Introduction to Utah

In eastern Utah, rivers tend to flow into the Green River or Colorado River, which plunges southwestward through Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Many of these rivers are born of melting snow high in the Rocky Mountains, where sego lilies grow.

The Utes and other Indians have long included the roots of sego lilies and other plants in their diet. While crossing the Rocky Mountains, starving Mormon settlers were saved from starvation by sego lily roots. Named for the Utes, Utah claims the sego lily as its state flower.

The blue spruce and elk—Utah’s state tree and animal—are also found in the Rockies. The Rocky Mountains pass through Utah’s eastern neighbors, Wyoming and Colorado, appearing to miss Utah. But some ranges branch off into Utah. The Uintas stretch from Colorado westward almost to Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital and largest city. This is the only range in the Rocky Mountains that stretches east to west. South of the Uintas are the Wasatch and Sevier ranges.

But there is much more to Utah than mountains. Utah boasts more national parks and monuments than almost any other state, all but one of them in the Colorado Plateau. Their names are scattered across southern Utah: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Cedar Breaks, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge, Zion, Dinosaur.

One might think that a region of canyons would be very low. In fact, some of the flattish plateaus that make up the Colorado Plateau are more than 11,000 feet above sea level, higher than many mountains.

Beyond the Wasatch Mountains is Utah’s third great region. It is Utah’s most desolate region, yet Utah’s largest city and capital, Salt Lake City, is located here. This is the Basin and Range region, named for slender mountain ranges and the basins that separate them.

Utah’s portion of the Basin and Range lies in a great bowl called the Great Basin. This desert region stretches north towards Idaho and west across Nevada. The Great Basin is a dead end for streams born of mountain snows or underground springs. While most rivers flow downward into the sea, those in the Great Basin tend to travel upward as they evaporate in the desert heat.

During the Ice Age, Utah was a cooler, moister place. Moist? A big chunk of Utah was covered by Lake Bonneville, which was much bigger than modern Great Salt Lake. In fact, Great Salt Lake is all that’s left of Lake Bonneville, which slowly dried up as the climate changed.

Though water evaporates, salt doesn’t. Today, Great Salt Lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River - and perhaps the saltiest. South of this lake is the Great Salt Lake Desert—about 4,000 acres of flat salt beds as hard as concrete. The Bonneville Salt Flats, where cars have set so many speed records are found here.

Hardy settlers used irrigation to make the desert blossom. They grew grapes and cotton in Utah’s southwestern corner, the state’s lowest and warmest area.

Today, Utahans must make decisions that may forever affect the land they love. Should vast deposits of coal and other minerals be mined, or should the land be preserved as a remote, beautiful wilderness? Or can Utahans have both?

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