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Salt Lake City, UT
Week 12 meant that we’ve officially been on the road for three months! After a quick drive down I-15 from Yellowstone, we spent the week in Salt Lake City, Utah. Considering we’ve spent the past couple of weeks in smaller towns we were pretty excited to be in a larger city… or so we thought. We didn’t really have any expectations for Salt Lake City, however, we were surprised to see a lot of homeless people and questionable neighborhoods. When we checked in at our campsite one of the first things they told us was to lock up our bikes because they would be stolen. They even had a locked building that people could put their bikes in if they didn’t want to keep them locked outside. The actual downtown area was very clean and had some great restaurants, grocery stores, and high rise buildings.
After pulling into our campsite (at the Salt Lake KOA) we took Carmen for a walk. Fortunately, there was a large dog park only half a mile away with a pretty path through a public park from our KOA. She had a blast playing with other doggos and tired herself out rather quickly.
A Busy Work Week
To be honest, we only left the RV park twice for dinner downtown and another day to explore. This week was a very productive work week for us though. Almost every day we edited a ton of videos on our YouTube channel and caught up on blog posts. We did manage to get out of the RV almost every night and soak in the hot tub. We found ourselves not very excited to be in a larger city and were craving more rural areas.
Food Please
The few places we did get out to eat at were delicious! They were:
- Pho Tay Ho: This noodle house was so good! We love pho and are always hunting for the best. I’d have to say we came close here. The egg rolls were crunchy and flavorful while the chicken pho was filling and fresh. I’m drooling just thinking about this place. On top of the great food, the actual restaurant is an old house, so you really feel like you’re getting a home-cooked meal.
- Nicos Mexican Food: We got really lucky with this place. It was on the same property as the KOA and served authentic Mexican food. Honestly, I think we ate here four or five times. Let’s just say they knew us by the end of our stay.
- Takashi Sushi: One night we went to downtown Salt Lake to get out of the RV and see the area. This place had amazing Yelp reviews so we decided to check it out. The wait was an hour so we put our names in and went down the street for a beer. Because it was so crowded we were really excited to try this place. Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed. The food was good and the fish was fresh, however, it just didn’t do it for us. I think we may be spoiled when it comes to sushi since we’re from Southern California.
- Silver Fork Lodge: We stopped here for lunch on Saturday after exploring Big Cottonwood Canyon. We each ordered a sandwich with a side salad, which sounds really plain but it was so good! The salad was actually filling and the meat in the sandwiches was cooked to perfection. Just what we needed after a full morning of sightseeing.
One Day of Sightseeing
As I said, this week was mostly spent inside the RV. We felt pretty bad for not exploring the area so we decided to spend our entire Saturday sightseeing. We had breakfast and headed out to the Great Salt Lake. It was pretty cold, smelly, and windy so we didn’t spend too long here. I’m sure it would have been better in the summer. We then headed downtown to check out Temple Square. How can you come to Salt Lake City and not see Temple Square?! We spent a good chunk of time here admiring the architecture and getting warm inside one of the churches. They also have statues and informational plaques to read all over the square. And we saw about six wedding parties taking pictures!
We then drove the mile up the road to the State Capitol. The audio on our GoPro failed us but we still managed to get some good footage of the building. Across the street was the “old state capitol” building where we picked up some informational packets about things to do in Utah. There were actually quite a few people here taking pictures and exploring the building; it seemed to be a happening place. We then headed out for a 45-minute drive to Big Cottonwood Canyon.
We were really excited to see this place because we had heard the fall foliage during this time was phenomenal. While it didn’t have the variety of colors we wanted, it was still more fall than we’ve ever experienced. We found a turnout on the road and decided to park. There was a long path that leads to a tunnel of orange/yellow trees that were begging for a photo shoot. We spent about an hour here taking photos and admiring the beauty of nature. It got us really excited for the following week, which was Moab, UT.
