Last August, my girlfriend and I went on a western trip which started in Salt Lake City.

 

SLC is known for its ultra-wide streets and huge blocks. However I was surprised to see so many protected bike lanes installed all across the city and a number of traffic calming features that made it much more pleasant for pedestrians.

 

The transit system also had the simplest user experience I've ever seen on any transit system in the US -- all buses and light rail trains accept NFC payments, which means that you could simply tap your phone and pay using Apple Pay or Android Pay when you board. There's no transit card you have to buy, app you have to download, or anything else. It was really as simple as tapping your phone to ride.

 

It was a bit surprising to me how quickly the city transitioned from a dense downtown into suburban, strip mall oriented neighborhoods. However even those areas seemed to still have decent bus service and bike lanes.

 

 

View from our hotel:

 

 

 

City Creek Center is a very nice urban mall that was well integrated into the city. There was even a light rail stop right in the middle:

 

 

Permanent protected bike lanes:

 

 

 

UTA TRAX light rail:

 

 

 

 

(The light rail trains above are two cars long. However I noticed that on Sundays, most of the trains I saw were only a single vehicle long. So their "light rail" service was using a vehicle roughly the size of the Cincinnati Streetcar.)

 

They really love their paranormal themed stuff in the west:

 

 

Managed to find the hipster coffee shop:

 

 

We took a 2.6 mile walk from our hotel to the top of Ensign Peak, which offers a nice view of Downtown SLC and the surrounding area. This also took us right by the Utah State Capitol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Red Iguana, an awesome Mexican restaurant known for their molé:

 

 

We then drove an hour north to visit Antelope Island State Park:

 

 

 

Then we headed south and made a brief stop in Provo, Utah, which has a charming downtown:

 

 

 

And now for the non-urban portion of our roadtrip. We were starting to get hungry so why not stop in the small town of Beaver, Utah?

 

 

We drove through the Dixie National Forest:

 

 

To our next destination, Bryce Canyon National park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ghost town of Cisco, Utah:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short stop in Breckenridge:

 

 

 

And Boulder:

 

 

 

 

And we finally made it to Denver!

 

 

16th Street Mall (transit only, no private vehicles):

 

 

 

Larimer Square was closed down for some sort of event:

 

 

 

Lots of tower cranes downtown:

 

 

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is named, of course, for the Colorado State Capitol building:

 

 

Historic Denver offers a great walking tour of the neighborhood. It's filled with old mansions like this one:

 

 

After the tour we happened to walk by this cool building. It's an old motel (the Broadway Plaza Motel) but it was rehabbed and converted into retail and office space. It still retained the layout of the motel, though, with an exterior evelator and outward-facing suites:

 

 

We spent a little bit of time in the Five Points neighborhood which seemed to be very up-and-coming. It had a feel very similar to Cincinnati's Northside but a lot more graffiti and public art, and more new construction apartment buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know if I'm alone in this observation, but Denver actually reminded of a dirtier Columbus. Its layout feels very Midwestern in certain parts of the city, and the architecture in some of the oldest neighborhoods could easily be confused with similar buildings in any of the Villages. I really need to get out to SLC one of these days, I feel like even though their built environment isn't as stellar as other cities, they understand how to really do transit and complete streets a lot better than some of its peer cities out this way.

^Yes, but Denver has obviously embraced mass transit in a big way with its 100+mile FasTracks light/commuter rail program.  Transit is transforming much of Denver into more dense, pedestrian-oriented development as opposed to the typical Midwestern highway-influenced sprawl. Columbus is still debating the merits of rail transit.

Great shots!

Antelope Island looks like the northern cousin of the Salton Sea.

 

Surreal!

^Yes, but Denver has obviously embraced mass transit in a big way with its 100+mile FasTracks light/commuter rail program.  Transit is transforming much of Denver into more dense, pedestrian-oriented development as opposed to the typical Midwestern highway-influenced sprawl. Columbus is still debating the merits of rail transit.

 

Agreed - I was very impressed when I was out there how dramatically the light rail network was transforming the city, most notably in LoDo. But even in the areas where the trains don't run, the city was densifying and promoting walkability on a scale we don't often see out here. I'm sure the Colordan's health-but sensibility plays into it a lot as well.

What's odd is that transit usage has declined overall in Denver. I am assuming that more people are taking the train versus bus for longer-distance rides, and that the system has yet to be optimized (something Columbus is doing right now and what Houston has already done).

 

How is payments done in Salt Lake City without using a smartphone?

 

Love the shots. Utah is one of my favorite states, notably because of its natural beauty but also because of its amazing growth. It's conservative but open.

Excellent set and trip! I've not been to Bryce, but will actually remedy that in just a month or so with a side trip from Las Vegas to Bryce and Zion.

