9.20.2023
Great Salt Lake State Park
Mileage: only the truck
While Kenny Worked I went in to Salt Lake City to see a couple of sites. This is a city I would definitely like to come back to sometime. I only had a couple of hours so I had to make some choices. I started at the Capitol. The building is beautiful with much marble. There is a guided tour on the hour starting at 10am so I joined the tour.
There is a nice visitor's center with items from the state house before it underwent a major restoration in the early 2000's.
The renovation included earthquake protection. These large "slinkies" should enable the building to withstand a 7.8 earthquake. Salt Lake City sits on a fault line that is overdue for a big quake.
After visiting the basement we went back into the building itself and learned about the many murals and statues. For this part of the tour we stood below the great rotunda.
The space is bright and beautiful with two huge sweeping staircases that would make Scarlet O'Hara envious. This statehouse holds all three branches of government for the state of Utah.
This is the Senate Chamber.
We also saw the Supreme Court Room. Because the court outgrew the room it has a separate building in town. However, by law it must meet once a year in these chambers while the other two branches are in session.
We also learned about Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon who was the first female state senator in the United States. She beat her husband for the seat. She was also instrumental in developing public health initiatives. Definitely someone I'd like to learn more about.
This one ton chandelier is on a pully system so that it can be lowered to be cleaned and the light bulbs changed. This building was the first in Utah to have consistent electricity.
There are nearly 300 of these rosettes. They were a major concern during the renovation as they were set into the marble. Each was removed, cleaned, and the connection to the building was reinforced with rebar so that during an earthquake they don't come loose and fall the 165 feet to the floor below.
This is a picture of Seraph Young who our tour guide told us was the first woman to cast a vote under the Suffrage Act. When I googled to corroborate this I completely fell down a rabbit hole. In any case there is a painting of her voting in the House Chamber of the Utah State Capitol.
The House Chamber was our last stop on the tour. It is filled with symbolism.
Statue of Brigham Young.
State Seal of Utah. This was added during the renovation.
Utah is serious about the symbolism of the beehive. They are everywhere, even on the road signs.
The views from The Capital were amazing.
This building was the first state capital building. It now holds offices and the gift shop.
I drove the short distance to Temple Square. Each day at noon there is a free organ concert in the City Tabernacle at noon. I arrived in time to walk through the beautiful gardens and tour the gray building before the concert. There is a lot of construction going on here which limited where I could go.
I enjoyed listening to this pianist play.
I then went into the Tabernacle to listen to the organ concert. I couldn't take pictures or video during the concert. The organist was amazing and the low notes vibrated the entire building. He also did a short presentation on the acoustics of the building by tearing a newspaper, and dropping pins into a wooden box,
The concert lasted about an half hour. What an amazing instrument!
I then went to The Market Grill for lunch. It was yummy!
While Kenny was with me we drove to Antelope Island State Park. From our campsite we can see an island in the middle of Salt Lake. After reading a bit about it we learned that there is wildlife there. While we can see it the road to get there isn't close so we struck out on an hour drive to get there. It was shocking to see how low the water levels in the lake are. What should have been a several mile causeway was little more than a short bridge to get to the island.
There were many pelicans on the lake. This is a small group from one side of the roadway.
Yeah, we thought we were done with bison also. Turns out there are some in Utah!
And some pronghorn!
Tomorrow we head further south!
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