Let me tell you what - when we landed it was like being in a different world. Fun fact - did you know Utah is the Beehive State? Yeah, I didn't either, but they sure are proud of that little fact. Salt Lake City is a valley surrounded by huge mountains, mountains much steeper and taller than the mountains I knew in Virginia and West Virginia. Driving through those mountains (Park City is about 15 minutes from Salt Lake City) was vertigo-inducing. You really had no place to look but up. And both the hub and I were amazed by the sheer amount of fall color - bright golds and reds, mixed with huge silver pine trees.
We got to the hotel and checked in easily. I'm sure this place is amazing during the ski season, but it is stunning in the fall. The valet told us we picked the perfect weekend to see fall color, and he was right. It was everywhere you turned. The hotel room was posh, and had its own fireplace, and a television in the bathroom! We stepped onto the balcony and noticed that people were in the pool, which just seemed atrocious since it was barely 60 degrees. Come to find out that the pool is heated!
We unpacked, then made our way to the shuttle (which was actually a Mercedes SUV - seriously, I felt like a rock star in it), and checked out Park City, Utah. The first thing we experienced was the lack of oxygen. We were so high in altitude and neither of us were used to it. It is quaint for sure, with a Main Street lined with cute little shops. Though in glancing through the shops further, they are in fact for the snow bunnies who prefer to stay out of the snow on a ski trip. We picked up a magnet and a tee-shirt, and I got some new sunglasses, before heading back to the hotel.
This is the High West Distillery and Saloon, where we had dinner on Friday night. The food was incredible! We had a beer cheese appetizer, and the hub had an heirloom tomato and balsamic reduction salad, followed by a Niman Ranch burger; I had the Utah trout over a bed of greens.
We ended up sharing the shuttle with an older couple, who it turns out are from Salt Lake City. They asked what we were planning on seeing, and we named off a few places. Then the lady asked if we had seen the canyons. Honestly, it hadn't occurred to us. But she insisted we drive up the canyons, and wrote us out some directions.
We got up the next morning to go have breakfast (No Worries Grill - amazing food) and see the canyons - Little Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, and Alta. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it. These roads were STEEP, and the guardrails were far and few between. It was hard to absorb the overwhelming size of the mountain while being right next to it. We traveled up to 8,500 feet above sea level.
These yellow trees were everywhere. I think they are birch trees, and their color is intense, especially next to the dark evergreens.
SNOW. And more on the way.
We found this creek along the road and stopped to feel how cold the water is. It was freezing! But this was also a great spot to "give back to nature" (it's not like there are a ton of public restrooms) and for me to steal a couple of small rocks. I would have taken a ton more, because the backyard isn't going to landscape itself, but we didn't have the room or the weight accommodation in our luggage. Dang it all!
More on our adventures in Salt Lake City to follow!
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