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Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City - Things to Do at Salt Lake Temple

Things to Do at Salt Lake Temple

Complete Guide to Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City

About Salt Lake Temple

Salt Lake Temple rises from downtown Salt Lake City like a granite fortress reaching for heaven. Its six spires pierce the Utah sky in a way that stops first-time visitors mid-stride. Mormon pioneers built it over forty years, hauling massive blocks of quartz monzonite from Little Cottonwood Canyon twenty miles away. The walls measure nine feet thick at the base. Look close at the lower courses. You can still spot chisel marks. The east-facing facade catches the morning sun and turns the gray stone almost golden, while the angel Moroni statue on the highest spire gleams against the Wasatch Mountains behind. Here is what to know upfront. The temple itself is closed to non-members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that rule is not negotiable. What you can do is wander the surrounding Temple Square, a ten-acre complex that has been the spiritual center of Mormonism since 1853. The grounds smell of roses in summer and pine in winter, and there is a quiet to the place that feels rare for a major downtown attraction. You will hear hymns drifting from open chapel doors, the occasional clack of dress shoes on marble, and missionaries from dozens of countries speaking softly in their native languages. The temple is undergoing a massive seismic renovation that started in 2019 and likely runs through late 2026. Scaffolding covers much of the structure. The famous reflecting pool is gone for now. Some visitors find this disappointing. Others find the construction story itself fascinating, the glimpses of those nine-foot granite walls being reinforced from within.

What to See & Do

The Six Spires and Angel Moroni

The eastern center spire stands 210 feet tall. It holds the gilded statue of the angel Moroni blowing his trumpet eastward. On clear mornings the gold leaf catches light visible from miles away on I-15. The three eastern spires represent the Melchizedek Priesthood. The three western spires represent the Aaronic Priesthood. They run slightly shorter. Most visitors miss that.

Granite Exterior Detail Work

Walk close to the lower walls on the south side. You will see earthstones, moonstones, sunstones, and starstones carved directly into the granite. The moonstones are worth a look. Each shows a different phase. Pioneer stonecutters carved them by hand based on actual lunar charts. The stone stays cool to the touch, even in July.

Temple Square Reflecting Areas

The main reflecting pool is gone right now. Renovation work continues. The surrounding gardens stay immaculate, though. The rose beds on the east plaza bloom from late May through October, and the smell on a warm evening can be overwhelming in the best way. Benches scattered through the grounds give you places to sit and take in the temple's scale.

The Tabernacle (Adjacent)

The domed Tabernacle next door has acoustics so precise that a pin dropped at the pulpit is audible from the back row, 170 feet away. Free organ recitals happen daily at noon. Sundays add a 2pm recital. The 11,623-pipe organ ranks among the largest in the world. Slip in for fifteen minutes even if you are not musically inclined. Worth it.

North Visitors' Center

Houses an eleven-foot replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen's Christus statue in a domed rotunda painted to look like deep space, complete with constellations. The room is quiet. The statue affects you more than the gift-shop atmosphere of the entrance suggests.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

Temple Square grounds open daily, 9am to 9pm. Visitors' centers keep the same hours. The Tabernacle stays open for self-guided visits during square hours. Organ recitals play at noon Monday through Saturday and 2pm Sundays. Seismic renovation continues through late 2026. Expect rerouted pathways. Parts of the square are fenced off.

Tickets & Pricing

Everything on Temple Square is free, which is unusual for a major downtown attraction. No tickets. No reservations. No donation pressure. Guided tours led by missionary sisters are also free and start every fifteen minutes or so from either visitors' center. If you want to attend a Tabernacle Choir rehearsal (Thursday evenings) or the weekly Music & the Spoken Word broadcast (Sunday mornings at 9:30am), those are free too. Plan to arrive at least thirty minutes early.

Best Time to Visit

Early morning around 9am gives you the best light on the eastern facade and the smallest crowds. Late afternoon in summer can be brutal on the open plaza with little shade. The gardens peak then, though. Winter has its own pull. The temple lit up against snow is striking. The annual Christmas lights display from late November through January 1 draws huge crowds. But the elbowing is worth it. Avoid the first Sunday of April and October. General Conference brings hundreds of thousands of Mormons to downtown.

Suggested Duration

Plan on 60 to 90 minutes for the grounds and one visitors' center. Add another 30 minutes if you want to hear the organ recital at the Tabernacle. You should. History buffs and architecture enthusiasts could easily spend three hours here.

Getting There

Salt Lake Temple sits at 50 North Temple Street, dead center of downtown Salt Lake City's grid system. The temple is the origin point from which all city addresses are measured. TRX light rail's Blue, Green, and Red lines all stop at Temple Square Station. Rides are cheap. By US transit standards, anyway. Driving in? The Conference Center parking garage on North Temple offers reasonable hourly rates and sits a two-minute walk from the square. From Salt Lake City International Airport, the TRX Green Line runs directly to Temple Square in about twenty minutes for the price of a coffee. Walking from the Salt Palace Convention Center takes about ten minutes north along West Temple Street.

Things to Do Nearby

Family History Library
Two blocks west sits the world's largest genealogical research facility. Free to use. Pairs well with the temple visit, since this is the practical expression of the Mormon emphasis on ancestry. Even non-Mormons regularly drive hours to use the resources here.
Conference Center
Directly north of the temple, this 21,000-seat auditorium offers free rooftop garden access. Native Utah plantings fill the space. Excellent views look down onto Temple Square. The rooftop is one of Salt Lake's underrated free attractions.
Beehive House
Brigham Young's 1854 home sits two blocks east, with free guided tours that give useful context for understanding the temple's history. Worth visiting after the square. The tour grounds the abstract architecture in the actual humans who built it.
City Creek Center
Across the street to the south, this open-air shopping center has a creek running through it (yes, an actual creek with trout) and a retractable roof. Handy year-round. It works for cooling off in summer or warming up in winter, and the food court has decent quick options for a temple-square break.
Pioneer Memorial Museum
Six blocks north uphill, this free museum claims the largest collection of artifacts on a single subject in the world (pioneer-era Utah). It's eccentric and crammed. The basement transportation hall, with original handcarts, is unexpectedly compelling.

Tips & Advice

Sister missionaries giving tours typically come from somewhere far from Utah. Ask them. They will happily speak in their native language. It is a decent way to practice Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, or about thirty other languages.
Photography is allowed everywhere on the grounds. Tripods are different. They require a permit from the visitors' center desk (free, takes about five minutes). The best photo angle of the full temple is from the southeast corner of the square near the flagpole.
Modest dress is appreciated but not enforced on the grounds themselves. Cover shoulders and knees. That's the safe bet, and you will feel more comfortable than visitors who didn't get the memo.
The Tabernacle organ recital at noon is the single highest-value 30 minutes you can spend downtown. Worth the trip. Sit in the back third of the hall to get the full acoustic effect.
Visiting during the seismic renovation period? Ask a missionary about the construction process. The engineering details (base isolation, granite reinforcement, the underground utilities being routed around 19th-century foundations) are more interesting than the closed-off views suggest.
Skip Temple Square entirely during General Conference weekends (first weekend of April and October), unless you specifically want that experience. Hotel prices triple. Downtown gridlocks.
The fountains and benches on the south side near the South Visitors' Center are the quietest spot to sit and process what you have seen. Best on weekday mornings. Get there before tour buses arrive.

Tours & Activities at Salt Lake Temple

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