Utah is located in western United States, east of Nevada and California, west of Colorado, south of Idaho and north of Arizona. The state's northeast corner borders Wyoming.

Sitting mostly 4,000 feet above sea level, Utah's lofty position is visually stunning. The state's 84,904 square miles are parts Rocky Mountains, parts empty salt flats, parts forested hills and parts eerie buttes in shades of reds, pinks, and purples.

Not surprisingly, much of Utah's topography is protected through national monuments and parks, such as Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Natural Bridges National Monument and Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

Presently, around 2,200,000 people live in Utah, almost half of them in and around Salt Lake City, the state's capital. Confirmation of early inhabitants, through unearthed primitive tools, dates back ten thousand years. They were followed by the farming Anasazi, eight thousand years later. Evidence of today's Indians dates back to the 19th century. The Utah, Shoshoni and Paiute tribes were in Utah when white settlers arrived in the mid-1800's.

The most famous white pioneers were the Mormons, beginning with Brigham Young, who arrived in July of 1847. Escaping persecution in the mid-west, Young decided that few would care if he and his group settled in the rocky dry state where hardly a weed survived.

Comfortable with hard work, Young and his faithful followers constructed canals directly from water sources to the parcels of land allotted to the families and before long, the arid earth changed to fertile irrigated soil.

Highlights in Utah include pioneer villages, historical museums, the Mormon Cathedral, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake and the many national parks and monuments.

Weather in Utah is seasonal, with hot dry summers and cold dry winters. Cooler temperatures year round are expected in higher elevations and southern Utah is warmer than northern Utah. Average July temperatures range from 65 to 90 Fahrenheit and in some valleys in southern Utah, the thermometer can reach 100 degrees. Evenings cool dramatically, especially in the summer months. Falls are cool and crisp and the hills are ablaze in autumn colors