The 10 Best Things to Do in Salt Lake City

Whether you enjoy exploring the great outdoors, wandering through a museum, learning about your family history or walking in the footsteps of Olympians, Salt Lake City, Utah, has it all.

With a combination of city life and nearby world-class outdoor adventures, you get the best of both worlds.

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Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and has a history steeped in the Mormon faith. Therefore, there are plenty of interesting religious institutions and monuments to visit. It is also surrounded by a variety of landscapes and terrain that make it a top spot for world-class skiing, hiking, mountain biking and, of course, taking a dip in the Great Salt Lake.

This is everything you need to know about the top things to do in Salt Lake City.

1. Celebrate sporting excellence at Utah Olympic Park

Olympics fans will love experiencing what it’s like to be in the shoes of an Olympian at Utah Olympic Park. Built for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, visitors can try things like bobsledding or freestyle skiing and snowboarding (both in winter and summer). The facility also has adventures like ziplining, airbag jumps, alpine slides, extreme tubing and more.

Check out the Flying Ace All-Stars Freestyle Show, get a guided tour of the venue, or jump off the 41ft high-dive platform. The 400-acre venue is located 25 miles east of Salt Lake City. For ice skating, check out the Utah Olympic Oval, and for Nordic skiing and e-bike rentals, visit the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. To get a glimpse of the Olympic cauldron, go to the south end of the Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah.

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2. Float in the waters of The Great Salt Lake

You can’t visit Salt Lake City without floating in the Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. It is located within the Great Salt Lake State Park, just 16 miles west of Salt Lake City. The salinity of the water, ranging anywhere between 5 and 27 percent salt, makes it very buoyant. Other activities include sailing, kayaking and hiking. Bring binoculars because there is a plethora of wildlife to view, such as bison, antelope, deer, bobcats, coyotes, elk and birds.

3. Step back in time at the Natural History Museum of Utah

Visitors to the Natural History Museum of Utah can learn about and explore collections related to paleontology, anthropology, vertebrate zoology, entomology, botany, mineralogy and malacology. There are 11 permanent exhibitions that range from life and land to gems and minerals, and so much more. The museum also features special exhibitions that rotate throughout the year. Just the mineralogy collection alone contains 5000 items. Explore an archeological reconstruction of a Median Village in the First People exhibit.

4. Get back to nature at Thanksgiving Point

With a working farm, expansive gardens and interactive museums, Thanksgiving Point is full of educational and entertaining experiences for the whole family. Be surrounded by 1000 butterflies in the Butterfly Biosphere, try out some of the 400 interactive experiences at the Museum of Natural Curiosity, get up close and personal with cows, goats, horses, chickens, sheep and pigs at Curiosity Farms, examine life-sized dinosaur skeletons or wander through 50 acres of pristinely manicured gardens – that includes the largest man-made waterfall in the Western Hemisphere. You can also visit the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life, a family-friendly museum at Thanksgiving Point that houses one of the world's largest displays of mounted dinosaurs. The exhibits, many of which are hands-on, are arranged chronologically and teach about fossils found all over the world.

5. Raise your voice at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

One of the most iconic things to see and do in Salt Lake City is to attend a rehearsal of the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir. With a 360-member volunteer chorus of men and women, their vocals lift the spirits of those attending their rehearsals. Visitors to the Mormon Tabernacle, located in Temple Square, can also listen to pipe organ concerts, organ recitals and bells rehearsals.

6. Go underground at Timpanogos Cave

About 40 minutes outside of Salt Lake City, in the nearby Wasatch Mountains, is Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Visitors can discover the wonders of geology as they explore the cool underground caverns. Learn about how helicities are formed, enter the Chimes Chamber with hundreds of spiral formations, or follow fault lines in the Imagination Room. Take a guided tour and be prepared to get dirty as you crawl and climb through the caves.

7. Gilgal Sculpture Garden will inspire you

Meander through the free Gilgal Sculpture Garden with 12 sculptures and more than 70 large stones engraved with meaningful passages. The creator, Thomas Battersby Child, Jr, worked on building the pieces of art on his property for 18 years until he passed away in 1963. The garden is now a Salt Lake City park and is maintained by the Friends of Gilgal Garden and the Salt Lake City Master Gardener Association. It is a unique and inspiring outing for all to enjoy.

8. Look to the heavens in Temple Square

Located in the center of downtown Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is surrounded by the five-block area of Temple Square. The Square is the hub of worship, history, commemoration, gatherings and music. Visitors can take a free guided tour to visit the temple, museums, libraries, gardens, monuments and fountains.

9. Utah Museum of Fine Arts

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is located at the University of Utah and was created to showcase contemporary art and prompt discussions about the role art plays in our lives; the museum’s collection houses 20,000 pieces of art. The gallery features 10 ongoing exhibitions that showcase art from several regions and cultures around the world, including Japan, China, Europe, America, Africa, South Asia, the Pacific and more. Revel at the nearly 4000-year tradition of Chinese ceramics, the tribal textiles from Africa and the 26th dynasty Egyptian coffin. Temporary exhibitions rotate throughout the year. The museum also hosts events such as Art and Yoga, art classes, lectures and online programs.

10. Take a free tour of the Utah State Capitol

This grand 1916 State Capitol is set among 500 cherry trees on a hill north of Temple Sq. Inside, colorful Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals of pioneers, trappers and missionaries adorn part of the building's dome. Check out the free guided tours on weekdays, held hourly from 10am to 3pm. They start at the 1st-floor visitor center; self-guided tours are also available from the visitor center.