Although a virtual visit to Utah cannot replace the real thing, you'll find an enormous amount of helpful information on the World Wide Web. Thousands of websites interlink to cover everything from ghost towns to the latest community news.

News

• Deseret News
• www.desnews.com
• One of Salt Lake's major newspapers, the Deseret News has good regional and LDS coverage.

• Salt Lake Tribune
• www.sltrib.com
• The Salt Lake Tribune is the state's newspaper of record.

• Salt Lake City Weekly
• www.slweekly.com
• Salt Lake City's alternative weekly newspaper has online event listings and in-depth articles on city issues.

Recreation

• Desert USA
• www.desertusa.com
• Desert USA's Utah section discusses places to visit and what plants and animals you might meet there. Find out what's in bloom at www.desertusa.com/wildflo/wildupdates.

• Federal Recreation Reservations
• www.recreation.gov
• If a campground is operated by the federal government, this is the place to make a reservation. Again, you can expect to pay a few dollars for this convenience.

• National Park Service
• www.nps.gov
• The National Park Service offers pages for all their areas at this site, where a click-on map will take you to Utah's parks. You can also enter this address followed by a slash and the first two letters of the first two words of the place (first four letters if there's just a one-word name); for example, www.nps.gov/brca takes you to Bryce Canyon National Park and www.nps.gov/zion leads to Zion National Park.

• Reserve America
• www.reserveamerica.com
• Use this website to reserve campsites in state campgrounds. It costs a few extra bucks to reserve a campsite ($8 reservation fee), but compare that with the cost of being skunked out of a site and having to resort to a motel room.

• U.S. Forest Service
• www.fs.fed.us/r4
• Utah falls within U.S. Forest Service Region 4. From this site you can navigate to a particular national forest.

• Utah State Parks
• http://stateparks.utah.gov
• The Utah State Parks website offers details on the large park system.

Travel

• Ghost Towns
• www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/ut.html
• Histories and photos of Utah's loneliest towns.

• Ski Utah
• www.skiutah.com
• If you're thinking snow, glide over to Ski Utah, where you'll also find summer activities at the ski resorts.

• Utah Travel Council
• www.utah.com
• The Utah Travel Council is a one-stop shop for all sorts of information on Utah. It takes you around the state to sights, activities, events, and maps, and offers links to local tourist offices. The accommodations listings are the most up-to-date source for current prices and options.

• Visit Salt Lake City
• www.visitsaltlake.com
• Find the scoop on all aspects of visiting Salt Lake City, including accommodations (sometimes with special deals), events, and activities ranging from genealogical research to bird-watching. It's also a good place to find special deals on ski passes.