Salt Lake City

In June I had a chance to visit Salt Lake City for work, to present at a symposium on climate and health in Utah. Considering I'd never been to SLC, I flew out a few days early and spent the weekend exploring the city and the area.

Salt Lake City is a very friendly, clean city in an attractive setting. While the city doesn't get a lot of press and doesn't have the buzz of up-and-coming cities like Austin, I found it to be quite pleasant and livable. It has an impressive series of bike lanes and a growing transit system. A grid system of streets across most of the city makes it easy to navigate, although the extremely wide streets and long blocks can be daunting for pedestrians. Downtown is nice but bland; luckily I was able to venture into some of the more interesting neighborhoods.

The demographics of Salt Lake City are pretty interesting. It's 59% Mormon. That's pretty Mormon, but it also means there's a lot of people who are other religions or non-religious. Certainly it's a conservative city (as evidenced by their beer laws), but there's a strong under-current of counter-culture and hipsterism, mixed with a good dose of environmentalism. And that's a good thing, because Salt Lake City faces some major environmental problems with drought and reduced snow pack (thanks, climate change!). Hopefully the recent focus on sustainable initiatives will help to improve these problems. On to the pictures:

Flying in to Denver, where I had a layover

Passing the Rocky Mountains

The Wasatch range, just outside Salt Lake City

First stop - the Utah state capitol building

Nice murals of natural sites in the state

Impressive from the outside

The Mormon temple

A new mall in the center of downtown. Nice idea, but all quite generic - I can shop at Gap at home. And it's owned by the Mormon church, so this entire shopping area of downtown is completely closed on Sundays.

The light rail goes right through downtown. It was pretty popular.

I made a quick stop at the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park, which was really nice

A small but neat neighborhood

Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of the the Utah Utes and the 2002 winter Olympics. That's the torch on the left.

The Natural History Museum of Utah, where my work symposium was held. Beautiful building.

The impressive interior of the building

Solar panels on the roof

With my first full free day, I drove to Park City, a 40 minute drive into the mountains. It's a nice touristy mountain town. Although it's mainly a ski resort town, there's a surprising amount of summer activities, including an alpine coaster!

Riding the alpine coaster. Fun ride.

Wheeeee!

Wait, that's not an alpine coaster. 70mph? 5Gs? What could that be?

It's the actual bobsled track from the 2002 Olympics! This was an incredible once in a lifetime experience. Totally worth it!

The bobsled track

There was also a nice little Olympic museum

The Olympic ski jumps

Downtown Park City

Beautiful views on the way back across the mountains

I took the Southern route back to visit another stadium - this one at BYU in Provo

Back in Salt Lake City I visited the interesting public library

Of course I had to ride the roller coasters in Salt Lake City. :) Lagoon park has a nice collection of rides.

Lagoon also has a picturesque setting in the foothills

Unfortunately the awesome-looking new ride, Cannibal, wasn't quite open yet

Antelope Island State Park was a bit north of Lagoon, and offers some pretty scenery

The Great Salt Lake

Good views in Antelope Island. But there were SO many bugs! I started a hike and literally had to run back to the car to escape the swarms of gnats.

And there are wild bison!

He was rubbing himself on a rock.

Back in Salt Lake City - the Capitol Theater

The blocks are so big, they have mid-block crossings in some areas with orange flags you can hold to be more visible to cars

Breakfast at Alchemy Coffee in the cute Liberty Park neighborhood. The employees were super helpful, giving me suggestions for neighborhoods to visit. 

Unhinged, a neat store in the Sugarhouse neighborhood

The "15th and 15th" neighborhood. Reminded me a bit of Virginia Highland in Atlanta, but with less retail and restaurants. The quaint King's English book store was here.

Lots of floral landscaping like this across the city. This house is in the "Avenues" neighborhood

Utah version of chicken and waffles at Avenues Proper. It was decent.

A view of downtown from the Avenues neighborhood

The super wide streets of Salt Lake City. You can shut down multiple lanes and still have plenty of room for the light traffic - and that's exactly what they did here, for a pop-up event.

