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Question: What is it like to live in Utah?

K9hndler98

Certified Ski Diva
How is 49 North and Switzer (I know I spelled that wrong)? My daughter skis both but I can't get a good review from a teenager!
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
The inversion in Utah is going to be a major issue for me :(

Mind you - it's not an air quality problem everywhere in Utah or all the time. There is never an air quality issue up in the mountains, or usually high enough up on th benches. It's only in the valleys. So if you can live higher up - no issue. If you're talking about being based at Hill - you're right along the mountains, so if you can find a place even part way up higher, you're out of most of it, and you might be looking at a few days a year of bad air. If you can be up in Park City, for instance - you'd never be dealing with the air quality issues.

And it doesn't happen all the time. Even in this crappy winter, we had several weeks of nasty air in December, but it really hasn't been bad in the past month. While the storms that drop 1" of snow lately seem annoying, they keep the air clear, so that's good. And usually, you know, it snows regularly!

Just wanted to clarify. Utah's a big place!
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
How is 49 North and Switzer (I know I spelled that wrong)? My daughter skis both but I can't get a good review from a teenager!

49 Degrees North is a big family area. Nothing super steep, but lots of fun. They've been adding lifts and runs. I don't usually ski there but lots of my friends are die hards.

Schwietzer is a big area. It has great view from the top. In terrain I'd compare it to Whitefish/Big Mountain. They are very similar. It has some good steeps, nice tree skiing and great views. There is something for everyone there. No real crowds that I've ever seen.

Do you need to know more? I regularly ski Mt Spokane and Schwietzer. I rarely go to 49 since its almost as far as Schweitzer from my house.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
How is 49 North and Switzer (I know I spelled that wrong)? My daughter skis both but I can't get a good review from a teenager!

Sorry for the thread hijack! They are fun mountains! 49 is very small but also a quick hour from Spokane. Schweitzer is a bit farther but a really nice mountain, quite a bit larger. Can get fogged in a lot but that never stopped us! We would fly from Virginia to ski these areas because they were far better than anything in the mid-Atlantic.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Mind you - it's not an air quality problem everywhere in Utah or all the time. There is never an air quality issue up in the mountains, or usually high enough up on th benches. It's only in the valleys. So if you can live higher up - no issue. If you're talking about being based at Hill - you're right along the mountains, so if you can find a place even part way up higher, you're out of most of it, and you might be looking at a few days a year of bad air. If you can be up in Park City, for instance - you'd never be dealing with the air quality issues.

And it doesn't happen all the time. Even in this crappy winter, we had several weeks of nasty air in December, but it really hasn't been bad in the past month. While the storms that drop 1" of snow lately seem annoying, they keep the air clear, so that's good. And usually, you know, it snows regularly!

Just wanted to clarify. Utah's a big place!

This is what I needed to know! Thanks! I recall some very good friends of ours lived somewhere up the canyon on the way to Snowbasin and never complained of air quality. I was wondering how hard it would be to live up high enough. I am so hopeful he'll get stationed there next as it's his last AF job before he retires, and I could see us retiring there. The air quality was a big fear of mine.

Knowing my luck, we'll end up back in Dayton, OH and I'll cry :eek:
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
the pre-wash dog tongue. (Did I just ensure no one is ever going to dine at my house?)

I have that pre-wash setting too!

Been taking my dog Toby to BF's house on weekends so he gets some good walks while my leg mends. If the dishwasher is open and the rack out, he'll go up and lick any dirty, accessible dishes. Now they just put the dishes on the floor at the end of meals if there's nothing objectionable (to me) on them.

I've always referred to you as "Aunt Christy" to my dog ... as in, "one more time and you're going to be going to Aunt Christy's house for a while" ... and now I know why!

Oops. Back on topic ...
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
Sorry for the thread hijack! They are fun mountains! 49 is very small but also a quick hour from Spokane. Schweitzer is a bit farther but a really nice mountain, quite a bit larger. Can get fogged in a lot but that never stopped us! We would fly from Virginia to ski these areas because they were far better than anything in the mid-Atlantic.

Have you been to 49 since they added the two new lifts? How long has it been since you've skied up there?

Schweitzer is big enough to be a destination mountain, for sure.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Have you been to 49 since they added the two new lifts? How long has it been since you've skied up there?

Schweitzer is big enough to be a destination mountain, for sure.

Hmmm, I think it's been four years. My brother and his daughter had season passes and it always kept them happy, I know that!
 

Sheena

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I live in Logan, and yeah, the inversion can be really bad. This year not so much, we have been lucky. Aside from a few days in December, this winter has been not so bad as far as inversions are concerned.

Logan is really nice if you like small towns. There is a really cute downtown, and there are a surpisingly quite a few really good non-chain restaurants.

Utah State University is here, so you do get a bit of a liberal crowd as a result. The nice thing about having the university here is there are always lots of activities going on. Also in the summer, there is an traveling Opera series in the local theater.

