Alice and I are in charge of the Ward Youth Conference again this year (June 10-12). The youth will be staying in the dorms at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, so our activities will be in that area. We've already scheduled baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple and are following up on some other suggestions. One suggestion was a hike/fireside on Ensign Peak, so I studied it's history. Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley on Saturday (July 24, 1847) and, still suffering from an illness, declared that this was the place. The next day, Sabbath services were held in the morning and afternoon. Monday morning, Brigham Young (still recovering from his illness) and 8 others climbed this peak from their camp somewhere a little south of temple square (shown in the second picture). He remarked that it "was a proper place to raise an ensign to the nations" and so it was named Ensign Peak. I climbed it yesterday while Alice waited in the car. The trail was covered with ice, but it was worth the climb. The monument (in the first picture) was built in 1934 from stones collected from each stake along the Mormon Trail. Even with the
temperature inversion, the view is spectacular. The second picture shows Temple Square (in front of the tall buildings in the center).
