What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive.

And of course, part of our annual “Best of the Beehive” is the tradition of hearing from you, the readers. From old favorites to new upstarts, from Logan to St. George to everywhere in between, our readers voted on who was their personal Best of the Beehive. Find the results below!    

here’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Eat & Drink

Jocularity

Weird Utah

Shopping

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Outdoors

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive. Here we present our top picks for making the most of Utah’s wild, wonderful outdoors.

Best of the Beehive Outdoors (It’s What We Do)

Best place for ghost stories
(with a side of bats)

Lava Tubes in Snow Canyon,
St. George  

Shimmy into the below-ground caves in Snow Canyon and you’ll not only escape the heat, you’ll be able to tell your friends tales of Bloody Mary, The Big Toe and The Hitchhiker in perfect darkness even in the middle of the afternoon. A bat may even flap around you just for good measure. Bring a headlamp to climb in and out. 1002 Snow Canyon Dr., Ivins stateparks.utah.gov

Best biggest mural in Utah

Astra Tower

In May 2025, the Astra Tower, a stylish new apartment development in SLC (aren’t they all so ‘stylish’?), unveiled what its developers are touting as the largest mural in Utah. The 14,000-sf, still-to-be-named original commission adorns the luxury apartment building’s west side. Salt Lake City-based muralists Joseph Toney (who is also a member of the Protect Our Winters Creative Alliance) and internationally acclaimed muralist and Salt Lake City native, Miles Toland collaborated on the massive project. 
89 E. 200 South, SLC astraslc.com

Best mountain peak named Ben (but not named after a guy named Ben)

Ben Lomond

This towering, pyramid-shaped peak in North Ogden is the inspiration for Paramount Pictures’ logo (the founder grew up near Ogden and is said to have drawn it up on a napkin). But saying the mountain’s name correctly is a litmus test. If you call it “Mount Ben Lomond,” “Ben Lomond Mountain,” or “Ben Lomond Peak,” you’re clearly not an Ogdenite. Long ago, a Scottish-born settler named the peak after a mountain she left behind in the old country, and “ben” is a Scottish
prefix that means “mount.”

Best place to drink straight from a tree

Stump Spring, North Ogden, Utah  

A 1930s burger joint thought it might be fun to drag a giant cottonwood stump to the front of its store. Using nearby well water, a craftsman was hired to fashion a drinking fountain running through it with a sign that read “Good water, isn’t it? Try our hamburgers.” The restaurant ultimately failed, but the life-giving stump remained and became a residential treasure. So when it began rotting away in the 1990s, Boy Scouts raised funds to recreate the stump and revive Stump Spring.
2641 N. 400 East, North Ogden

 Best ski resort for non-skiers

Snowbird

With 2,500 acres of skiable terrain, deep powder and challenging slopes reign supreme at Snowbird Ski Resort. But the resort offers plenty of consolation prizes if you’re not into skiing. The Cliff Spa’s heated decks, rooftop pool and menu of majestic treatments welcome weary travellers of the ski and sans-ski variety. Plus, with the Aerial Tram to the Mountain Coaster and a bevy of hiking/biking trails all summer…who needs skis anyway? 9385 Snowbird Center Dr., Snowbird  snowbird.com

Best place to roll in natural bling

 Glitter Mountain 

Ok, Ok, it’s just over the border from St. George, so it’s technically in Arizona—but Southern Utahns and spring breakers swarm this old gypsum-covered roadside attraction. Dotted with tiny crystals that create a glittering blanket across the ruddy reddish mounds, folks can snag some bling or simply take in the sparkle when the sun hits just right. Feller Stone of Veyo, Utah holds the mining claim and sells the selenite as “Utah Ice,” but we’re guessing they make the bulk of their profits from letting you and yours play at mining. So, by all means, snap those postable pics, bring some hammers and take home shiny momentos–but plan to pay a (small) fee for the privilege.
1 Glitter Mountain Road, Littlefield, Ariz. fellerstone.com/glitter-mountain