There are not as many activities as there are in SLC, but for a city/county the size of Logan/Cache Valley, there is a lot going on here.

As a pp mentioned, there is a local mom n pop resort just 40 minutes from Logan. You are not going to find a lot of really challenging terrain there, but it is fun, and I have enjoyed skiing there for the past 4 winters.

Mr. Sheena and I are likely going to be moving down near Ogden, and the thought of it is making me a little sad. And 4 years ago, I never imagined I would be feeling this way.
 

litterbug

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Sigh. I wrote a big long post yesterday afternoon and went off to meet with some folks and quickly shut down the computer so I could leave and forgot to finish the post.

Anyhow, SLC is fine to live in, solid Democratic and pretty liberal, forward-thinking local government, good university and hospitals attract 'immigration,' growing businesses, biotech industries. I came here 18 years ago with no intention of staying more than five years or so but haven't been able to leave yet, and now I ski, so it's hopeless (resistance is futile). It's a very different place since the 2002 Olympics; there are lots of very good restaurants and a ton of ethnic food (Thai seems to be a big growth area, but we even have some half-decent pizza that's edible by this southern Connecticut Italian food snob). It's becoming more pedestrian-friendly all the time. And something like 35-40% of SL County is LDS, if I remember correctly, so we don't have as many one-dimensional neighborhoods.

The air pollution problem in Utah is because of the natural temperature inversions during high pressure (e.g. storm-free) periods. The air gets white from moisture as high pressure keeps cold air near the surface, and the inversion traps pollutants until low pressure comes through and lets the 'air column' mix (I used to work in the air pollution control agency here). Even Moab has inversions; anything surrounded by mountains or inside a canyon is going to invert in high pressure conditions.

ETA: Yes, I left out the stuff about the neanderthal legislature and all, but I've done well professionally, and it's a lot safer than most places I've lived.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
ETA: Yes, I left out the stuff about the neanderthal legislature and all, but I've done well professionally, and it's a lot safer than most places I've lived.

I find this whole thread interesting. In general, everyone assumes that somehow "conservative" and/or Mormon is by nature a "negative" and yet all express only the positives of living in Utah. I don't have "pony in this race" but can't help wondering if it is safer and everyone is having a positive experience why the dominant conservative, mormon population is viewed as a negative? ... besides the obviously more complicated liquor laws that is!
PS I am not LDS associated just curious
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I find this whole thread interesting. In general, everyone assumes that somehow "conservative" and/or Mormon is by nature a "negative" and yet all express only the positives of living in Utah. I don't have "pony in this race" but can't help wondering if it is safer and everyone is having a positive experience why the dominant conservative, mormon population is viewed as a negative? ... besides the obviously more complicated liquor laws that is!
PS I am not LDS associated just curious

I would guess one negative could be that one might have to endure political rantings of a certain flavor from time to time from people that perhaps you thought knew better. :D But on the average, the snow is so amazing and the scenery so beautiful that it's a sacrifice many are willing to make.

I am also guessing that the blanket conservative label is fed more by the media than anything. I've been told there is a sizeble, vocal gay community in SLC. And I would absolutely say that southern Utah (i.e., St. George) is WAY more conservative than SLC or the northern part of the state.

I have seriously considered whether, if my life situation changes, I would want to live in the Ogden Valley area. I'm just not sure I could live that far away from the ocean. But it's a friendly enough area that I've thought about it. Part of what makes me hesitate is whether I could find work...but that may become an issue where I live too!
 

litterbug

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Conservative or LDS aren't bad in themselves, but it's so uniform here that one tends to feel dis-empowered and a little bit oppressed (see the comment above about redistricting Salt Lake to separate it into sections that pinwheel out into extremely right-wing parts of the state). It's all about power, and when one massive group owns the keys to the castle, the other is just going to gripe a little. Of course, no one is making me live here, but that doesn't mean I have to love all of it.

Utah is interesting from a historical point of view. It's kind of like Texas in that it has a unique culture that's pretty homogeneous across the state. For Texans, it's about their history of going back and forth from Mexico to the US and for a while almost becoming their own nation. For Mormons, they have an origin story about fleeing hardship to create their own land where they could practice their religion and live in peace. It's also a spiritual center for all the millions of Mormons around the world, a place they come "home" to. The result is a cohesive, inward-facing society that actively excludes those of us who aren't members. That makes for solidarity amongst the "everyone else," but it's also disempowering to feel like your opinion or vote simply doesn't matter. I imagine a conservative living in an overpoweringly liberal area would feel the same way.

