5 Day Trips Out of Salt Lake City

Danny and the ESSENTIAL team flew with British Airways and stayed at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center and Salt Lake City Marriott City Center.

Utah has some of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet. Here are our suggestions for five great day trips from the capital, Salt Lake City.

Utah Olympic Park

Free admission to the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics includes a self-guided tour of the competition sites and access to the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Centre. Visitors to the Olympic Park can usually watch youth and Olympic athletes in training on a year-round basis. Members of the public can also take advantage of the bobsled, skeleton, luge, freestyle and Nordic ski jumping facilities. The Joe Quinney Winter Sports Centre houses the Alf Engen Ski Museum, which tells the story of skiing in the intermountain region. In the 2002 Eccles Olympic Winter Games Museum, the guests can hold an Olympic torch, watch Olympic highlights and view displays from the opening and closing ceremonies
For more information visit www.olyparks.com

Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort

Ski lodges in Utah are as famous as the Sundance Film Festival. Located in the heart of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Snowbird has been voted the No1 ski resort in the United States by Skiing Magazine for five years in a row. Snowbird offers 882 lodging rooms in four slope side lodge areas. There is also a luxurious spa on site along with 15 restaurants and 4 bars. Snowbird can hold 17,400 skiers and snowboarders per hour.
For more information visit www.snowbird.com

Antelope Island State Park

Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake, and it is part of the Utah State Park System. Activities include saltwater bathing, bird watching, camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding, picnicking, sunbathing, exploring historical sites, photography and viewing wildlife in its natural habitat. The island has an unique range of wildlife, and it’s most famous for its large bison population.  Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake also attract many migrating and nesting birds, making the island one of the best places for bird watching in the USA. Visitors can reach the island via a 7.5 mile causeway.
For more information visit www.utah.com

Arches National Park

If you are a little ambitious and don’t mind a four-hour drive from Salt Lake City, Arches National Park is a great day trip choice. It contains the world’s largest concentration of natural stone arches. The Park is an arid desert, filled with sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks, and arches. The 73,000-acre region has over 2,000 of these natural wonders. Housing Utah’s famous icon Delicate Arch, Arches National Park also has many hiking trails for visitors of all ability levels.
For more information visit www.nps.gov

White Water Rafting on the Colorado River

If you take the trip out to the Arches National Park, there is also the possibility of white water rafting down the Colorado River. Tag-Along-Expeditions offers one of the largest selections of adventure vacations in Utah. Cataract Canyon, Westwater Canyon, Green River and San Juan River are some of the options of rafting places in the area. White water rafting is not the only service provided; hiking tours, calm water river jet boat opportunities, 4x4 tours can also be experienced through different itineraries offered by Tag-Along.
For more information visit www.tagalong.com