Best way to see a sandbagger win a race

Ogden Marathon

If you’ve ever run a race, you know that guy. Amidst a sea of techy-stretchy running gear, muscle tape and energy chews, here comes Mr “I-couldn’t-give-a-damn.” He’s wearing jean cutoffs, tube socks and the free T-shirt he scored from the credit union. But when that starting gun fires at the heart of the Wasatch, range, he shoots off like a pistol, and you think, “Pace yourself, new guy.” You inch along the South Fork of the Ogden River, no new guy. You circumnavigate Pineview Reservoir, still no sign of him. You stop for a few heaves yourself as you descend Ogden Canyon and enter Historic 25th Street. That’s when you see him casually strutting with his medal…and you realize: he’s not a newbie, he’s a sandbagger—and he’s just bagged first place.
(Annually in May), ogdenmarathon.com

Best place to indulge your Star Wars obsession

 OutpostX

Tatooine meets Black Rock City at this off-the-grid sanctuary. Thirty minutes west of Cedar City, OutpostX is a 100-acre desert playa with private ‘caves’, a Star Wars-style Cantina, sand cruisers and spa areas. You can even rent a wardrobe and cosplay as one of OutpostX’s 20 fictional inhabitants—our favorite is “Sonic Grandma,” the oldest known person in the galaxy with skills as a disc jockey. outpost-x.com

Best spot to meet bird nerds. (You know you are.)

Eccles Wildlife Education Center at Farmington Bay

Over 12 million birds, representing over 330 species, are year-round or migratory inhabitants of Great Salt Lake-adjacent habitats. Whether you’re a bona fide birder or just bought your first set of binoculars, a visit to Farmington Bay’s Eccles Wildlife Education Center will undoubtedly put a dent in your life-list. The center also hosts free wildlife-viewing and photography events, along with monthly Birding with Buddies trail walks with Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ biologists and bird-ID experts. wildlife.utah.gov

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Eat & Drink

Jocularity

Weird Utah

Shopping

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive. Here we present the things that make our state so endearingly eccentric—because let’s face it, Utah is weird!

Best Place to See Pioneer-era Knick-Knacks  

 Pioneer Memorial Museum

Bottles filled with teeth, a collection of rattlesnake rattles, Victorian hair art…pioneers collected it all. They may have been known for many things: resourcefulness, resilience, iron wills and frostbite, but who knew they were as quirky as we are? The museum, operated by The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, hosts a large collection of pioneer artifacts. (Including a two-headed taxidermied lamb. No. We aren’t kidding.) 300 N. Main St., SLC dupinternational.org. Photo courtesy of Visit Utah.

Best Place to Freak Out Your Friends

Lilly E. Gray’s Grave Marker, Salt Lake Cemetery  

You’ll have to hunt through 130,00 graves in the state’s largest cemetery to find it, but Lilly E. Gray, born in 1881, might have the spookiest epithet we’ve ever seen. Inscribed under her name are the words, “Victim of the Beast 666.” Say what? Some say her husband, serving time in prison when she died, had the marker made as a sick joke. If not, we seriously need to get to the bottom of this. 200 N. E Street, SLC (Plot X, Block 1, Lot 169, Grave- 4, East)

Best Place to See a Half-Submerged House 

Thistle Ghost Town

For almost 80 years, this little town, created by the railroad company, gave serious Old West vibes. Thistle modernized: telephone poles and asphalt roads grew around the old bank, schoolhouse, restaurant, general store and dance hall. But in 1983, a massive mudslide damned the Provo River, swelling into a lake that overtook the little town. Its 650 residents fled, leaving a ghost town with quirky remnants, like a half-submerged home. UT highway 89, about 13 minutes up Spanish Fork Canyon. Photography by Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement | Marriot Library

Best Place for Whale Watching (in Utah)

Ninth & Ninth

It’s a gigantic, multicolored, breaching whale sculpture in a traffic circle (“Out of the Blue,” by Stephen Kesler). Sheesh. But if you’re the type of person who likes to duck under the police tape or run towards a house fire, post a selfie with Mr. Controversy. You’ll unleash a bevy of crisis-reactions—the rage-faced emoji might become your new best friend. Who knows, maybe the anti-whale neighbors will place a symbolic garden gnome in your yard with a sign reading: “Whales belong in the ocean.” 900 S. 1100 East, SLC. Photo by Logan Sorenson.