 

I really enjoyed SLC because the Morman history creates a pretty unique story for the city, even today. Antelope Island on the other hand--a nice view, but the odor and bugs made it a much less enjoyable experience. Nearby Ogden is great, however, and packed with Art Deco.

How is payments done in Salt Lake City without using a smartphone?

 

If you don't want to use a smartphone for payment you can still buy a stored-value tap card. For our first trip on light rail we actually just bought a 1-ride ticket because I didn't yet realize that we could just use our phones.

beautiful photos and this was such a great idea for a driving trip.

 

not a fan of slc, but loving provo and breckenridge and of course ghost town cisco and bryce.

 

denver is a very intriguing place to me. larimer square should be called lamer square, but those photos of a white cloth table event are strikingly beautiful. i really do like the other areas around downtown, the sometimes scruffier and changing ones i guess, as you showed us some of. i just don't know what to make of that city, but it ain't boring or anything that is for sure. and they sure are doing incredibly well by rail transit.

 

thanks for the virtual vacation!

It was a bit surprising to me how quickly the city transitioned from a dense downtown into suburban, strip mall oriented neighborhoods. However even those areas seemed to still have decent bus service and bike lanes

 

Agreed. The density drops off really fast, but I was impressed with the level of transit service. SLC has a good airport connection on rail too. And damn that city is lucky to have such a great airport given its small size. It's way bigger and better than any airport in Ohio. Its service is nearly on the level of DTW and MSP, which is crazy given how small Salt Lake City is!

 

*I wouldn't be surprised if that airport is a big part of the reason they've been able to keep a strong, stable economy.

 

**Another thing people forget about SLC is how brutal the summers can be and how bad air pollution can get in the winter. Environmentally, it's a rough town. I wouldn't be surprised if it has worse air pollution than LA now!

I don't know if I'm alone in this observation, but Denver actually reminded of a dirtier Columbus. Its layout feels very Midwestern in certain parts of the city, and the architecture in some of the oldest neighborhoods could easily be confused with similar buildings in any of the Villages. I really need to get out to SLC one of these days, I feel like even though their built environment isn't as stellar as other cities, they understand how to really do transit and complete streets a lot better than some of its peer cities out this way.

 

Agreed. I get Columbus vibes, but overall Columbus has better urban neighborhoods. It just sucks that there is no rail transit in Columbus...or even Amtrak. :(

 

*Politically, Denver has changed in a big way.

I am going to have to disagree with the consensus on the board regarding density and Denver (or at least walkability) and its comparison to Columbus.

 

I was there in September (first time) for ten days visiting a buddy.  He is a big foodie and craft beer nut and I was carted all over the city (as well as exploring on my own, mostly on foot,  when he was at work).  I was amazed at how many cool walkable neighborhoods he took me to.  Very dense ( lots of cool infill).  Super old renovated and new houses interspersed with apartments (again new and old) and great strips of restaurants and shops.  There are also many neighborhoods which seem to be popping up from scratch but with good urban design principles (at least in the city...burbs are another story).  I definitely thought there was a lot more in the way of walkable neighborhoods than Columbus, and I don't know what the "dirty" comment is based on.

 

Way better public transportation than Columbus but that isn't hard.  A rail negative...as much as they are investing in rail, it is basically commuter based.  You really don't go from point a to point b on rail in the city or to traverse downtown.  It also seems to serve the Denver suburbs better than the older Denver neighbor hoods (which again are dense and thriving).  However, seemed to me that bus transit was lacking for some strange reason.  There is a free bus which travels up and down the 16th street mall (from the Civic Center to around Union Station... maybe about 2 miles).  Hits a good portion of downtown and is very frequent (although I just walked the mall).  Train from the airport is great...about a 30 minute ride to Union Station for only $9.00 and runs very often which makes sense given it is such a busy airport.

 

Denver is booming with tons of kids moving in.  Real estate has skyrocketed in a very short time (from depressed at the start of the recession to just ridiculous now).  Surprised how green the city was given it is high desert (go just outside the city and everything is brown).

 

Some negatives:

 

New architecture (from the 70's to now) is not that inspiring.  On the other hand they have done a wonderful job renovating older buildings including many from the late 1800s.

 

While it is crane city, most of it seems to be residential (I guess for obvious reasons).  Lots of apartments going up downtown but not much in the way of office development or retail.  Much of any new office development seems to be in the suburbs.  Much of the residential going up away from the center city seems cheaply built.

 

Surprised by the poor retail scene downtown, especially for such a large and growing city (No department store and this really piss poor mall).  I guess this can be explained by the fact that the cities' premier shopping area is only about 3 miles from downtown, around and in the Cherry Creek Mall (I really liked the neighborhood around the mall...more integrated than say Beachwood Place).  The mall did lose Saks about 5 years ago but does have a Neiman Marcus.

