Salt Lake City, UT – May 2015
So I was thinking the other day….
What would I miss if I were to leave Salt Lake City? I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and came up with a small list:
- The Wasatch Mountains. Holy crap, the mountains! You can’t exist in Utah without noticing those omnipresent peaks, and you can’t appreciate or engage in much outdoor recreation here without getting to know them well. I would miss those–since you can’t miss them if you’re anywhere along the Wasatch front.
- The temple square — church office building plaza area. There’s a lot of personal history there, going back as far as I can remember. Not only that, but the architecture is pretty cool, and I’ve had a great time walking and riding bikes through the area over the years. Never mind the hilarious fact that (if viewed from a distance) the twin globes on the adjoining buildings on the East/West sides of the lower 4-6 stories make the entire trio look rather…phallic.
- #10 East Church Hill Drive. The amazing vista of the Salt Lake Valley that the parking space at this address offers would be a location and a perspective I’d miss. You can see everything from up there and get a pretty good sense of just how massive the Salt Lake Valley is.
- Liberty Park.
- The ‘pocket’ parks in the Avenues and Marmalade neighborhoods, especially the little one at 4th Avenue and I street and the other one on Pugsley Street and 600 North.
- The heart of the OLD downtown area—especially Crossroads Mall and ZCMI Plaza. I’m not sure why; most of the time I spent at Crossroads was work related. Maybe because that’s where a lot of things started for me here in the city of salt.
- The hot springs in Warm Springs Park. While I would NOT miss the crappy house and flaky property manager myself and my cousin shared nearby, I would (and do) miss the long soaks in the natural hot pools and staring at the crumbling abandoned building that once was the Children’s Museum.
- The International Peace Gardens.
- One-of-a-kind thrift or discount stores like U of U surplus, State surplus, and the NPS stores. Definitely NPS. I haven’t found anywhere like it/them in the country. Yet.
- Memory Grove and City Creek too (the body of water-not the boring, overpriced mall).
- The grid system. It, like the whole state, is a bit odd and does take a little getting used to. However, once you get the hang of it, it’s actually quite easy to use for navigation. This is the EASIEST city to navigate in, including the one I grew up in.
- Our crazy wide streets.
- The little plaza/park behind Cathedral of the Madeline.
- Gilgal gardens.
- Long gone entertainment landmarks like Sanctuary, Bill ‘n’ Nada’s, Anchors Aweigh, and Area 51 (in its’ slightly grittier pre-2003 iteration).
The rest of the story:
I left Salt Lake City in October of 2019, after taking a position that took me to Portland and then all over the US. The longer I was away, the more I realize that I missed select people and being near home (Idaho) the most. The places I noted above were great, and I have some very fond memories of them, but it was the people I knew in Salt Lake Citythat made living in Utah great. Sadly, it’s the people who make the thought of returning to both Idaho and Utah extremely bittersweet—especially with the dominance of mean-spirited far right weirdness found in both states of late.
With the death of my Father in July 2026, and my Mom’s erquest for help dealing with that and wrapping up or downsizing things, I’ll be seeing those places and faces again soon.
Mr Curly's Adventures 