This is the place ...

'This is the place ...'
Salt Lake City, Utah, home to the Mormons, or as they like to call themselves Latter Day Saints (LDS). First impressions were that this was a neat, clean, tidy, orderly city. This was most probably due to the LDS influence, which is pervasive in the general Utah area. I went to  their Visitor Centre as the Temple is not opened to non-Mormons. Me being a devout atheist, certainly didn't mind this rule. The Visitor Centre has a lot of multi-media and video exhibits explaining the LDS religion, but seems to suspiciously not mention the founder Joseph Smith. He professed that he was visited by an angel called Moroni (depicted by the golden statue on top of most Mormon temples) who told him to dig up golden plates or tablets from the ground, translate them into English and produce the Book of Mormon from the subsequent translation, thus was the church founded.

Oh he also managed to destroy these golden plates before anyone else could check the veracity of his outlandish story. Maybe its just as well they didn't mention this 'fact' in the Visitor Centre. Lots of the staff in the centre are from overseas, while their American counterparts are proselytizing in Europe and elsewhere,  and seem a bit brainwashed in my humble opinion, but good luck to them in their delusion.

Lots of geneology research going on here also. Apparently the Mormons can turn you into a member of the Church even if you're dead!! Religion certainly has a lot to answer for!

Also took a trip out to Park City where the Sundance Film Festival is held and where the Winter Olympics was also held. I didn't get a chance to visit Moab or Monument Valley, but there's always the next time. Next stop San Francisco.