Exploring Northern Utah

Visiting Utah was one of the last things we planned for our trip. It wasn’t in our initial trip plan. However, once we realized how close we were going to be to Utah, we had to make time for it.

We spent some time in both Salt Lake City and Park City.

Our first stop in Salt Lake City was the Clark Planetarium. Admission was free and it had some really neat, hands-on exhibits.

The boys also got to experience their first ever IMAX 3D movie, Ocean Odyssey!! They loved it!

We walked from there to the City Creek Shopping Center and ate some lunch.

The boys and I always enjoy seeing sports stadiums and arenas. We walked by the Utah Jazz arena on our way to the shopping center.

We also stopped by the Olympic Legacy Snowflake fountain in downtown Salt Lake City. It was a nice way for the boys to cool off after walking several blocks!

One of the reasons we wanted to visit this area was because Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. The only Olympic related thing to see still in the city is the Olympic Cauldron. Everything else was moved to Park City. The cauldron is right beside the University of Utah’s football stadium, which hosted the opening ceremony back in 2002.

The next day we went to Park City to visit the Utah Olympic Park. We were lucky to see some athletes training in the freestyle pool.

We also enjoyed the free museum that had memorabilia and information about the 2002 Olympic games.

After Park City, we headed towards the town of Naples in far north-eastern Utah. That got us in position for our main stop the following day, Dinosaur National Monument.

It was a short, 20-minute drive from our hotel in Naples to Dinosaur National Monument. We had perfect weather!!

We rode the tram to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, which boasts a two-story, 150 foot long, rock wall containing around 1,500 dinosaur fossils. They literally built the exhibit hall around the mountain! It was such an amazing thing to see!

Instead of taking the tram back to the visitor center, we opted for the .7 mile long Fossil Discovery Trail. It was pretty much all downhill and such a neat hike!!

The temperature was higher than we had been used to and by the end of the hike, Everett had met his match! If you zoom in on the picture, you’ll see him grinning from ear to ear!

That finished out our time in northern Utah. We will definitely be back to see some of the amazing national parks in the southern part of the state.

Rocky Mountain National Park…………here come the Ramseys!!!