We had a few items to deliver to our home in Kanab, so we decided to drive instead of fly. We left right after New Years for a 2-day drive with a stop in Pendleton Oregon. We went through snowy areas - some beautiful, some harrowing - some zero-visibility fog, and plenty of mountain scenery.

Pendleton itself was centered around a cutesy old-west downtown and huge rodeo grounds. I took a treacherous run on the icy riverside trail before starting the longer leg of the drive.

Our rental unit in Salt Lake City was in the more industrial part of town, but only about 30 minutes walk to the downtown core. It was a tiny bungalow split into a duplex. We still had one bedroom, a full kitchen, workspaces and a small yard with a hot tub which we used every single night. 

We arrived Saturday so had all day Sunday to enjoy the area. We decided to take a hike in the Wasatch foothills NE of town. Snow on the trail started out packed but quickly became deep enough to make us wish we had snowshoes. We had mostly clear skies and views over to the lake and Antelope Island, where we hiked during a quick weekend stop the prior year.

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During the workweek we managed another short hike very close to our accommodation called Ensign Peak. Along with the views, this hill is significant in LDS history and the founding of SLC as Brigham Young was said to have seen it in a vision indicating the place to settle. The Utah State Capital is just below the peak, so we got to see where our taxes now go.

The final leg of our trip to Kanab was the prettiest yet, getting us excited for more exploration of our little edge of the state!