Rail container shops at the Granary Row pop-up. Great idea to activate empty streets!

Turns out it was Salt Lake City Pride weekend. I watched some of the parade before heading to the airport.

Utah cowboys!

A girl scout troop marching in a gay pride parade in the heart of the Mormon state of Utah. We've come a long way!

I had a fun time in Salt Lake City. You have to scratch beyond the surface and visit some of the neat neighborhoods to get a real taste of the city. Despite having over 1.1 million people in the metro, it still manages to feel like a friendly small town. And with close proximity to hiking and skiing in the mountains, SLC is a great city for people who love nature. There are certainty more exiting cities in the US, but I admit that Salt Lake City grew on me, and I'm sure I'll return some day.

The Trouble with Utah Beer

When I told my friends I was going to Salt Lake City for work, several of them mentioned the burgeoning beer scene in the city. New breweries were popping up and new beer bars were expanding their selection. I did indeed have some good beer in Utah. The trouble is, conservative laws in Utah are a severe detriment to the craft beer industry. I'm used to restrictive beer laws. Michigan, where I grew up, is known as a very beer-friendly state, but they still can't sell alcohol before noon on Sundays. In Indiana, where I went to grad school, they can't sell to-go beer at all on Sundays, including growlers from brewpubs. In Georgia, where I currently live, there are a number of restrictive laws, limiting aspects such as Sunday sales, alcohol percentage, and breweries' ability to sell direct to consumers.

And then there's Utah. It takes beer laws to a whole new level. In just my short time in the state, I noticed a number of bizarre laws. First, the limit for alcohol percentage for tap beers is 4% by volume (ABV), or roughly 3.2% by weight. To me, this is the biggest hurdle. When I travel, I love to try limited release brews, which are usually only on draft. The 4% law really limits breweries' ability to make experimental or one-off brews, since anything over 4% would need to be bottled, creating significant additional expense. None of the bars and brewpubs I went to had more than a dozen or so taps - with the alcohol restriction, it just doesn't make sense to have a huge tap list. Anheuser Busch can't even sell regular Bud Light on tap. That's right, Bud Light is too strong for Utah beer laws. They have to brew a weaker version to sell in Utah. Similarly, the local Wasatch Brewery has to brew two version of their popular Polygamy Porter - a 4% version and a 6% version that can only be sold in bottles or shipped out of state. This 4% rule also applies to grocery stores - so forget trying to pick up a six pack when you're out shopping. You'll have to visit a state-run liquor store to get anything stronger.

On top of the ABV rule, there's also a limit on beer sampling. You can only have two sample size beers at once, so the concept of a flight of local beers doesn't exist. It's a completely arbitrary law, because once you finish your two samples you can order two more - but try that in a crowded bar.

Finally, strict rules on alcohol licenses impact the ability of bars and breweries to sell beer. An "alcohol establishment" license allows operation as a bar, but is harder to get. Some licenses require the purchase of food. For example, if you visit the tiny Epic Brewing, you can only drink there if you order an entree. The law states that "alcohol beverage service in a licensed restaurant requires that you order food with your drink, that your beverage be delivered to your table or counter by your server, and that you consume your drink at or near the table or counter." And don't think that you can have a beer at the game either - state law prohibits alcohol in stadiums and parks. These arbitrary and restrictive laws are a huge impediment to the development of a craft beer scene in Salt Lake City.

All that being said, I still visited several great beer establishments and had a number of good beers. A craft beer scene is indeed emerging in Salt Lake City, but the state government is doing it no favors. A few pictures of the beers and places I experienced:

Beer issue of the local alternative magazine

A 4% brew on tap at the Beerhive

Go with bottles at the bar if you want more variety

Visiting the Wasatch Brewery in Park City

A sample of the 4% version of Polygamy Porter

Bought this in a grocery store, so it's limited to 4%

One of the best Utah beers I tried

Two sample limit! This is at Avenues Proper brewpub. Some nice sour beers.

A Uinta beer at an outdoor event. The wooden "roof" above makes this legal.

A canned beer just to mix things up

Another good Utah beer