Mormon Settlement
In 1847 a persecuted people walked into the Great Basin and built a society from scratch — grid towns, irrigation canals, ninety settlements in a decade, a landscape still legible across Utah today. That is the achievement. The cost is the other half of the ledger, and others bore it: the land was taken from Ute, Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone people with no treaty of cession, their subsistence destroyed until starvation drove the Black Hawk War; and in 1852 the territory legalized both Black slavery and the indenture of Native children. Both truths belong to the same story.
Scenic Byway 125
Boulder
One of the last places in America to receive paved road access
Cannonville
Gateway to Kodachrome Basin and the Grand Staircase
Escalante
The town that gave Grand Staircase-Escalante its name
Henrieville
A blink-and-you-will-miss-it ranching hamlet
Tropic
A quiet pioneer town in the shadow of Bryce Canyon
Scenic Byway 12 / UT-241
I-155
Beaver
A charming main street town with surprisingly good food
Lehi Roller Mills
The flour mill from the movie Footloose
Nephi
A quiet ranching town at the foot of Mount Nebo
Scipio
A tiny crossroads town where I-15 meets the old highway
Temple Square
The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
I-15 / I-701
UT-241
US-301
US-401
US-898
Ephraim
Utah's Little Denmark and the home of Snow College
Ephraim Co-op
The 1871 cooperative store that outlived the economy it was built to replace
Fairview
The north gate of the Heritage Highway, home to a near-complete Ice Age mammoth
Kanab
Little Hollywood — where hundreds of Western movies were filmed
Manti
Sanpete's first settlement, crowned by an 1888 oolite temple
Manti Temple
A striking pioneer-era temple crowning a hilltop above the Sanpete Valley
Panguitch
A well-preserved pioneer town and gateway to Bryce Canyon
Spring City
An entire pioneer town preserved on the National Register