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Outdoors

Eat & Drink

Jocularity

Shopping

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive. Here we present our favorite goofs, gaffs and overall fun in Utah.

Best place to practice your Cat pose with an adoptable kitty

Tinker’s Cat Café 

Now offering Cats and Yoga specialty classes, feline lovers can drink ‘cat-puccinos’ and buy cat bow ties, all while nuzzling kitties who need a furrever home. Working with Salt Lake County Animal Services, Tinker’s Cat Café is a meetup (complete with scratching posts and jingle toys) for potential cat owners and adoptees. If you’re not looking for a pet, Tinker’s invites you to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of adorable cats. Reservations are required for the lounge and classes but anyone can stop in to enjoy bakery sweets or sip on ‘camomeow’ tea. 302 E. 900 South, SLC tinkerscatcafe.com

Best place to get a selfie with a Sphinx (with the face of Joseph Smith)  

 Gilgal Garden 

Thirty years ago, the most dare-worthy spot in Salt Lake was a private backyard sanctuary sandwiched between Hire’s Big H and the Wonderbread factory. Hopping the fence, teens wandered in terrified fascination around eccentric sculptures ranging from an obelisk to a freaky-tall birdhouse to biblical stone slabs to, creepiest of all, a sphinx sculpture with the face of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. It turns out that the real mastermind behind the garden wasn’t a devil-worshipper as teens thought, but a sculptor named Thomas Battersby Child. A Mormon bishop, local businessman and stonemason who liked musing on the relationship between his religion and the ancient world, Child’s eccentric sculpture garden is now on public display. 749 E. 500 South, SLC gilgalgarden.org  

Best Place to Nail a Jumping-Selfie

East High School

Wanna hunt down Sharpay’s pink locker (still there) or step into the actual gymnasium/sanctuary where The Wildcats sang “Getcha Head in the Game” (while dribbling basketballs)? Neither do we. But hundreds of people do. Every. Single. Day. While East High School allows self-guided interior tours (after school hours), the spot garnering the most attention from High School Musical fans is just outside the front doors. Watching a gaggle of fans try for that perfect jumping-selfie in front of the school? We might pay to watch that. 840 S. 1300 East, SLC

Best place to follow in Olivia Rodrigo’s footsteps

The “I love you, Say it Back” Mural  

Provo-based Lonely Ghost streetwear isn’t housed on 9th South in Salt Lake City, but one of their famous taglines is. “I love you, say it back,” a phrase covering the back of many a teen’s hoodies these days, is essentially a commentary on the human condition (i.e., our vulnerability and the need for reciprocity). Now etched on a wall in big, bold letters, the phrase that “started it all” according to Lonely Ghost, serves as a backdrop for many a selfie, including one posted by celebrity Olivia Rodrigo. 774 E. 800 South, SLC

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Outdoors

Eat & Drink

Weird Utah

Shopping

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive. Here we present some mouth-watering highlights that just might encourage you to get out, eat and drink!

Best mouthful of the South

Big South food truck

From Ogden to the UC (that’d be Utah County) to their home base on Main Street in South SLC, Big South’s dishing up generous portions of perfectly prepared soul food favorites like smoked oxtails, saucy BBQ wings, Mississippi pot roast and the hands-down best fried catfish you can get. All with your pick of two tasty traditional sides. I always get the smoked mac ’n’ cheese and collards, but you do you, sugar. instagram.com/bigsouthslc

Best Place to give a nod to a Buck—with a Bud

The Shooting Star Saloon

It’s worth a trip to Huntsville,  to check out the Shooting Star Saloon, Utah’s oldest continuously-operating bar. For kicks, ask to be seated at “The Buck Booth,” where the head of the world’s largest St. Bernard looms in all its taxidermic glory overhead. Or you can eat burgers beneath thousands of dollar bills plastered to the ceiling, imagining the structure when it served first as a trading post, and later as a bar that somehow survived Prohibition. 7350 E. 200 South, Huntsville shootingstarsaloon.shop

