Weird & unusual things to do in Salt Lake City
The genuinely offbeat side of Salt Lake City: 50 hand-vetted hidden spots — oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, weird outdoor finds — built for an unusual date night, a weird afternoon, or showing a visitor a side of the city they'd never find alone. Like Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Spiral Jetty, Golden Braid Books. Local secrets even locals miss — you didn't hear it from us.
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Gilgal Sculpture Garden
Tucked behind houses and a strip of businesses, this quarter-acre lot is where LDS bishop and stonemason Thom…
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Spiral Jetty
In 1970 Robert Smithson bulldozed 6,500 tons of black basalt into a 1,500-foot counterclockwise coil jutting…
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Golden Braid Books
A metaphysical bookstore that's held the same storefront since 1979, physically wedged into the same building…
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Salt Lake City Cemetery
The cemetery's own gravedigger, Jean Baptiste, confessed in 1862 to robbing roughly 300 graves for burial clo…
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Land Cruiser Heritage Museum
A working museum devoted to exactly one vehicle lineage: Toyota Land Cruisers from 1953 to present, tucked un…
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Sun Tunnels
Nancy Holt sank four 18-foot-long, 9-foot-diameter concrete culverts into open desert in 1976 and drilled hol…
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Willard Eccles Astronomy Observatory (WEAO)
A rotating-dome observatory sits on the roof of a University of Utah science building, run by physics grad st…
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Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum
A free, accredited university natural-history museum whose quiet headline exhibit is Shasta — a taxidermied l…
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The Rest (beneath Bodega)
You walk into what looks like a hot-dog counter called Bodega, and it is one — but through a phone-booth-size…
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Summum Pyramid
Since 1975, the New Religious Movement Summum has practiced 'modern mummification' out of a windowless pyrami…
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International Peace Gardens
Twenty-eight nations were each handed a plot along the Jordan River since 1939 and told to build whatever fel…
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Wasatch Forge
A 1,440-square-foot working smithy with two forges, a hydraulic press and a power hammer, run by owner Matt D…
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Stansbury Park Observatory Complex (SPOC)
A row of homemade domes on the edge of a golf-course subdivision west of the Great Salt Lake holds four teles…
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Repeal
In the basement of the historic Walker Center — the same building's bank tower once anchored downtown finance…
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The Rabbit Hole at Lake Effect
Lake Effect's own site calls it their 'enigmatic basement speakeasy' — a room built to feel like a cross betw…
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Red Flower Studios (SLC)
A working glassblowing studio in the Ballpark district where you stand at the glory hole with an instructor a…
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Float Spa 19
A former retail storefront on State Street hides individual float pods and a two-person "float suite" tank be…
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Crone's Hollow
Running since 2011 under the motto 'We don't sell magick. We keep it alive,' this Main Street shop is as much…
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Ott Planetarium & Public Observatory
One floor below a 30-foot, 60-seat full-dome theater sits a rooftop observatory with nine 'point-and-go' tele…
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McCune Mansion
Copper-and-railroad magnate Alfred McCune's 21-room 1901 Victorian later ran for decades as an LDS-affiliated…
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Union Station (Ogden)
In 1927 the station built an actual pedestrian subway under all eleven tracks so passengers didn't have to cr…
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Sayonara
Décor was brought over directly from Japan to build a Tokyo izakaya inside a Salt Lake storefront: neon shop…
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HEXEH Studio
A small niche-perfumery workshop near the old Rio Grande Depot founded by French perfumer Dimitri Allouch, wh…
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Salt Cave & Selenite Crystal Cave at Synchronicities
Two side-by-side grottoes built inside a strip-mall suite: a Himalayan halotherapy room lined with roughly 10…
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Elemental Inspirations
Calls itself flatly 'the hardcore spiritual & pagan store' — twenty-plus years (opened 2004) of stocking deit…
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The Conjuring Tree
A metaphysical supply-and-event hall that puts witchcraft tools — athames, chalices, cauldrons — on the same…
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Cat & Cauldron
A Taylorsville apothecary-and-reading-room that stacks services rarely found under one roof: aura photography…
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Brewvies Cinema Pub
A 21-and-over movie house in the Ballpark neighborhood where you rack up a free game of pool before showtime,…
