Iconic
Some places you know before you arrive — you've seen them on a license plate, a screen saver, the back of a quarter. These are those: the images the West prints of itself, the ones that pull crowds for good reason. Familiarity hasn't ruined them; standing under the real thing still lands harder than the photo ever did. Go early or late to beat the buses, and let yourself be impressed by the obvious. Some things are famous because they are that good.
IR-71
UT-91
I-10 / I-171
I-10 / I-191
Scenic Byway 122
Scenic Byway 12 / UT-631
I-153
Lagoon Amusement Park
A beloved family amusement park operating since 1886
Las Vegas Strip
Four and a quarter miles of engineered spectacle — the most famous street in America (and it isn't in Las Vegas)
Temple Square
The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
I-171
I-191
NV-281
I-401
I-40 / Historic Route 663
Holbrook
A Santa Fe railroad town once too tough for women and churches, now the seat of Navajo County, gateway to the Petrified Forest, and home to the concrete teepees of the Wigwam Motel.
Williams
The last town on Route 66 to lose its traffic to the interstate — a rail gateway to the Grand Canyon since 1901, bypassed only in 1984 after a court fight, and revived twice over.
Winslow
The town an Eagles lyric made famous — and the home of La Posada, the last great railroad hotel and Mary Colter's finest work, at the southern doorway to Hopi and Navajo country.
I-40 / Historic Route 66 / US-931
I-40 / I-171
US-401
US-501
SR-641
Historic Route 661
Historic Route 66 / I-401
I-803
Bonneville Salt Flats
A blindingly white desert where land speed records are born
Great Salt Lake
The largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere
Reno
The river crossing the Comstock needed, made a city by the railroad—then reinvented as divorce capital, gambling town, and now tech hub: the Biggest Little City in the World
SR-801
UT-831
SR-881
SR-89 / SR-691
SR-89A1
SR-89A / SR-1791
US-895
Bear Lake
The Caribbean of the Rockies — a turquoise lake straddling the Utah-Idaho border
Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes
Legendary raspberry milkshakes from locally grown berries
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
The largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States
Kanab
Little Hollywood — where hundreds of Western movies were filmed
Manti Temple
A striking pioneer-era temple crowning a hilltop above the Sanpete Valley