Discover Utah

The story goes that in 1847, when the trail-weary Mormon leader Brigham Young surveyed the green Salt Lake Valley from Emigration Canyon high in the Wasatch Range [1], he declared, “This is the place.” Since the founding of Salt Lake City [2] and the settlement of Utah, many other people have taken a look at this dramatically scenic state and agreed: Yes, this is the place!

Few places on earth combine such spectacular terrain and unusual history as does Utah. The state hosts the majestic splendor of the Rocky Mountains, the colorful canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau, and the remote deserts and arid mountain ranges of the Great Basin. Today, Utah’s extravagant scenery and superlative recreational opportunities lure sightseers, mountain bikers, hikers, and skiers from around the world, many of whom stay on to make this beguiling state their home.

Utah presents some curious statistics: It is the most urban state in the nation, a startling fact when you consider how utterly vacant — though dramatically beautiful — much of the landscape is. The unyielding deserts, craggy mountains, and imposing slickrock formations that cover much of the state aren’t really fit for human habitation, and the vast majority of citizens live in just a few large cities.

Also, the majority of people living in Utah are practicing Mormons. To outsiders, the social homogeneity of smaller towns far from Salt Lake City [2], Park City [3], and Moab [4] can seem off-putting, but the strong religious and cultural bonds that tie families and communities together in Utah are themselves noteworthy and increasingly rare in the fast-paced modern world.

Salt Lake City is the state capital, home to a major university and seat of a major religion — a rare combination of attributes that makes for a certain amount of civic gravitas and self-focus. And as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the nation, Salt Lake City’s population is increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan.

Southern Utah encompasses the Colorado Plateau, a vast sedimentary deposit that’s been carved into canyons, arches, hoodoos, and chasms by millennia of erosion. This extremely dramatic landscape is preserved in five spectacular national parks and several national monuments. Zion National Park [5] presents stunning contrasts, with barren, towering rock walls deeply incised by steep canyons containing a verdant oasis of cottonwood trees and wildflowers. Bryce Canyon National Park [6] is famed for its abundance of red and pink hoodoos [7], delicate fingers of stone rising from a steep mountainside.

A large section of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument [8] preserves the dry washes and slot canyons trenched by the Escalante River and its tributaries as they drop toward the Colorado River. Long-distance hikers descend these sinuously beautiful, high-rock-walled cathedrals of stone to experience the near-mystical harmony of flowing water and stone. In Capitol Reef National Park [9], the Fremont River carves a magnificent canyon through Waterpocket Fold, offering hikers and explorers a leafy, well-watered sanctuary from the park’s otherwise arid landscapes.

In vast Canyonlands National Park [10], the Colorado River begins to tunnel its mighty — and soon to be grand — canyon through an otherworldly landscape of deep red sandstone. The beauty is more serene and mystical at Arches National Park [11], where hundreds of delicate rock arches provide vast windows into the solid rock. High-spirited Moab [4] is the recreational mecca of southeastern Utah. It’s a boisterous community that’s known for its mountain-bike lifestyle and comfortable — even sophisticated — dining and lodging.