong outdoor-recreation tourist industry backdrop it is famous as an industrial banking center. SLC’s modern economy has turned service-oriented with trade, transportation, utilities, professional and business services besides tourism, conventions, and its suburban call centers. Tourism has increased rapidly here over the years having brought many hotels and restaurants in wake. The convention industry has also expanded considerably since the construction of the Salt Palace convention center, holding trade shows and conventions. This aside the historic Mormon Temple Square is a popular tourist attraction and the city also offers lively entertainment and nightlife.
Salt Lake is home to several museums. Near Temple Square is the Museum of Church History and Art. Operated by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the museum contains collections of artifacts, documents, art, photographs, tools, clothing and furniture from the history of the LDS Church which spans nearly two centuries! The Great Salt Lake is separated from Salt Lake City by extensive marshlands and mudflats. The Jordan River flows through the city and is a drainage of Utah Lake that empties into the Great Salt Lake.
The highest mountaintop visible from Salt Lake City is Twin Peaks, which reaches 11,489 feet. Twin Peaks is located southeast of Salt Lake in the Wasatch Range. The second-highest mountain range is the Oquirrhs, reaching a maximum height of 10,620 feet at Flat Top. The Traverse Mountains to the south extend to 6,000 feet connecting the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains. The mountains near Salt Lake City are easily visible from the city and have sharp vertical relief caused by massive ancient earthquakes.
The Salt Lake Valley floor is the ancient lakebed of Lake Bonneville which existed at the end of the last Ice Age. Several Lake Bonneville shorelines can be distinctly seen on the foothills or benches of nearby mountains. The climate of Salt Lake City is characterized as a semi-arid steppe climate with four distinct seasons. Both summer and winter are long, with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters, and with spring and fall serving as brief but comfortable transition periods. Salt Lake City features large variations in temperatures between seasons. During mid-winter, strong areas of high pressure often situate themselves over the Great Basin, leading to strong temperature inversions. Aside from occasional heavy snows in winter, severe weather is very rare.
Tourist attractions in Salt Lake abound. Museums here include the Utah State Historical Society, Daughters of Utah Pioneer Memorial Museum, Fort Douglas Military Museum, and the Social Hall Heritage Museum. Salt Lake City provides many venues for both professional and amateur theater. The city attracts many traveling Broadway and off-Broadway performances. Local professional acting companies include the Pioneer Theater Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and Plan-B Theater Company. The Off Broadway Theater, located in Salt Lake’s historic Clift Building, features comedy plays and Utah’s longest running comedy troupe, Laughing Stock.
Salt Lake City has begun to host its own events in the last few years, most notably the Friday Night Flicks, free movies in the City’s parks, as well as the Mayor’s health and fitness awareness program, Salt Lake City Gets Fit. To add variety and an international taste to the music fans, events such as the annual Thyagaraja Music Festival of Utah are held in Salt Lake City. First Night on New Year’s Eve, a celebration emphasizing family-friendly entertainment and activities held at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah, culminates with a fireworks display at midnight.
The Olympic Cauldron Park, located at Rice-Eccles Stadium, features the Olympic Cauldron from the games, a visitor’s center, and the Hoberman Arch. The Olympic Legacy Plaza, located at the Gateway District, features a dancing fountain set to music and the names of 30,000 Olympic volunteers carved in stone. The Utah Olympic Park, located near Park City, features the Olympic ski jumps, as well as bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton runs. Today, the Olympic Park is used for year-round training and competitions. Visitors to the park can watch the various events that occur and even ride a bobsled. The Utah Olympic Oval, located in nearby Kearns, was home to the speed skating events and is now open to the public. Other popular Olympic venues include Soldier Hollow, the site of cross-country skiing events, located southeast of Salt Lake near Heber City.
Visitors can go through the story of Salt Lake city’s settlement and growth thats written on the historic buildings of its downtown. The Historic Downtown Salt Lake city Walking Tour identifies 58 historic buildings and sites encompassing over 100 years of the City’s history and architecture. Each building or site is identified with a numbered sign explaining its significance. A recommended route for seeing all the buildings and sites in shown on the map. However, one can start at any point and view the buildings and sites in any order. Also at hand are free downtown buses or the TRAX light rail on Main Street to return to the starting point. Coming attractions for the next few weeks include Utah Jazz with their series of Basketball Games and the Backyardigans showcasing Celine Dion in Salt Lake City, Utah on Nov 21, 2008 at the Capitol Theatre.