2 Best Sights in East Side and Sugar House, Salt Lake City

Home to the city's lofty University/Foothill district, the East Side is both a lively urban neighborhood and a scenic slice of nature, with its many trails twisting and turning into the Wasatch Range. Occupying what was once the eastern shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville, the University of Utah is the state's largest higher-education institution and the oldest university west of the Mississippi. It's the cultural hub of University/Foothill, home to museums, the football stadium that was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies during the 2002 Winter Olympics, a 15,000-seat indoor arena, numerous prominent medical facilities and Research Park, which houses scores of private companies and portions of 30 academic departments in a cooperative enterprise in which research and technology partner to produce marketable products. Near campus, the scenic Red Butte Garden and Arboretum is a great place to learn about plants that thrive in dry climates such as Utah's, and the gleaming copper-colored Natural History Museum of Utah is one of the city's must-see attractions.

A bit south, you'll find the charming Sugar House neighborhood. Utah pioneers tried to produce sugar out of beets at a mill here, and although sugar never made it to their tables, it is a sweet place to find eclectic shops and hip restaurants. The beautiful Sprague Library (2131 S. 1100 E), in a historic Tudor-style building, is worth a visit. Pick up picnic food and head for tiny Hidden Hollow Park, or cross 1300 East to the expansive Sugar House Park, which hosts the city's most spectacular fireworks and arts festival every July 4.