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Silver Fork Lodge & Restaurant
This 1947 canyon lodge is best known for sourdough pancakes, but the staff who close up describe lights and k…
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Holdman Studios
A stained-glass studio best known for cathedral-scale commissioned windows that also opens its hot shop for b…
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Glow SLC
An urban bathhouse in an industrial pocket of Poplar Grove built around sauna, steam, cold plunge, and a warm…
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Löyly Nordic Spa
A no-appointment, no-time-limit Finnish sauna and cold-plunge studio — named for löyly, the Finnish word for…
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John Hutchings Museum of Natural History
Amid rock and mineral cases, Native American pottery, and a pistol said to have belonged to Butch Cassidy sit…
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The Dead Sea Spa
A women-only day spa in a Sugar House strip mall that imports actual Dead Sea mud and mineral salts for its t…
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Sound Bath at the JCC
Roughly one Sunday afternoon a month (2-3 PM), the Jewish Community Center's ordinary fitness 'Stretch Studio…
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Mule Hollow Mine
Tucked away in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Mule Hollow Mine is a relic of the late 19th or early 20th-century…
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Silver King Mill
The Silver King Mill is a massive, multi-story historic ore-processing facility built in 1921 after a fire de…
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Maxfield Mine
Discovered in 1872 in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Maxfield Mine was a highly productive lead and silver operat…
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Wasatch Mine
Located along the Mineral Fork Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Wasatch Mine is a historic late 19th-centu…
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Dream Mine
Founded in 1894 by John Hyrum Koyle after a series of prophetic dreams, this unproductive gold mine was inten…
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Judge Mine Tunnel
Originally constructed in 1887 as the Anchor Tunnel, this historic drainage and transportation tunnel was bui…
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Central Standard Mine
Sunk in the early 1920s within the East Tintic Mining District, the Central Standard Mine was a gold, silver,…
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Grand Central Mine
The Grand Central Mine is a historic gold and silver mine situated on the steep slopes of Eureka Peak in the…
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Old Mayflower Mine
The Old Mayflower Mine is an abandoned lead and zinc mine located in the upper reaches of West Canyon in Utah…
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Silver King Mine
Perched high on the slopes of Park City Mountain, the Silver King Coalition Mine was once the centerpiece of…
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Ontario Mine
Discovered in 1872 and later purchased by mining magnate George Hearst, the Ontario Mine was once one of the…
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Ben Harrison Mine Shaft
The Ben Harrison Mine (also known as the New Stockton Mine) is a historic lead, silver, gold, and copper mine…
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Dry Lake Antimony Mine
The Dry Lake Antimony Mine is an inactive late-19th-century mine located in Antimony Canyon on the steep west…
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Cottonwood Paper Mill
Built in 1883 by the Deseret News, this historic stone structure once produced paper for the region before a…
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Limekiln Gulch Pioneer Kilns
Tucked into the foothills of the Avenues neighborhood, these historic stone structures are the remains of mid…
Unusual things to do in Salt Lake City — FAQ
What are some unusual things to do in Salt Lake City?
50 hand-vetted weird spots — like Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Spiral Jetty, Golden Braid Books — plus oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, and offbeat outdoor finds. Every one is real and sourced, not a top-ten landmark.
Where can you go for a weird date night in Salt Lake City?
Try Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Spiral Jetty, Golden Braid Books — strange-but-real spots that make a memorable date. Filter by neighborhood, vibe, or how far you'll drive: in town, nearby, or a day trip.
What's a weird thing to do in Salt Lake City tonight or this weekend?
For tonight, filter to "in town" and low-key picks; for the weekend, the day-trip ring opens up genuinely strange spots a short drive out. Start with Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Spiral Jetty, Golden Braid Books — and sort by how far you're willing to go.
Are there free or cheap weird things to do in Salt Lake City?
Yes — 24 Salt Lake City spots are free or low-cost, like Spiral Jetty, Land Cruiser Heritage Museum, Sun Tunnels. Roadside oddities, public art, and outdoor curiosities usually cost nothing.
How is this different from the usual Salt Lake City tourist lists?
We skip the landmarks everyone knows. An agentic research system digs up the genuinely hidden, offbeat spots — the local secrets even locals miss — and verifies each against real sources before it makes the list.