Utah Olympic Park
Between the setting and the breathtaking view, it’s difficult to leave here without a newfound sense of awe and wonder - a feeling we could all use, at the moment.
What is it? A state-of-the-art Olympic training facility, and home to the US Ski and Snowboard Teams, located in Park City, Utah. “The nearly 400 acre venue houses one of only four sliding tracks in North America, six Nordic ski jumps, a 2002 Winter Games museum, and a multitude of adventure activities.”
Why you’ll love it: Set in the picturesque mountainside of Park City Utah, Olympic Park offers year-round access to winter sports activities. In addition to their museum, extreme sports simulators and (absolutely terrifying) bobsled experience, Olympic park also allows you to sit in on the US Olympic Ski and Snowboard Team practices. For someone who is not an olympic sports enthusiast (which, how dare you) this may not seem exciting, but, we assure you, you WILL be impressed when you see the aerial skiers fly off a massive ramp, propelling them 20 meters into their air (!!!) where they land expertly in a (very deep) pool below. To see these athletes articulating every movement (in a setting where we would likely just be flailing to our deaths) is truly something to behold!
Aerial Skiers at Utah’s Olympic Park
What you need to know: While restrictions are ever-changing, because Olympic park boasts wide open outdoor viewing spaces across it’s 400 acres, it’s easy to remain distanced while watching aerial practice or checking out the freestyle ski and snowboard teams. (As a bonus, you’re nestled right up in one of the country’s most beautiful canyons) For the time being, the Alf Engen Ski Museum is open from 9am-6pm, daily. On weekends, for the low low price of $195 dollars, you are invited to risk your life (and possibly your dignity) as you scream your way down an actual bobsled track piloted by an actual bobsled professional. (Can you even fathom how much that guy loves his job?) For the slightly less death-inclined, the park also offers tubing, zip-lines, a ropes course and other season-and-covid-dependent activities.
Why we think it matters: At a time when it can be difficult to feel patriotic (re: our would-be dictator refusing to concede an election he clearly lost) Olympic Park brings us closer to a feeling of pride in our country than we’ve had in a long time. Seeing athletes whirl through the air at top speed while the flag flies high over the olympic rings is the like the reset we never knew we needed. Between the setting and the breathtaking view, it’s difficult to leave without a newfound sense of awe and wonder - a feeling we could all use, at the moment.
In their own words: Inspired by the success and momentum of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games, the (Utah Olympic Legacy) Foundation has turned its focus toward embracing, engaging and involving Utah’s youth in winter sport. From community-based recreational camps and progression-oriented development programs to its official designation as an official U.S. Olympic Training Site at the Utah Olympic Oval and Utah Olympic Park – the Foundation represents the future of winter sports in North America.
MOAB | Feeling Beloved
Moab is a place to discover yourself in the present, but with a deep sense of being cradled by the past. A place to feel beloved on the earth.
“And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”
Moab, in Southern Utah, is an enchanting town full of contrasts. Nestled in the Southwest desert, it is an area of stark but ethereal beauty. Red cliffs rise dramatically out of the flattest of plains, as if sculpted by some other-worldly hand.
As a land where dinosaurs once roamed, where the Wild West played out, markers of the past are everywhere. Serene hikes among stunning, primitive, red rock formations compete with modern, high-octane adventures, tempting the senses. Moab is a place to discover yourself in the present, but with a deep sense of being cradled by the past. A place to feel beloved on the earth
The town is the gateway to two national parks, The Arches and Canyonlands. The former has over 2,000 Arches, with the iconic Delicate Arch drawing endless streams of visitors. The park is a mystical wonderland of gigantic sandstone structures, eroded monoliths, spires and colossal rocks, balancing precariously; somehow daring you to approach, to wander among them, but forever imprinting a deep awe and respect for this ancient ecosystem upon you. For indeed, over 65 million years of intense geological forces created this surreal, fragile land.
A visit to the Canyonlands is equally as mesmerising. The Colorado River and Green River combine here, dramatically carving out the land. Majestic canyons, mesas and buttes formed over millions of years invite the visitor deeper into the desert. It is a place of reflection, a place where solitude can be found among its vast, primitive deserts. Traces of the past hang in its atmosphere. Rock art from hunter-gatherers from the Late Archaic period (2,000-1,000 BC) is found alongside petroglyphs from the Ancestral Puebloans, and some images are dated to after 1540 AD, when the Spanish re-introduced horses into America; a veritable gallery of mankind’s visions unfolding over time.
Moab is a land of awe and wonder, where dinosaur tracks are as ubiquitous as Native American petroglyphs. Time transcends. As the desert sun burns intensely overhead, you can somehow feel the ground shake as a gigantic Brontosaurus tears trees from the land.
As the night sky falls, a curtain of black dramatically descending, you are drawn into the thundering hooves of the Wild West days, debauchery and gunfights escalating in the town squares. Ultimately though, it is a magical place where time loses relevance, a place to feel beloved on earth.
To find out more: website www.discovermoab.com / Instagram discovermoab / Facebook @discovermoab / Twitter @Visit_Moab_Utah