About Me And This Site

Hello!

So, what is this site about. Why is it different than all the other Utah travel sites out there?

Well, Utah Travel Secrets is Utah travel through a worth-your-time lens — a candid, firsthand guide for visitors who want to know what is actually worth seeing, when to go, what to skip, where to slow down, and how to experience Utah realistically instead of through a tourist brochure.

So, I'm not a native Utahn. I am a long-time resident however. In fact, I've lived here far longer than I care to admit.  

I arrived in Utah on a plane from Canada many years ago with no intention of staying longer than 4 years. I came on an athletic scholarship for football as well as to study at the University of Utah. 

"Studying" in college back then, as an athlete, meant just about what it has reverted to in recent years in this depressing NIL era. If you survived the 1970’s with a degree, I commend you. 

So many of the people I met in college in that era majored in botany and beer tasting. With a minor in skiing. Partying was a popular elective.

Playing College Football For No Pay
A Novel Idea

I did earn a degree in economics. The plan was that it would be a four-year stay and I would move on. Maybe five at most.

There was little concern by coaches or the administration at that time whether athletes got a degree or not. Just stay eligible and show up every day.

Hell, the way "student-ahtletes", especially football players, were treated back then, it's a miracle I made it through the first week. 80% of my freshman class didn't. 

Three-a-day practices. Back-to-back varsity and JV practices lasting four or five hours. Sometimes longer. No one outside seemed to care about it. Or even know about it.

There was … just like now ... too much money to be made. For everyone but the athletes. It would be decades before college athletes hired lawyers and started fighting back. 

When I was in high school dreaming about playing college football, I read a book called "Meat On The Hoof." It was an expose about "big-time" college football at the University of Texas.

The main gist of the book was how college football players were literally treated like animals. Shortly after that, I read an article in Sports Illustrated about the same thing taking place at Florida State.

So, like a fool, I still wanted to come to the U.S. to play college football. Probably just because someone told me I couldn't and would soon be home. Almost happened numerous times.

Ironically, after a nice senior year and a great evaluation at a camp for the top high school seniors in my home province of Saskatchewan, one of the schools that contacted me was Florida State.

The article I'd read ... though ... cured me of any desire to go to Florida State. Besides, I was from Canada. There was nothing about sweating 24 hours a day, snakes or gators that appealed to me.

Rice Stadium circa 1974

What Happened When I First Got Here
And It Wasn’t Good

The first time I got off the plane in Salt Lake City, it was early August. I wasn't ready for what smacked me in the face. About 99 degrees of cloudless blue sky.

And heat. A dry heat they said.  "Dry heat" my butt. It was a hot heat. I saw the temperature displayed on the old Utah Power and Light Building as we drove into the city along North Temple from the airport.

If I remember right, it read 99º F. A cooler early August day. For a boy from Saskatchewan, Canada, that might as well have been 129º.

I noticed right away I had a hard time breathing. No one had told me about the altitude. Neither did they tell me about the difficulty of moving around an breathing at the same time.

Despite Some Challenges, I Fell in Love
With This Place

Once thing that remained constant though. Once I saw those mountains on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley, I was hooked. 

Even now, I live near the base of those mountains ... not even 5 minutes away. With an up-close view of Mt. Olympus right outside my home office window.

Not too long after I got here, I experienced the fabulous Utah autumn weather along with the most vivid array of fall colors I'd ever seen.

A glorious time of year in Utah. My favorite time and place to spend the fall.

Then ... not long after ... there was the first snow in November. Thanksgiving Day to be exact. I was on the University of Utah campus when the Utah powder I'd never seen before started falling.

It continued to fall for hours. 12 - 14 inches deep. It looked like goose down blanketing everything. It was so quiet and it looked exactly like the photo above.

There were few students on campus due to the long weekend and the snow muffled whatever sound there was. It wasn't cold either.  At least not from my perspective.

Being from Canada, I wore nothing thicker than a down vest over a Levi jacket for most of my college years and I loved it.

For perspective, my memories of the first snow in the fall growing up in western Canada aren't positive ones. The term "wind chill factor" must have been invented in Canada. Wind and extreme chill go together in the Great White North. 

As a "freshman" at the U ... and, yes, we called it the "U" back then long before anyone knew Miami had a football team ... I remember talking to fellow students and athletes from different places.

Many of the "students" from the U.S. didn’t think it was cool to actually admit how much they liked Utah. Especially the ones from California.

A lot of those "athletes" from California would tell you they couldn't wait to go back. "Tits Cal" they called it. Many of those from other states ... and other countries (like me) ... had no problem admitting they loved it here. Especially the longer we stayed.

Funny how many of those people who whined about how "Utah sucks" still live here and wouldn't live anywhere else. And how many of those people from "there" are now moving "here".

No Going Back - The Secret Is Out

So many of us long for the way it used to be here. I know I do. With fewer people and fewer visitors. The secret has been out for a long, long time.

People will continue to come here to visit. And then to live. Why do you think I stayed? Without people wanting to come here, there wouldn’t be a need for this site.

And a lot of the neat things about this place wouldn’t even exist.

As I said above, Utah Travel Secrets is Utah travel through a worth-your-time lens — a candid, firsthand guide for visitors who want to know what is actually worth seeing, when to go, what to skip, where to slow down, and how to experience Utah realistically instead of through a tourist brochure.

My wife was born and raised here so she brings a different perspective than I do. She just happens to be another reason I stayed here. Actually the main reason.

If you use one, subscribe to the RSS feed. It seems to work well still. Also, come back and check out my blog "The Utah Travel Guy" to see my latest pages and posts. 

I also publish a link to all of my posts and articles on Facebook. If you like Facebook, you can keep track of my new articles there too.

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll find something of interest on my site.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Wasatch Mountains

Lake Powell

Zion National Park

Arches National Park

Great Salt Lake

Monument Valley