Temple Square, Salt Lake City

Temple Square, Salt Lake City was a beautiful park that is home to the main temple for members of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I was recently in Salt Lake City, Utah for the annual Winter Alt Design & Blog Conference. While I've been to Salt Lake City a few times before, I've never really had the chance to check out the downtown well- especially Temple Square. I scheduled an early flight from Denver so I could stroll through Temple Square with a local LDS friend (Ashlee from Ashlee Marie Cakes was an amazing tour guide- plus her electric blue hair proved a sometimes hilarious contrast to the very conservative church buildings.)  

If you, like me, aren't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (I am an Orthodox Christian/ Greek Orthodox), I strongly recommend taking a friend along who is a member, if you have one. The church has tons of lovely, intelligent and extremely friendly volunteers all around Temple Square (and everyone in Salt Lake is so nice, even if you ran into someone who wasn't volunteering I am confident they'd lovingly take you for a stroll around the Square) but it was great to be able to ask honest questions the way only friends can. 

I'm not going to bore anyone with my thoughts or observations on the whole experience on a spiritual level, but I will say that I had a great time learning all about Temple Square, and definitely recommend taking a few hours to dedicate to strolling through their open-to-the-public buildings if you ever find yourself in Salt Lake City! You won't get to go into the Temple unless you're an active, recommend holding member of the church, but there is still a ton to do and see around Temple Square. 

Can you imagine how lovely the Temple grounds are in spring with cherry blossoms peppering the view, and flowers filling all of the lovely gardens? It was pretty and serene on a cold January day, which was the perfect time for someone to be able to stroll without bumping into people (the Temple was actually closed for annual maintenance while we visited, so there were less people around than normal- perfect for touring!). 

Here's some of my favorite photos of the day-