Best St. George pie pitstop

Croshaw’s Gourmet Pies

Looking to feed your pie hankering? For St. George residents, it’s a no-brainer. Sold by the slice, as a mini or full-size pie, the endless offerings range from coconut, apple and rhubarb to lemon cream cheese, berry, banana and dozens of other paradise-filled pastries. Oh, and don’t forget about the savory pies. Nothing says cozy like a chicken or beef pot pie–even if it is100-plus degrees outside. To get the full experience, perhaps you’ll want to crank up the air-conditioning before digging in. 175 W. 900 South, St. George croshawspies.net

Best place to impress your dinner date

 Omakase nights at Post Office Place  

Omasake translates to “I leave it up to you,” and at Post Office Place, you’re in good hands. Takashi Chef Brice Okubo, Post Office Head Chef Brenden Kawakami and Takashi Gibo himself have curated a fifteen-course culinary journey, with dishes ranging from contemporary Japanese nigiri to experimental global cuisine. The menu changes each month and is only available on Wednesday nights, with seatings at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets drop a week before the new month and sell out quickly.
16 W. Market St., SLC popslc.com

Best spot to take your paradoxically pickiest and most indecisive friend 

 Sugar House Station  

Food halls are finally catching on in SLC. Case in point: Restaurateur Scott Evans revamped the Sugar House space formerly occupied by Kimi’s and turned it into the best kind of 21+ choose-your-own-adventure. Order cocktails featuring local booze (Waterpocket, Sugar House Distillery), wine from Casot, or java from Publik. Evans called “Avengers, assemble!” and resuscitated Birdhouse, Cannella’s and Greek Tyrant by Aristo (the name tracks)—along with other classics. 2155 S. Highland Dr., SLC sugarhousestation.com

Best unsung hero of the business lunch

 Bewilder Brewing 

Taking a work group out for lunch can be a struggle. The logistics of parking, seating a big group and negotiating separate checks are a huge pain. A delicious solution? Bewilder Brewing. Order at the counter, get a big table, enjoy a satisfying meal, delicious brew (HR, what?) and convivial atmosphere. Also, get that pretzel stack to share. 445 S. 400 West, SLC  bewilderbrewing.com

Best Place to eat fluffy pancakes

 Doki Doki  

Iced Ichigo drinks, crepe cakes and cloud pancakes—it’s no wonder that some of Doki Doki’s Japanese-inspired desserts are even reserved by the slice. Bonus: the restaurant’s fish-shaped taiyaki waffles are perfect on sundaes, and those animal-faced cream puffs also make yummy, showstopping toppers. When Doki Doki shared fears over social media about possibly closing its doors this past winter, the city went bananas. Lines formed down the street and around the block with a pleading, ‘don’t go’ look in our eyes. Doki Doki remains, thank goodness, the most delicious Japanese dessert house in town. 249 E. 400 South, SLC dokidessert.com

Best Sunday Dinner ritual 

Sunday Pho at The Pearl

Chef Tommy Nguyen labors over his authentic pho broth for six hours before serving it up every Sunday during soup season until it sells out (which it always does). Choose your protein and add-ons, like pork belly, spam and fresh ginger, and let the warming dish fill your soul.
917 S. 200 West, SLC thepearlslc.com  

The best place to spend $125 on a grilled cheese sando 

Chute Eleven in Deer Valley  

No, it’s not a typo. The grilled cheese at Deer Valley’s newest apres lounge is 100-percent-for-real priced at a whopping $125 and decadently filled with a butter-poached lobster tail, royal ossetra caviar and Rocky Mountain sky cheese. Pair it with a glass of bubbles and sweeping views of the surrounding ski hills. 9200 Marscac Ave., Park City deervalley.com

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Outdoors

Jocularity

Weird Utah

Shopping

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

What is the “Best?” It’s a subjective term after all. But we know it when we see it. Each year, we create an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list to tickle your intellect, fill your belly, spark your imagination and inspire ideas for exploring the place where you live. We reflect on the talk of the town—newsmakers and civic upheavals—that inspired both cheers and jeers. We pile it all together into an always-incomplete list dubbed Best of the Beehive. Here we present some of our standout stops for shopping in Utah

