Originally, our plan was to return to Salt Lake City have a look round, and celebrate our wedding anniversary with a boat trip on the Great Salt Lake. Our wedding reception was held on a boat on the Thames and we have celebrated on the water ever since … no craft too small! We then found out that water levels in the lake have been very low, especially at the end of the season so decided to come to Provo and booked a sunset cruise on a sailboat on Utah Lake instead. Just before we came away, we found out that Utah Lake was closed due to an algal bloom causing health risks … Hopefully all is not lost … read on …
Well here we are in Provo, staying in the lovely Hines Mansion, originally built as a family home in 1895 and now a B&B. Our lodge themed room has brought our trip visiting the national parks full circle.
Breakfast was served round a big kitchen table and everyone else had been to the game the night before, supporting the Brigham Young University football team who won in extra time. Each of the other couples had met at BY, still supported the team and were visiting to see the Homecoming game.
Salt Lake City, just north of here, is most famous for being founded by Brigham Young and being the headquarters of the Mormon church. The centre of town in Provo is dominated by the rather Disneyesque City Center Temple, originally built in 1898 but recently reconstructed having been gutted by fire. If we’d been here earlier in the year, it was briefly open to the public before being dedicated, but now you have to be part of the Mormon church to enter.
One thing that struck us walking round town is that there are no coffee shops or bars … not surprising since the Mormons want to keep their bodies as temples and not drink alcohol, tea or coffee … mind you excess sugar consumption seems perfectly acceptable if the number of ice cream parlours, dessert establishments and bakeries is anything to go by! Fortunately, with careful choice, picking a restaurant serving alcohol isn’t difficult!
We have a beautiful sunny day today, and so went for a drive into the mountains following the Alpine Scenic Loop. We walked through Bridal Veil Falls park, along the Provo River to the falls …
… then continued round Mount Timpanogos, enjoying the autumn colour and even another bear!
Halloween is a big thing here, and lots of houses are decorated, even though there’s still a fortnight to go …
… and this lot obviously had a craft afternoon planned!
Fortunately for us and luckily spotted online by my clever husband, the Provo River Halloween Cruise runs daily through October! We turned up just before 7pm, as the sun was setting, pleasantly surprised that it was still over 20 degrees so not exactly chilly for our themed adventure boat ride along the Provo River.
We paid our $7 each and were shown to our cruise boat, seating around 30 and were pulled up and down the river on a line by our pirate captain.
The round trip took 20 minutes, admiring the lights and the hand-carved jack-o-lanterns, surviving the Pirate Attack and also the scary story told by the boat captain.
Needless to say, we were older than the average audience, but set a good example! We returned to town and went to the Black Sheep, a Native American owned south-western restaurant where we had possibly the best enchiladas of our trip …
and a little fizz!
Almost at the end, we head back to Salt Lake City tomorrow …
Off Travelling Together 