Hi guys, I'll be hanging out in Salt Lake City for a few days at the end of April. I'm deciding to forego the hassle of renting a car for one and a half days and I'll be making use of the public transportation system. Is it smooth or an awful experience? My sparse plans are to visit the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area (birdwatching), and poke around the Jordan River trails. Any recommendations on local backpacking stores not too far away besides REI? I figured I'd try to buy local if I could. If anyone is around feel free to PM me if you want to grab a bite to eat or drink. I've never been to Utah before and would like to meet some of you guys.

Also, I'd love some input/critiques on where I'm contemplating stopping for drinks and chow:

Uinta Brewing
Epic Brewing Company
Squatters Pub and Brewery
Red Rock Brewing Compnay

As long as you're staying downtown, or at least paralleling Interstate 15, going to West Valley City Center or the U of U, UTA Buses and TRAX will work fine. Getting off the beaten path even a little will allow you to waste a LOT of time of UTA. You could do it with a combination of TRAX, UTA Buses and Frontrunner. 

I would just rent a car.

I don't drink, so no opinion on breweries. 

Epic beer is great. Don't plan on having a brew there though. Get a bottle to go. Don't eat there. Get a big bad baptist if you like coffee stout. Don't go to their restaraunt.

Squatters and wasatch are good to go and good food

Red rock is great bar food and beer

Park city brewery is good.

Bohemian brewery is decent beer and the food is top notch if you like German.


No idea about the trax.


There is a mountain climbing store in millcreek next to rei which is next to a liquor store and a French bakery that has a decent breakfast. Go to REI and just look at some of the local maps.

Natural history museum is neat and has some trails that are cool.

Look up the browning museum

Feel free to IM me any questions you have.

Public trans to areas outside of urban centers are not good. I'd just rent a car. Might even be cheaper.

Another just rent a car reply. You are going to lose  more time screwing around with UTA, Trax schedules than its worth.

UTA is great for me but I only use it to go to school. Like others have said, if you are trying to travel more than 5 miles / off the main routes, you're going to waste a lot of time. Since you're only here for a short amount of time, that means you'll have even less time to experience SLC.

Public transportation takes forever. Use Uber at the least.

The Jordan River is for homeless camping and dumping dead bodies.

Ensign Peak, The Living Room, Grandeur Peak, are all decent hikes not far from downtown.

Hrm, thanks. So its on par with the LA river. I'm still weighing car vs public trans. I'm getting stubborn over the price for a 1.5 day rental.

Public transit on Utah, lol.   Best of luck boss.  Lived here most of my life and it's better than ever,  but it blows.

Rent a car or your going to be taking the Nike Express mostly.  

In 13 years I've never been led wrong here.. so I'll rent a car. Suppose I'll definitely be able to check out Browning and Antelope Island now. I hope to visit next winter with my winter climbing gear. No hiking this trip as I'm saving my legs for cycling from Cedar City to Prescott, AZ.

I live in downtown SLC.  All of those breweries you listed are pretty good.  There are some newer ones that have opened up too - Proper Brewing, and A. Fisher Brewing.

Like others said, definitely rent a car.  Take a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon or Little Cottonwood Canyon.  The ski resorts will be closed by then except for Snowbird, but it's still a nice drive and everyone from out of state that I've taken up either canyon has loved it.  

Near downtown, try out Lucky 13 for a great burger one night.  Ruth's Diner is up Emigration Canyon and is a good place to eat too.  

Both Black Diamond and Backcountry.com are based here and have outlet stores in Salt Lake.  I think Kuhl has a store near the Black Diamond outlet too.

My last night in UT, currently in Kanab. The weather and drivers in SLC was a major buzzkill. Im pretty sure I saw more homeless than wildlife. The mountain views were sone of the best I've ever seen. I cycled through a snow squall, and then fought through super strong winds outside of Zion.

I definitely want to come back.

Welcome to spring in Utah.