Best place to support local makers

Salt & Honey Market

With 250 rotating local vendors, you’re bound to find something special when visiting Salt & Honey Market. The Collective Makers Market has three locations in the city, each filled to the brim with vintage wares, handcrafted beauty products, artisanal ceramics and much more. The shops are often curated to fit the season, making holiday shopping a breeze. 926 E. 900 South, SLC saltandhoneymarket.com

Best place to shop without shame

 Lovebound Library  

Among the treasures of local businesses in the Maven district, Lovebound Library is a woman-owned bookstore specializing in romance. From steamy fantasy novels to heart-tugging tales of queer love, this bookshop celebrates the genre loud and proud. 145 E. 900 South, SLC loveboundlibraryslc.com

Best place to shop for kitschy gifts in a former public swimming pool 

Rainbow Gardens

Once a hotel with private mineral baths in the late 1800s, the establishment added a ballroom and indoor pool to elevate it into a natural hot springs resort. Since the 1970s, however, this edifice at the mouth of Ogden Canyon has been revamped into a restaurant and store. Instead of filling in the empty indoor pool, however, stairs and Astroturf were added, and the pit remains as a below-ground, weird shopping experience in which patrons can hunt for crafts and knick-knacks while descending into the belly of the beast. 1851 Valley Dr., Ogden rainbowgardens.com

Best place to make a sentimental gift

Katie Waltman Boutique Charm Bar  

Charm Braclelts are back in a big way. Step up your personalized collection at Katie Waltman’s charm bar. This Sugar House boutique offers a delightful selection of high-quality charms and chains, perfect for a sentimental gift. 2108 E. 1300 South, SLC katiewaltman.com  

Best way to enhance your summer glow

Seshin Korean Scrub Spa 

Utah’s dry Climate can wreak havoc on your skin. Give your largest organ a reboot with a sesh at Seshin Korean Scrub Spa. Skin-prep starts with a treatment in the infrared sauna. Next is a luxurious head-to-toe rubdown leaving you soft as a baby’s bottom. The treatment ends with a super hydrating massage before you’re sent on your way. 233 Highland Dr., Holladay seshinkoreanscrubspa.glossgenius.com

Best Place to Wonder, “Are the Owners For Real?”

Your Family Still Matters—Paintball, Food Storage & Violins

Need we say more than the voluminous moniker of this shop conveys? If your family still matters, this dead-serious store hopes to quell your anxieties with a rather odd assortment of supplies. Owners say they specialize in equipping folks for “life’s unpredictable moments,” according to the Facebook page. You may be laughing now, but if you ever find yourself stuck in a bunker during the apocalypse, you’d better hope to high heaven you have food storage, plenty of paintball pellets, and a violin, obviously. 175 W. 900 South, Saint George bereadyfoods.com

Best browsing for vintage goods with a view

BCC Flea Market

This funky outdoor market at Brighton Resort is a perfect destination after getting your hike on, but is certainly a destination all on its own when temps in the valley get steamy. Best yet, it’s held on Sundays.
8304 S. Brighton Loop Rd., Brighton  bccflea.com 

Best place to find that thing you didn’t know you needed (like a samurai sword)

NPS Store 

Exploring the eclectic merch at the NPS Store is its own kind of fun—if not for treasure hunting, then at least for some laughs. You’ll find yourself perusing a mix of surplus, misdirected, unclaimed or sometimes even damaged products, so don’t even think about bringing a shopping list…in NPS land, random inventory reigns supreme. Baby Ugg boots, Sun Bum sunscreen, fresh bananas and a 24-pack of Coke Zero were a few of my shopping wins. Hard pass on the (with-tags) clearly-worn wedding dress—it must have been a hot, humid wedding day— a tub of expired mayo, or the unboxed inflatable table-and-chairs set.
1600 Empire Rd., SLC npsstore.com 

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Outdoors

Eat & Drink

Weird Utah

Jocularity

2025 Wasatch Faults (and Faves)

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

Each year, we award our Wasatch Faults to public figures, newsmaking events and the dubious achievements that empower our schadenfreude, face palms and outbursts of “WTF?” But amid the jeers, we also offer a few cheers—bright spots of pleasantry and civility that help cut the acid in our stomachs.

