Salt Lake City

We had a very good day today.  It started with a visit to the Utah Olympic Park, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was very interesting. The visitor center had a small museum where we watched a short video about the 2002 Bobsled results at which the Americans took Silver and Bronze. We heard that some athletes were going to be practicing snowboard jumps (landing in the pool) but after waiting a while and not seeing any activity we decided to leave.

The organ concert at the Tabernacle was excellent!  It was a beautiful 1/2 hour concert consisting of 6 selections. Before playing, the organist demonstrated the excellent acoustics of the tabernacle by dropping a pin near the organ and it was very easy to hear. The picture shows the 5 rank organ console and a few of the  11,263 pipes.

In the afternoon we headed to the Great Salt Lake.  There were two recommended places to see it and we choose Antelope Island, which was about 1 hour north of Salt Lake City.  You get to the island by driving across a 6 mile causeway.  As you can see from the pictures, the lake level was quite low. It approached all-time lows last spring before the heavy winter snow helped raise the level.  It is estimated to be about 900,000 square miles at present, down from a high of 1,400,000 square miles. The island reportedly contains over 500 bison.  Mary spotted two bison as we walked to the visitor center. Later on we spotted two grazing antelope while driving around the island.

Tomorrow we drive to Moab, Utah and plan to visit Arches National Park.