6 reasons to visit Northern Utah
From dinosaur hunts at the Dinosaur National Monumen to world-class powder highs at Park City, the north of Utah is home to spectacular adventures and deeply-trippy scenery, where you can experience the best of America on your own terms.
Utah has always been highly rated for its red-rock national parks, dark skies heavy with stars, and desert-scapes sculpted with arches and slot canyons, as if God had swung a giant axe to cut the landscape at random. Star billing normally goes to the southern half of the state, with the majority of visitors drawn to the honey-pot landmarks of Arches, Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks, and the grand buttes of Monument Valley. But the north has just as many irresistible moments – and with far fewer crowds.
Indeed, for those keen to take the road less travelled, the sweep of land north of state capital Salt Lake City has resisted the impact of mass tourism – and it’s possible to experience America through a different lens here. There’s Yellowstone in miniature at Antelope Island State Park; the powder highs of Aspen and Jackson Hole at Park City; and the ephemeral Caribbean blues of the US Virgin Islands at Bear Lake State Park.
In truth, this could be the one state that spoils you forever. Here are six reasons to visit.
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1. Visit one of America’s most underrated cities
A visit to Salt Lake City feels like hitting the travel jackpot. For starters, it brims with history. The backstory is a muddle of railroads, gold rush settlers and westward pilgrims, plus it’s located below a horseshoe of mountains for dream-satisfying adventures – you can hike and bike right from downtown.
READ MORE: Explore Salt Lake City – where to stay, what to do and what to eat
It’s also one of the youngest cities in the US, with a buzzing LGBTQ+ scene (unlikely, as the rest of the state is staunchly Republican and conservative-leaning), and it’s the perfect bookend for a road trip loop around Northern Utah.
Temperatures are balmy in summer and there’s a bonanza of boutique hotels, irreplicable sites (the standout is the global headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Temple Square), and an oddball food scene that rivals anywhere else in the American Mountain West.
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2. Discover Utah’s Yellowstone
If you love the great outdoors, you’ll be smitten the moment you arrive at the entrance to Antelope Island State Park. Located on a thumb of land jutting out into Great Salt Lake and accessed via a seven-mile (11km) causeway, the park is set up for beach walks, picnics, hikes and camping, but the main draw is its populations of rewilded animals.
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Pronghorn were reintroduced 30 years ago in 1993, while snorting and grunting American Bison first arrived in 1893 and now number more than 600.
If, though, your natural habitat is the hotel pool, then go for a briny dip in the Great Salt Lake. Like the Dead Sea between Jordan and Israel, its water is several times saltier than the ocean: come in summer to float with a backdrop of triumphant, snow-dusted peaks.
3. Become a snow pro at Park City
Admittedly, the tagline for this resort – ‘Winter’s Favorite Town’ – smacks of typical American bravado. But come to Park City for a few days to experience its dream-vision mountains, long-in-the-tooth silver mining heritage, and legacy of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and you might well get seduced for good. Add hotels, restaurants, bars and spas that are – whisper it – better than anywhere else in the state and the result is a bucket-list-topping ski trip.
4. Hunt Jurassic-era dinosaur bones
Northeastern Utah’s Dinosaur National Monument is the imagination-stoking heart of the north – it’s where Allosaurus and Stegosaurus fossils poke out of rocks; kids play palaeontologist while examining the monstrous ‘Wall of Bones’ inside the Quarry Hall, and road trippers come to hike, river raft and stargaze.
The downside to this is, with some 800 paleontological sites to explore, you’ll only have time to scratch the surface – literally and metaphorically.
READ MORE: Then and now – fascinating photos of America's Old West
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For winter pursuits terrain, take your pick of Park City Mountain, (aka the US’s largest lift-accessed resort), or Deer Valley Resort (sorry, snowboarders – it’s for skiers only).
Those seeking more leisurely pastimes should time their trip for the annual Sundance Film Festival in January, or – to recapture the golden age of Utah – visit the Park City Museum. Here, exhibits dig deep into the boom-and-bust years when the resort’s economy transitioned from silver to snow.
5. Summer in the Caribbean of the Rockies
Shared across the state border with Idaho, Bear Lake State Park is perfect for beach bums and boaters. All life is drawn to the blue spectrum of the landlocked lake – a result of calcium carbonate mineral deposits suspended in the water – and it’s a turquoise playground for wild swimmers, water skiers, jet boaters and sailors.
Wildlife lovers aren’t forgotten, either. The lake is part of a protected area and home to herons, trumpeter swans, white pelicans and one of the largest populations of migratory Canada geese in all of North America. Grab a set of binoculars and hit the hiking trails and you might also spy moose, coyote, raccoon or skunk somewhere beyond the shoreline.
For a more spirited afternoon, stop at splash-happy Rendezvous Beach at the lake’s southern end in Laketown.
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6. Discover the sheer strangeness of the Bonneville Salt Flats
These blinding salt flats, about 90 minutes west of Salt Lake City, are like nowhere else in Utah. Against screen-saver blue skies, the denatured landscape is a 46-square-mile (119sq km) sheen of glinting-white salt pans that hold a head-spinning 147 million tonnes of crusted sodium chloride. Here, it’s like staring back in time to the beginning of all life.
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In fact, to come is to feel far removed from the rest of the world: Hollywood and TV producers have used the salt plains as a substitute for the extreme edges of Earth (see Independence Day, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Walking with Dinosaurs).
For photographers and phone-wielders, meanwhile, the constant freeze and thaw rhythm of the briny, colourless waters breaking into myriad patterns is shorthand for Instagram gold. Note: there are no facilities at the salt flats so plan accordingly, especially at the height of summer or in subzero midwinter when temperatures hit every extreme.
Need to know
Salt Lake City is Utah’s main travel hub and it’s by far the easiest place to begin a circuit of the state’s northern highlights. US carrier Delta has a major hub at Salt Lake City International Airport and operates non-stop flights from London Heathrow to the city year-round.
Visit Utah is an excellent resource for planning a trip, and the official portal gives highly recommended itinerary suggestions for exploring the wider state.
READ MORE: How to save money on multi-destination visits to the USA
Lead image: Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
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