2 Weeks In Salt Lake City, UT: Here’s What We Did

With my parents having returned to the UK after their month with us on the road trip, it was time for us to head back up to Utah to hit somewhere we’d not had a chance to visit with them – Salt Lake City.

I say we, but it was initially just me and Truffles heading up there because Shae had flown back to Virginia for a week to see her family (this was over Mother’s Day.) It therefore took me a couple of days to get up there from Tempe, AZ and then I was a mix of tired and busy with stuff I had to work on.

As a result, I didn’t end up doing anything in Salt Lake City until Shae flew in a few days later, but we loved what we did see of the city from then. It had a great vibe – it felt relaxed despite being a big city, while everyone we met there was nice. Salt Lake City is extremely beautiful too; I wasn’t expecting it to have snow-capped mountains so close by, yet simultaneously having warm, sunny weather in May.

Here’s everything that we got up to during our two weeks there.

Where We Stayed

We stayed all 15 nights at the Residence Inn Salt Lake City Downtown which is one of Marriott’s brands. Marriott has a “Stay 5, Pay For 4” benefit on award stays which means the cheapest of those five nights is free. With us staying 15 nights, we got three of those nights free which made it great value as our average cost was only 14,567 points per night.

All Residence Inn rooms come with a full kitchen, but what made this redemption even better value is that we were able to book straight into a one bedroom suite rather than a studio suite. The hotel is also in a great location downtown rather than on the outskirts of the city, so we were able to walk or electric scooter to places rather than having to drive in to the city from further out. Check out my full review of the Residence Inn Salt Lake City Downtown.

What We Did

Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats are a large salt pan that you’re allowed to drive out on. If you’ve ever seen the world land speed record attempts, they’re normally (or always?) conducted on these salt flats.

Unfortunately it was during our visit there that we made our latest road trip mistake by missing that we’d just hit our 100,000th mile on the road trip. Still, it was a fun and unique experience that was worth the 1.5 hour drive each way.

Great Salt Lake

I’m going to show my ignorance here, but until a few months ago I hadn’t realized that Salt Lake City was so named because there’s a giant salt lake there. While its salt content isn’t quite as dense as the Dead Sea that we visited last year, it’s still far saltier than the ocean.

Its salt density depends on which part you visit. The North Arm has 317 g/kg (versus 337 for the Dead Sea), while the South Arm has “only” 142 g/kg. We visited the southern part of the lake and so it wasn’t quite as salty, but Shae decided to get in to see how much she’d float. Unfortunately the water wasn’t deep enough to see if she could float and it was too cold for her to want to go much deeper!

Homestead Crater

About 45 minutes east of Salt Lake City is Homestead Crater. Hidden inside the crater is a geothermal spring which stays a steady 90°-96° no matter the weather. It’s a fun and unique experience that’s worth checking out if you ever visit Salt Lake City. Read more about Homestead Crater here.

Utah Olympic Park

We decided to take a trip out to Park City one day, stopping at Utah Olympic Park along the way – the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. I’d been picturing it being a fun place to visit, but visiting in mid-May when there’s very little snow on the ground, it was a bit lackluster.

Run-A-Muk Dog Park

Something that was a bit more fun – particularly for Truffles – was Run-A-Muk Dog Park. This 43 acre dog park is pretty much right next to Utah Olympic Park and has a couple of miles of trails to let your pup off-leash.

Willow Creek Dog Park

There wasn’t much shade at Run-A-Muk Dog Park, so after going for a walk along their trails there we made our way to Willow Creek Dog Park as they have a swimming pond for pups. Truffles dipped her paws in, but she’s not much one for swimming and so we just splashed water over her and headed on to Park City.

Park City

With Truffles sufficiently dog parked out, we continued on to Park City. This is a popular skiing town in Utah with a cute Main St with all kinds of boutique stores, bars, restaurants, etc.

