Or anyone who has traveled throughout there... I would LOVE some tips/tricks/recommendations of places to stay, charge, etc. for our Summer Grand Canyon 2020 Road Trip. (Attached is our tentative map- all the markers are chargers along our route for our car!) We are planning to drive east into Montana, then down I-15, at least getting to southern ID or Northern UT the first travel day. We'll probably explore Salt Lake City area a bit too! We KNOW we want to tour Zion, Four Corners, Natural Bridges Monument & Arches (the last three probably on our way home FROM the Grand Canyon!) We have 7-10 days & prefer NOT to camp- actually prefer to support hotels with Tesla destination chargers. So -- 1. WHERE SHOULD WE STAY IN/AROUND Salt Lake City (going, and coming back home...) 2. WHAT SHOULD WE DO in Salt Lake City vicinity? FYI, we are not LDS, but live across from a temple here in Spokane- the architecture & such in SLC I'm sure is amazing right? TIA!
There are some really cool buildings in the Salt Lake Area. The Salt Lake temple is cool to see because of it's age and the architecture, especially when you consider that time it was built. However, that said, it's also under construction so I'm not sure how much of it is visible. Temple Square is a beautiful place with a large reflecting pool and pretty gardens. The judge building says "Jvdge" still which is cool. The library is a one of my favorite cool architecture places. There are so many cool skylights. It's worth walking through. It was designed by a famous architect. If you need a place to relax and let the kids run, Liberty Park is awesome. It's huge and has a few different playgrounds as well as walking areas, and is connected to Tracy Aviary if you like birds. It's small, but cute. If you have a pass to other places, it might be part of the reciprocal agreement. You can also go to U of U and see the Olympic Cauldron which is kinda cool. Not up close, just from the street. Random fun: There's still a drive in. I don't know if you ever went as a kid or have had a chance to take your kids, but depending on the movies, it's a fun, cheap thing to do. Food: I recommend the Pie Pizzeria if you like pizza. It's delicious. Apollo Burger or Crown Burger are local 'fast foodish' places with pastrami burgers. Fry Sauce is a Utah original. Do you have those TexMex salad places in Spokane? They are all over Utah - Cafe Rio and Costa Vida. For places to stay, it depends on what you are looking for. Honestly, depending on where you are visiting and what you want to see, you can really stay in most places along I-15: Salt Lake, Sandy, or Lehi, Orem, Provo. Do not stay in West Valley City. I know there was a Tesla service place in Salt Lake and another one in South Salt Lake. I bet they could tell you which hotels have chargers? The Spokane temple is one of the newer ones. You can play "Spot the Temple" from the car on your way down I-15. (I'm not joking....). Salt Lake and St. George both have really old ones which are cool to see. Of course, both are under construction, but I'm not sure if you can still see the outside right now? Or if there's scaffolding. Beaver Utah has a Creamery. It's a nice break from the road. There's information inside explaining how milk becomes ice cream. And there's really good ice cream to buy. Also, if you like dirty jokes, you can find a ton in Beaver merchandise. @gonewiththewind what were your favorite Utah sites that you saw?
Unfortunately, I was only in Salt Lake City for a short time. I managed to arrange a visit to Temple Square on the way to the airport. It was worth the visit. The flowers were amazing. I love all things miniature, so I loved seeing the model of the temple in the visitor's center. It was a beautiful, peaceful place . . . I'm not LDS either, but it had such a calming atmosphere. Here's my Facebook album of photos from Template Square: https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.ashcraft/media_set?set=a.10205331914809455&type=3
Wow Cheryl! Those pics are beautiful! I think this area (even if it's under construction...) will be on our todo list for sure! Thanks!
Yes! We do actually have both of those- so we'll probably avoid them... we try to stop at local places we can't get at home while travelling! I'm thinking the Temple square is on our list even if it's under construction. The kids really want to swim in Salt Lake- where should we go for that? I did reach out to them & they weren't terribly helpful- mostly said to check hotels websites or the app that I already use... lol! Interesting... we've only lived in this house for 7 years and it's been here since then- it's beautiful! Awesome! Beaver has a tesla Supercharger so it's already on our list for stopping! Yay!
Oh it is! It's similar to some of the ones you can see from the freeway. But there's something really cool about the St. George and Salt Lake ones because they were built in the 1800's. Salt lake pulled granite put of the mountain using those old tools. Nothing compared to how they built the temples in 1999. Mount Timpanogos (American Fork, Utah) is a similar style to Spokane. That's what I meant by new.
I don't know that one! I will not swim in Utah lakes. They are gross and nasty! Except Lake Powell. Lol. Is it the floating they want? Because it's not really swimming in the traditional sense for SL because of the salt content. The salt flats are cool to see since they are in so many movies.
We are going to lake powell too- I was born in Page & have some family there! I think they just wanted to float... lol
I don't know much about southern Utah but there will still be parts of Temple Square open during the renovation. Here's a link to that. https://www.templesquare.com/blog/salt-lake-temple-renovation-announcement/ The church history museum, library, tabernacle, conference center, Joseph Smith Building and Lion House are must sees. If you wanted to hit eastern Utah you could go to Dinosaur National Monument just outside of Vernal, Utah. I grew up in Vernal and my Dad worked at the old Fieldhouse Museum and Monument. https://www.dinoland.com/dinosaur-national-monument/ At the Dinosaur National Monument, they have a mountain side of exposed dinosaur bones to see. They built the building right on the mountain side so you can see it all protected from the outside elements... I'd bet your kids would love to see all the dinosaur stuff. You could go into Colorado and cut back into Utah through Grand Junction or backtrack a little and cut down through Eastern Utah to go to Lake Powell. It also looks like there are some charging stations in Vernal. I don't have an electric car but it does look like there is a charging station near the two Marriott hotels there. We've stayed at the Springhill and it's nice.
I don't have any thoughts haha we're boring and don't go anywhere. When I was little we went to Antelope Island and floated in the Great Salt Lake. I got car sick so I threw up in the lake too lol it is definitely dirty but there's not many places that you float so easily!
Monica, Are you in Davis County? You mentioned Antelope Island, I'm in Layton but have never been there... I know, I'm boring too.
