Utah: the State of the Softest Snow
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Park City has been known as the city for skiing, and it should not be surprising if I tell you that it once held the winter Olympics. Despite all the winter-related facts, I went there in the summer of my sophomore year, yet it did not lose any of its charms.
To be honest with you guys, I was there for a nerdy reason: mathematics summer school. The school was held by the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS). The topic was about low dimensional topology and gauge theory. However, during the three weeks of my summer school, I got chances to explore the town with my friends, so let me share some of my favorite spots with you guys!
Forth of July at Park city: My roommates and I decided to avoid the crowd by hiking at the Armstrong trail. We didn’t reach the top because we wanted to have lunch, but the view from halfway to the top was pretty cool. You can see half of the city and hear the celebrating noises from afar. After that, we went to Harvest, one of the best brunch places! I ordered that yummy-looking salmon toast. On the way back to our hotel, Shadow Ridge, we got a chance to see the parade, and that nicely finish up our day.
Sunday Silly Park Market
Sunday Silly Park market has been advertised a lot since I stepped on Park City. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of crafts, food, people, and music bands. This picture was taken from the sky bridge, where we are able to see the whole historic town.
Salt Lake City
It is the capital city of Utah and has been known as the city of mormons. Win, Isabel, Jose, and I decided to spend a day here. I called an uber and stopped at the temple square, our first destination. It was gorgeous, but none of us were religious enough to understand what was going on. After wandering around, we stopped at the rolled ice cream place called Doki Doki. The ice cream was so thick, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere of that place. Then, we went to see the Obon festival, which is our main purpose. Unfortunately, it was not as big as we thought, yet the Taiko, a Japanese traditional drum performance, was very impressive!
Later that week, Win and I also went to Salt Lake City again to see some places we had missed on the other day, which includes the capitol of Utah and the public library. Their structures are so aesthetically pleasing. One thing I want to mention is that we literally observed mountains everywhere!
Silver Lake - Ontario trail
Never a week without hiking in Park City. This time Win and I decided to go to a more difficult trail called Silver Lake- Ontario trial. The trail took us like 2 hrs to climb up, but you may use much less than this because we stopped multiple times to take pictures! Honestly, the Silver Lake trail was much prettier than the other one, so I want to recommend you take the round trip at the same Silver Lake trail without going to the Ontario one.
What more could I ask for?
A date! Okay, it was wild, but since the timing was synced, I got to see one of my favorite humans whose name is so similar to mine. Poy came to visit me two days before the camp was done. He drove me to the Great Salt Lake, which is full of fruit flies, but nothing could really ruin that amazing scenery!
Later in the evening, we went to a Tapas place called Eva. Indeed, the food was great, and the atmosphere was decent, but the service did not meet our standards. Anyway, it didn’t matter since I had the best date(?) in the restaurant that night.
Good morning! You may wonder where to have breakfast if not in the hotel. Here I want to recommend another tasteful brunch place in Park City. 5seeds killed it! I ordered that hot cake and a set of eggs and sausages, and just looking at them made my mouth water! Then, we went hiking! Yes, again! This time we went to the Donut Falls trail. The trail was straightforward if we do not get lost, and, on the way to the falls, it was full of gorgeous views that we had to stop to take pictures. ( P.S. All of these couldn’t have happened without you, Thank you:)
Some more people I want to say “Thank you” to
Even though it seems I spent time traveling a lot during the summer school, what I really did is studying, solving math problems, and making connections with people from several schools and universities. The program was incredible, and I would like to thank all the organizers who made this happen! The last picture was taken on Win’s birthday. He seemed to enjoy our homemade ice cream cake, didn’t he? Happy Birthday, Win!!
There are not many national parks that are ideal to visit in winter, except for those in the desert. For this Christmas trip, we chose three desert national parks, namely, Petrified Forest, Saguaro, and Joshua Tree. In addition to these, we also stopped by some of the most iconic landmarks in Arizona’s desert landscape, including Horseshoe Bend and Monument Valley. It was a dry, sandy, and breathtaking Christmas. One that turned out to be truly memorable for both of us.
Despite the polar vortex that swept through Illinois, we decided to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, driving from our home in Champaign. Along the way, we got to meet some friends in Cincinnati and Akron. In fact, we didn’t stop only at Cuyahoga Valley; we also continued on to see a much bigger set of falls in upstate New York—Niagara Falls. Everything was freezing cold, but the fresh snow somehow gave the entire trip a magical atmosphere.
Foliage season feels so fleeting to me, so Poy and I never really planned to chase fall colors anywhere beyond our university campus. But there are a few national parks that are especially beautiful in autumn, and we wanted to try visiting them at their peak. We followed the fall–color predictions closely and booked our flights well in advance to keep costs down. On this trip, we were lucky enough to catch vibrant red and yellow leaves in Shenandoah, New River Gorge, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. We also had the chance to explore the beautiful wetlands of Congaree National Park before flying back home!
At the end of Summer 2025, we embarked on a grand tour of the northern United States. Our goal was to explore a mix of popular national parks and hidden gems across Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. The journey took us through breathtaking mountain ranges and bountiful wilderness teeming with wildlife. Thanks to booking our flights more than six months in advance, we were lucky enough to fly directly out of Champaign, a perfect start to our adventure!