Shae had biked 15 miles on the Jordan Bike Trail that morning before we’d headed out and 20 miles the day before, so her legs didn’t have too much uphill walking in them. After wandering Main St for a little while, we decided to go and relax at a distillery (more about that in the food and drink section below.)

Utah State Capitol

Salt Lake City is Utah’s state capital, so one afternoon we wandered up to the State Capitol building. If you’re planning on doing that on a sunny day, be aware that it can get hot and it’s a lot of uphill if you’re starting off from downtown!

Natural History Museum of Utah

One afternoon while I was working on stuff, Shae headed out to the Natural History Museum of Utah. She teaches virtual field trips online, so this looked like it would be a great option for her students.

Sure enough, it was. Spread out over five floors, the museum has so much to see that it’s probably hard to take it all in during one visit.

Where We Ate & Drank

Mountain West Hard Cider

After walking around town and heading up to the State Capitol building, Shae, Truffles and I decided to go for refreshments at Mountain West Hard Cider. We both got their cider flight and were looking forward to seeing what it would be like. Shae in particular was looking forward to their Prickly Pear Hard Cider as she’s had a couple of those from elsewhere and loved them.

Unfortunately we weren’t a big fan of any of their ciders. A couple of them tasted OK, but overall they were disappointing. The prickly pear one tasted a little funky – not in a good way.

We stuck around for a couple more drinks, but steered clear of their ciders and got drinks they stock from other places.

Diversion Social Eatery

While having drinks at Mountain West, we ordered dinner from Diversion Social Eatery. I got their Western burger with a mix of regular and sweet potato fries, while Shae ordered their Funky Chicken sandwich. Both our meals were very tasty and hit the spot after a couple of drinks.

High West Distillery

I mentioned earlier that after exploring Park City a little, we decided to relax at a distillery. That was High West Distillery and it was an excellent choice. I got their whiskey flight which consisted of four of their whiskeys:

• High West Bourbon
• Double Rye
• Rendezvous (a blend of aged ryes)
• Campfire (a blend of scotch, bourbon and rye whiskey)

All four of the whiskeys were very good and I ended up getting a bottle of the High West Bourbon to go.

Kiitos Brewing

A friend had recommended Kiitos Brewing to us, so one evening we hopped on electric scooters to get over there as it was just a bit too far for us to want to walk.

Kiitos Brewing is a fun place with several pinball machines and all kinds of quirky beer flavors – Salt and Pickle, Berry Milkshake, Key Lime Pie Sour, Creamsicle, Cucumber Tart, etc. – along with some more traditional types of beer. None of the beers were standout, but it’s worth checking out for all the unique flavors.

BTG Wine Bar

A couple of blocks from our hotel was a fancy wine bar called BTG Wine Bar. We stopped there for a quick wine tasting one evening. They have a large array of wines and you can pick either individual wines or from a long list of pre-set flights.

The Pie Dump & TL Catering

At some point in the last year or two we’d seen The Pie Dump on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. The Pie Dump is in Garland, UT which is about an hour north of Salt Lake City. They’re known for their made-from-scratch hot rolls and gravy, so we ordered that, a cinnamon roll and a couple of donuts. Side note – while rolls and hot gravy might not sound all that exciting, it’s ridiculously tasty and will leave you wanting more.

After sitting down to eat, Shae discovered that they have a donut challenge. Being a donut fanatic, she was quick to find out what the challenge involves. Their challenge involves eating six donuts as fast as you can which is easier than it sounds.

Shae decided to take up the challenge. Did she succeed? If you didn’t watch the livestream on our Facebook page last month, you can read more about it here.

Squatters Pub

On one of our final nights in the city we met up with Matt of Miles Earn & Burn and his wife for a fun evening at Squatters Pub in downtown Salt Lake City. This is part of Salt Lake Brewing Co which has some great beers and equally tasty food. It’s only a couple of blocks from the Residence Inn we were staying at, so it was nice being able to walk there and back too.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I were pleasantly surprised by Salt Lake City. It’s a pretty, peaceful and fun city that we’d love to come back to in the future.