Unique things to experience in and around Salt Lake City
The Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Salt Flats, Maven District and Temple Square are worth seeking out
By Mindy Sink | Special to The Denver Post
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At first, Salt Lake City seems a lot like Denver but with wider streets, and much closer to the mountains. But there is a deep history and unique outdoor recreation opportunities worth exploring that give this city a distinct personality.
Only a 90-minute nonstop flight from Denver (available on multiple airlines), Salt Lake City is best experienced by car. Sure, it’s an option to stay in the downtown area and walk to many of the recommended sights, but there is a lot to explore outside of downtown, too.
Start with this city’s namesake: the Great Salt Lake. It’s the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest in the world, and is about a 20-minute drive from downtown.
But due to climate change, the lake is rapidly disappearing, so check on what activities — boating, swimming, riding bikes along the shoreline, hiking — are available before you plan a visit there.
There are tours that depart from downtown Salt Lake City that will take visitors to the lake’s Antelope Island State Park (in the lake via boat or driveable on the causeway) where wildlife — including bison, bighorn sheep, migratory birds and pronghorn antelope — live. The current water levels will determine what tours are operating, particularly boat tours.
If you have the time, drive an additional 90 minutes to the Spiral Jetty, a massive land art sculpture by artist Robert Smithson that was built in 1970 on the northeast end and remained covered during years of high water but is now visible.
The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of a prehistoric lake called Lake Bonneville, and there is still a Bonneville Shoreline with a trail that can be walked. If you drive 90 minutes directly west of downtown Salt Lake City, you will find the Bonneville Salt Flats, another remnant of this lake. Here, instead of a lake, visitors see the remaining mineral crust. It is something of an optical illusion, stretching out across the land under the bright sun. These are the only salt flats in North America.
(Tip: When visiting either of these places, bring plenty of water to drink, sunscreen and a hat, and be respectful of these natural resources for the wildlife and future visitors.)
Back in the city, learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka LDS or the Mormon Church) at Temple Square. Renovations on the Salt Lake Temple will continue through 2026, with interior tours currently planned to begin in April 2027. For those with a keen eye for religious and historic architecture, or a connection to the church, this might be of great interest. However, the square is like a well-maintained public park in the heart of the city, where you can wander between and into other charming buildings, and stop in at the original FamilySearch Center, the largest genealogical library in the world.
The Salt Lake City Tabernacle building includes a massive historic organ; the choir practice is open to the public. While not the only Mormon Tabernacle in the country, it is the largest one, and there are performances as well.
My personal favorite place in Salt Lake City to learn more about the LDS Church is the Gilgal Sculpture Garden. It was once the backyard of Thomas Battersby Child Jr., whose passion for his religion was expressed through a series of massive stone sculptures he made, including one with the face of church founder Joseph Smith on the body of an Egyptian sphinx. Child hired another sculptor to make a life-size statue of him, which includes pants made of bricks and a stone jacket.
This is true folk art and worth a visit, with time for reading inscriptions as well. Although you can stop by for free during the day, check the website for guided tours.
Salt Lake City’s core downtown is a mix of malls, a convention center, hotels (with rooftop views!) and museums. For a local neighborhood vibe, make your way to the Maven District. This special spot claims to have the “largest community of women-owned businesses in the world” with restaurants, bookstores, fitness and co-working spaces, and some cute boutiques.
Swing by Acrely Farms for some locally-grown CBD salves and other body care products or stop in at Tandoori Taqueria for a memorable lunch. Don’t miss the street murals alleyway!
Dirty soda is becoming less unique to Utah by the day as the trend is popping up in shops outside of Utah, but it got its start here thanks to the LDS church’s prohibition on alcohol and caffeine. Locals got creative and before you know it, they were mixing all kinds of sodas and coffee creamers. This now-booming business concept was started south of Salt Lake in St. George, by a female entrepreneur. Swig is the biggest and most popular dirty soda chain in the area.
About those wide streets: Without knowing street measurements across the country, it’s hard to say how unique Salt Lake City’s wide downtown streets are, but you do notice it. Many online sources claim the decision to make these streets about 132 feet wide (more than twice as wide as other cities) was to give a horse- or ox-drawn wagon plenty of room to turn around without using profanity, which is also banned by the church. These days, hastily crossing these extra-wide intersections might lead to the use of some choice words by motorists, however.