 

Not that impressed by the renovation of Union Station, especially the train boarding area.  Looks much more impressive in photos, although the surrounding neighborhood is great, both the renovated buildings and the many new luxury apartment buildings.  Super job with the street scape

 

Despite all the new rail transit it is still very much an auto centric city.  Traffic can be a nightmare.

 

By the way...lots of cool surrounding towns.  I could move to Boulder in a heart beat (real estate there is also crazy).

 

A rail negative...as much as they are investing in rail, it is basically commuter based.  You really don't go from point a to point b on rail in the city or to traverse downtown.  It also seems to serve the Denver suburbs better than the older Denver neighbor hoods (which again are dense and thriving).

 

I agree.  I was in Denver when the light rail was in its infancy -- mainly 1 5-mile line that largely ran in the streets through downtown.  Back then, the densest, most lively area/corridor was along Colfax Ave and the adjacent Capitol Hill area.  None of multiple FasTracks rail branches (10 built or under construction?) even touches that area... And from what I know, Colfax/Capitol Hill are still the main, dense trendy areas of Denver.

 

... While I understand there were historical reasons, it still seems quite weird that the rail lines largely to the north of Denver are electric commuter rail and, hence, there's no through service connecting to the extensive LRT to the southern burbs.  In fact, for much of the LRT, there's not even a direct LRT-to-commuter rail connection.  So good luck if you're a Littleton resident trying to ride rail to catch a plane at DIA -- the LRT terminates several blocks from the commuter rail terminal at Union Station downtown.  Yes they are connecting the T-Rex Line up I-225 to the Peoria commuter rail station (which will lower Aurora and some east side outer suburbs), and the plan is to extend the streetcar LRT from 30th & Downing a mile or so up Downing street to commuter rail ... but that's a long way from North-South through routing you'd think a rail network of Denver's size and complexity would demand.

Denver density in Capitol Hill ...

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7344752,-104.9764546,3a,75y,298.23h,84.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svEtB4iWiHNy94GMHSav2xg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7345796,-104.9752933,3a,75y,218.43h,85.34t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8Gc7RuOX29svrK1D9D5tCg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

    ... no trains near here.

I am going to have to disagree with the consensus on the board regarding density and Denver (or at least walkability) and its comparison to Columbus.

 

Honestly, I was surprised anyone agreed with me at all, because I knew I was painting that statement with reeeeeally big brush strokes!  :lol: All that I really meant by that comment was that Denver struck me as more architecturally similar to a Columbus or a Dayton than what I was expecting. Curtis Park would be right at home next to Italian Village, and Victorian Village could easily have been located along 17th Avenue in Denver, and the scale of the commercial streets struck me as similar in a number of places. The two cities definitely function pretty differently though in terms of development and transportation.

(And Denver's pretty flat, too!)

I am going to have to disagree with the consensus on the board regarding density and Denver (or at least walkability) and its comparison to Columbus.

 

I was there in September (first time) for ten days visiting a buddy.  He is a big foodie and craft beer nut and I was carted all over the city (as well as exploring on my own, mostly on foot,  when he was at work).  I was amazed at how many cool walkable neighborhoods he took me to.  Very dense ( lots of cool infill).  Super old renovated and new houses interspersed with apartments (again new and old) and great strips of restaurants and shops.  There are also many neighborhoods which seem to be popping up from scratch but with good urban design principles (at least in the city...burbs are another story).  I definitely thought there was a lot more in the way of walkable neighborhoods than Columbus, and I don't know what the "dirty" comment is based on.

 

Columbus and Denver are quite similar in neighborhood structure, generally (I've lived in both).  Columbus does not have neighborhoods with abundant highrises like Cheesman Park or even Cherry Creek like Denver but Denver lacks the older, tighter-street/walkable neighborhoods like German Village or Italian Village in Columbus.  Denver has a greater amount of commercial nodes than Columbus (or Cleveland...or Dayton...or Detroit...or Indy...) but Denver has nothing like High Street in a solidly dense, vibrant commercial corridor that spans for miles let along anything like the University District.  I wish Columbus had a City Park (Denver) or Stapleton development; I wish Denver had a solid townhouse neighborhoods like Italian Village or German Village.

 

Urban-wise, it's a wash.  Denver has a healthier downtown than Columbus (though both have horrendous parking lot "districts"); Columbus has better historic downtown-adjacent neighborhoods (German Village alone wins...though Denver has Larimer Square and LoDo for douchebag districts).

 

I agree about Denver's transit.  It's better than anything in Ohio but it lacks going to areas where I would actually take it to aside from Five Points and downtown.  Why Cherry Creek, Cap Hill, Colfax, or even Highland don't have rail access is baffling to me, given how much they've spent taking that train out to Arapahoe.