Because I live in a place with a lot of diversity of lifestyle, religion, and politics (in Utah, a Democrat can be anyone who's not very conservative, which leaves a lot of room for variety), I can feel insulated from the dominant culture, even though the Temple is only two blocks from my apartment. It doesn't hurt that my porch faces onto a Catholic school and looks away from the Temple and the Capitol and toward the Wasatch. :D
 

litterbug

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've been told there is a sizeble, vocal gay community in SLC.
Very true; you should see the Pride parade! And we had our own OWC thing in Liberty Park (which got closed down when a guy died, I think of an overdose, and that was that for now). And have you heard about

The conservative label is well placed, although it's conservative with a healthy dose of libertarianism. The state used to be a lot more moderate; there were a few Democratic governors decades ago, and more of a live and let live attitude, and a lot of Mormons have very socially liberal tendencies. Sometimes I think the conservatism is a reaction to new influences by people coming into the state. I know that the growth of tourism and federal parks both brought prosperity and built resentment in SE Utah, at least; that fueled the Sagebrush Rebellion, and maybe the current flavor of politics here.

Obviously I could go on and on, and I have no idea what I'm doing up this late.
 

iisemily

Certified Ski Diva
I find this whole thread interesting. In general, everyone assumes that somehow "conservative" and/or Mormon is by nature a "negative" and yet all express only the positives of living in Utah. I don't have "pony in this race" but can't help wondering if it is safer and everyone is having a positive experience why the dominant conservative, mormon population is viewed as a negative? ... besides the obviously more complicated liquor laws that is!
PS I am not LDS associated just curious
I grew up in a rural, southern VA, very Christian community. I was told as a child by my school-mates they couldn't be friends with me because I wasn't Christian. In Durham, NC, it came up in a conversation between my hubby and one of his co-workers that he wasn't Christian. The co-worker's response was "And I thought you were a good person."
While these occurrences don't happen everyday, they happened often enough to make things uncomfortable. As someone else in the thread posted - they don't judge and they don't want to be judged by others - I am of the opinion that if your religion makes you happy and improves your life, that is fantastic for you, but please, leave me out of it. That's why I started this thread, to get people's impressions of the sort of attitudes in UT. Libertarians are great - they are happy to ignore me :becky:- and I enjoy friendly political debates :boxing: as long as no one get's compare to Hitler :smile:. Basically, I just don't want my kids (when they come along) to go through what I did as a kid. It is a question of whether the prevalent religious and political views are strong yet tolerant of others or "oppressive."

Again - really not trying to offend anyone - just looking for a place that is a good fit for me.
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I grew up in a rural, southern VA, very Christian community. I was told as a child by my school-mates they couldn't be friends with me because I wasn't Christian. In Durham, NC, it came up in a conversation between my hubby and one of his co-workers that he wasn't Christian. The co-worker's response was "And I thought you were a good person."

:jaw:

I am so, so sorry you had to endure this. I think your cautious approach to where you might live is quite justified. Good luck in your search!
 

litterbug

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Here's a contrast: my LDS co-workers at my old job wondered why it wasn't scary for me to not be sure there's an afterlife because my background says it doesn't really matter because we're just supposed to do our best in this life and not expect a reward, and they have a really definite belief that they're going to be reunited with their loved ones. They were just baffled, but they cared a lot about me. My very straight and narrow boss is just very curious about my interpretation of the Torah ("old" testament) because he's spent time studying it from an LDS point of view.

I haven't brought this up because I do think it would be a negative for me, but I wouldn't want to raise kids here. This might have changed, but as of a few years ago, LDS kids go to 'missionary' for religious training for an hour or so in the afternoon and then come back to school for the rest of the day, which seems weird to me. There's an LDS teaching operation near almost every public school. There's also a lot of church and 'mandatory' family time which means that non-LDS kids have to make their own activities, often with kids outside their neighborhoods. Soccer is a big Saturday and Sunday activity for many families specifically because of that. Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups are also often separate. I don't think kids proselytize, but this would make me uncomfortable, and I'd probably want to put my kids in one of the Catholic schools or the large sectarian Jewish-run school downtown.

If there's a Diva with kids, they can say whether these things are still practiced, though.
 

skatha

Certified Ski Diva
I've been to Utah several times and find that the touristy areas are more liberal than the non-touristy ones. Places like Moab, etc. I 'm dying laughing with the references to poor air quality, tho. You guys need to visit Houston if you want some persistently bad air that causes cancer....as for the other "historical" references to TX, read some history books! White settlers came from the US, invited by the Mexican government, to serve as a buffer, or "human shields" between Mexico and the Kiowas and Comanches. Once the number of Texians reached a critical mass, they declared their independence. Thanks to Santa Ana getting a "nooner" from the "Yellow Rose of Texas" on the battlefield of what later became the San Jacinto Battle site here in Houston, TX won it's independence. It was it's own country for 10 years...until 1845...
If you come up either I-15 or US 89, you'll see unfinished compound after unfinished compound. It's how the polygamists avoid paying property taxes on their homes. Vernal on US 40 was also the site of a Twilight Zone style encounter for us as well. The rest of the state is cool...
 

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