T's Travels

Utah 2012 (with photos)

What to do when you have two days in Utah? We had 48 hours and were based in Salt Lake City. We've been south to Zion and Bryce and didn't want to spend hours and hours driving. So we drove east (3 hours) to Dinosaur National Monument. What a great trip! Since our time in DNM was limited, we chose the "Tour of the Tilted Rocks," a drive along Cub Creek Road with stops along some of the trails to look at petroglyphs.At one point, Husb climbed up to get a closer look. I started to, but it was too hot.

A highlight for me was the end of the road and Josie Bassett Morris's cabin. I'm a city girl who now lives in the country (Husb says we live in the 'burbs but I think the bears would beg to differ). When I saw Josie's cabin, I came face to face with my own wimpiness (even though we all know I encouraged a snake out of my house once). She lived on her own for over 50 years, doing her own gardening and butchering (and possibly cattle rustling?), until she was 89. The placard at the cabin says family and friends came out from Vernal regularly, but that was over 20 miles and I'm sure in the dead of winter she saw no one. No phone, no TV, no people. (At that thought I could swear I saw a gleam in Husb's eye.) I told him if I ever complained about the difficulties of life on the mountain he could just mention her name and I would be thankful for my car, running water, neighbors, electricity, telephone . . . well, pretty much all my modern conveniences!

We spent the night at the Flaming Gorge Resort (that will be a future blog entry) and the next morning headed for nearby Red Canyon (seems there's more than one in Utah!). Unfortunately, during our entire visit to Utah smoke from wildfires in the northwest hovered in any long view. It impacted the canyon view as well. We looked for bighorn sheep, but didn't find any.

Three older women were at the canyon overlook while we were. After a few minutes I heard one say, "Well, I've seen this. I'm done now." Okay, maybe not everyone gets the same thrill. It reminded me of Yellowstone Canyon, but it was really red--hence John Wesley Powell's naming it Flaming Gorge. I'd like to see it late afternoon sometime, when the light probably hits it just right.

We followed that with a drive through the Sheep Creek Geologic Loop--a 17-mile road with dramatic changes in landscape and my favorite experience of the trip. Rock formations, a creek, a slow climb up with wonderful views ahead and behind. I've always been fascinated by cross-sections of earth, where the layers are visible, especially when they're at an angle. When I was a kid, I thought that movement had happened in a time frame that people could see.

We came out of the loop and headed back through Flaming Gorge to take the east side of the Scenic Byway north. After a quick stop at the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center we headed north and west back to Salt Lake City (early flights the next day) via Route 191 into Wyoming and then west on I-80. Too quick a trip but we made the most of the time we had.

 

Lamb's Grill, Salt Lake City, UT

Last time I was in Utah, 3.2 beer was everywhere and there was this whole “had to join a private club” thing going on just to get an alcoholic drink. When I spent a night in Salt Lake City recently I was surprised (and pleased) to find that has changed. Restaurants were advertising “wine and heavy beer” or “real beer.” I wasn’t aware that a few years ago Governor Jon Huntsman changed Utah’s liquor laws.

Downtown Salt Lake was vibrant and active when Husb and I walked around browsing for a restaurant. I don’t usually recommend wandering (instead of doing some research beforehand so you’re not left eating at Del Taco when you don’t want to be), but I’d been cooped up on planes all day and it felt good to get out and walk.

We passed an outdoor concert, walked by many an establishment, and settled on Lamb’s Grill, which I discovered is Utah’s oldest continuously operating restaurant. It was opened in 1919 in Logan, Utah, and moved to Salt Lake City in 1939 (full history here). Although the interior looks very retro (but is actually authentic), we chose the sidewalk tables to enjoy the night air.

What to order?  “Wild caught Atlantic salmon” sounded good. It came stacked, with Kalamata olive tapenade on top and a very buttery, tender polenta and sautéed spinach on the bottom. I liked that it had no heavy sauces; I could taste each flavor without them all running together. Husb had the Snake River Farms Kurobuta pork loin with red pepper coulis and red cabbage. Of course we both had a glass of wine, which had been my main requirement for our dinner destination.

As we enjoyed our meal, people walked by and looked at the posted menu. Some came in, some moved on. I guess we weren’t the only ones wandering that evening. Others paused at the historical marker; the building that houses Lamb’s Grill was built in 1905 for the Herald newspaper, which became the Salt Lake Herald-Republican in 1909 and stopped publishing in 1920.

As we walked back to our hotel the city continued to bustle—a nice change from my last visit to Salt Lake. And if I find myself there again, I think I’ll do some research and see what else I can uncover. But I wouldn’t be sorry to find myself at Lamb’s Grill again.

Photo from Lamb's Grill website.