Salt Lake City RV Parks

We come through here at least once a year on our trek north, or south. The quantity and quality of parks has come and gone.

We liked the one that used to be out on State Street in Sandy - Quail Run - but heard they closed it down - to make a parking lot, no less. It was tucked down in a little valley off the highway and had very, very tight spots, but it was clean and tidy and had green grass and a great location.

We stayed just once at the one in Draper - Mountain Shadows. Never again. It is a trailer park with a few RV sites. The roads aren't good, the access to sites isn't good, the atmosphere isn't great.

We stayed a number of times at what is now the KOA on North Temple, just west of the State Fairgrounds. Half of it is long-term trailer-park-looking small sites huddled under huge trees. The other half is the itinerant traveler area - lots of nice huge shade trees (not a good thing for we who have multiple satellite dishes), narrow roads, fairly small sites. But, the people are usually very nice, there is a swimming pool that our grandkids loved the one trip we stayed here with them, there is a small cafe on site that has fairly decent food, the gift shop/grocery area isn't bad, and if you work it right, the satellites will work.

This trip we're at the Pony Express RV Resort. It's about 5 miles north of the KOA on Redwood Road, almost to the 215 freeway (exit 28, in fact). Across the 215 is a Flying J truck stop - a small one. This is a brand new park and has good and bad points. We have a 40 foot motorhome - the 40' site is either 39.5, or our coach is 41 - we hang out on both ends. Next time we'll take the 60' lot. They charge more for the bigger sizes, which is okay with me. The person who laid it out did some wrong calculations, in our humble opinions: the roads are paved, but narrow; the sites are concrete pads, including one for the toad, and some grass, but the pads slope at both ends - jacks go way up if they are close to the front or back of your rig. The 60' sites have much more elbow room between rigs than the 40' ones; there is a great kids play area; the clubhouse is nice, and it's clean; the front desk people are all new and not quite functioning as well as they might later - it took forever on a cell phone to just make a reservation.

I spent the week at the Genealogical Library down near Temple Square (with the tulips and pansies in full and gorgeous bloom). The commute into town is 2x the distance from the KOA, but not bad (about 7 miles.) The commute home at 5 pm was very slow, mainly because of the construction on the new interchange with I-215. Maybe that will improve. It would be nice if there was some kind of shuttle into downtown a couple of times a day...

I ate lunch at the Lion House one day - yummy! The group had dinner at Grand America's (not Little America, but Grand America...) cafe one night - nice place, good food. I had a tender, moist turkey dinner with terrific stuffing. We had dinner one night at McGrath's Fish House - yummy fried oysters! Chris had the New Orleans catfish, which was barely visible and tastable under all the shrimp and sauces, but good.

We stopped for dinner one evening at a one-time favorite of mine from years ago - the Rio Grande Cafe in the old Rio Grande Train Depot, which also houses the Utah Historical Society. Unfortunately, the food and atmosphere have gone way down since I was there last. Que lastima! The neighborhood is a bit interesting also -- there is a soup kitchen at the end of the block and lots of street people hanging about. But it was that way before.