Salt Lake City - Main Sights

Main Sights

Salt Lake City is the headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and has many LDS-related sites open to visitors. The most popular is Temple Square, which includes the Salt Lake Temple (not open to the general public) and visitors’ centers that are open to the public, free of charge. Temple Square also includes the historic Tabernacle, home of the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The modern LDS Conference Center is across the street to the north. The Family History Library, the largest genealogical library in the world, is located just west of Temple Square. It is run by the LDS Church and is open to the public and free of charge. Adjacent to Temple Square is also the Eagle Gate Monument.

In 2004, the Salt Lake City main library received an Institute Honor Award for Architecture by the American Institute of Architects and features a distinctive architectural style. The roof of the building serves as a viewpoint for the Salt Lake Valley. The Utah State Capitol Building offers marble floors and a dome similar to that of the building that houses the U.S. Congress. Other notable historical buildings include the Thomas Kearns Mansion (now the Governor's Mansion), City and County Building, built in 1894, the Kearns Building on Main Street, St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, built in 1874, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine, built in 1909.

Near the mouth of Emigration Canyon lies This Is The Place Heritage Park, which re-creates typical 19th century LDS pioneer life. Hogle Zoo is located across the street from the park. The city's largest public park, at over 100 acres (0.40 km2), Liberty Park features a lake with an island in the middle and the Tracy Aviary. The park is home to a large number of birds, both wild and in the aviary. Red Butte Garden and Arboretum, located in the foothills of Salt Lake City, features many different exhibits and also hosts many musical concerts. Jordan Park is home to the International Peace Gardens. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail is a popular hiking and biking nature trail which spans ninety miles through the foothills of the Wasatch Front.

The Olympic Cauldron Park, located at Rice-Eccles Stadium, features the Olympic Cauldron from the games, a visitor's center, and the Hoberman Arch. The Olympic Legacy Plaza, located at the Gateway District, features a dancing fountain set to music and the names of 30,000 Olympic volunteers carved in stone. The Utah Olympic Park, located near Park City, features the Olympic ski jumps, as well as bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton runs. Today, the Olympic Park is used for year-round training and competitions. Visitors to the park can watch the various events that occur and even ride a bobsled. The Utah Olympic Oval, located in nearby Kearns, was home to the speed skating events and is now open to the public. Other popular Olympic venues include Soldier Hollow, the site of cross-country skiing events, located southeast of Salt Lake near Heber City.

Salt Lake City is close to several world-class ski and summer resorts, including Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Park City Mountain Resort, and Deer Valley. The resorts cater to millions of visitors each year and offer year-round activities.

Salt Lake City is also home to a few major shopping centers. Trolley Square is an indoor and outdoor mall with many independent art boutiques, restaurants, and national retailers. The buildings housing the shops are renovated trolley barns with cobblestone streets. The Gateway District, an outdoor shopping mall, has many national restaurants, clothing retailers, a movie theater, the Clark Planetarium, the Discovery Gateway, a music venue called The Depot, and the Olympic Legacy Plaza. City Creek Center is the city's newest major shopping center and features many high-end retailers that aren't found anywhere else in Utah.

On October 3, 2006, the LDS Church, who owned the ZCMI Center Mall and Crossroads Mall, both on Main Street, announced plans to demolish the malls, a skyscraper, and several other buildings to make way for the $1.5 billion City Creek Center redevelopment. It combined several new office and residential buildings (one of which is the third-tallest building in the city) around an outdoor shopping center featuring a stream, fountain, and other outdoor amenities; it opened on March 22, 2012. Sugar House is a neighborhood with a small town main street shopping area and numerous old parks. Sugar House Park is the second largest park in the city, and is host to frequent outdoor events and the primary Fourth of July fireworks in the city.

Other attractions in or within close proximity to Salt Lake City include the Golden Spike National Historic Site (where the world's first transcontinental railroad was joined), the Lagoon Amusement Park, the Great Salt Lake, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Gardner Historic Village, one of the largest dinosaur museums in the U.S. at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, and the world's largest man-made excavation at Bingham Canyon Mine.