Faves    

The Lobby Bar at Asher Adams Hotel 

Stepping into the soaring-ceilinged lobby of the Asher Adams Hotel harkens back to a time when travel equaled luxury, at least for first-class passengers of the late Gilded Age, and even a short excursion was a grand adventure for most folks. In this glam example of adaptive reuse, the historic Union Pacific Depot’s original details and decorative elements literally shine. Bonus: The cocktails and food are as outstanding as the atmosphere. 2 N. 400 West, SLC asheradamshotel.com

Elevate Utah PAC’s effort to answer the question “What the fresh hell just happened?!” in Utah politics 

Feeling overwhelmed by the steaming mess of state politics? Check out the Elevate Utah PAC social media feeds for info and inspo. Armed with a whiteboard, fluffy Lav mic and a Costco haul of Post-it notes, Gabi Finlayson and Jackie Morgan cover day-to-day legislative drama in relatable terms. Their takes are smart, deep, fierce and wickedly funny. And they present immediate, actionable ways for anyone to get involved and work for change. They’re giving this jaded Gen Xer hope, one disgruntled eye roll at a time. elevateutahpac.com

Faults    

Vail: “She doesn’t even go here.” 

Here’s a good lesson for other ski resorts: If your patrollers go on strike, don’t pass it off as “limited impact” to guests and plug in a puny “patrol support team” during the busy holiday weeks around Christmas and New Year’s. Attempting to keep the resort open amidst failed contract negotiations with the patrollers’ union (who demanded a living wage and benefits), Vail Resorts butchered the holiday ski experience for 13 days with three-hour lift lines, limited terrain and questionable safety conditions (understandably upsetting hundreds of guests and pass holders). One striker, standing at the foot of the mountain, held up a sign which said it best: “If we’re down here, who’s up there?”

Drive baby drive (Senate Bill 195)  

This year, the Utah Legislature voted to sharply curtail Salt Lake City’s planning authority over its streets. The reason for this power grab? Hippie ideas like speed bumps, bike lanes, lighted crosswalks and other traffic calming measures, which, in survey after survey, are welcomed by the majority of Salt Lake residents. The capital city of Utah effectively has to run any changes through the Utah Department of Transportation. UDOT already controls two major arteries in SLC: State Street and 700 East, which are designated state highways. But now that oversight extends to all SLC streets. 

The decades-long Sugar House overhaul  

The price for progress was too great for Sugar House favorites like Pizza Volta and Kimi’s Chop & Oyster House. With multiple construction projects going on at once (Sugar House Crossing development, Sugar House Business District, Sugar Alley development, Sugar House Streetcar S-line, roadway reconstruction, 2100 South Sewer Expansion, 1100 East Improvement Project), the area has been trapped in a construction mire for almost two decades. Small businesses have been boxed in, pushed out and impacted from all sides. (Hardly) to the rescue: a whopping $3,000 per small-business grant from the city meant to mitigate the effects. Most small businesses say it’s not nearly enough.

BAD air + Bad politics

Rollbacks on air pollution regulation by the Trump administration couldn’t have come at a worse time for Provo, which recently ranked among the worst U.S. cities by the American Lung Association for ozone pollution. Applauded by Trump’s EPA, Utah gave polluters and billionaires a big WIN by lowering emissions goalposts. (Because, c’mon, yacht fuel ain’t cheap.) The LOSERS:? Everyone else breathing in the respiratory irritant responsible for giving our lungs a lifelong sunburn.

The increasingly misnamed Ballpark District

This Summer, the Salt Lake Bees, the minor league baseball affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, threw out the first pitch at a new park, located in South Jordan. Meanwhile, the future of the ballpark, the namesake of the “Ballpark District,” is uncertain. There has been a ballpark on this land since 1928. For now, the University of Utah baseball team is playing its season there, but otherwise the stands will be empty, the gates closed and the organ silent. We’re told it will become something else. What that “something else” is, no one can exactly say. Why not a ballpark?

There’s more to love in the Beehive State!

Outdoors

Eat & Drink

Weird Utah

Jocularity

Shopping

Find all of this year’s Best of the Beehive coverage, and more “Bests” from past issues. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.