Sports & Recreation

If the radius is perhaps 50 miles, then within that circle will be the Great Salt Lake and dozen mountain lakes ready for water skiing, a blue ribbon trout fishery, 10 renowned ski resorts, more 10,000 foot peaks than you could climb in a year, National Forests and Designated Wilderness Areas, herds of rare mountain goats and other wildlife, one the North America’s most important and diverse estuaries, unhaunted ghost towns, along with the NBA’s Utah Jazz, the most beautifully set triple-A baseball park around, the nation’s newest motorsports track, and top ten college football and basketball programs.

Draw the radius out to 150 miles and you include some of the nation’s best whitewater rafting and the country’s only private fossil quarry. Take it out 250 miles and you’re within range of seven national parks, and more than a dozen dinosaur museums, monuments, quarries or attractions.

In summer or winter, spring or fall, the Salt Lake area offers myriad adventures to those ready to be entertained, challenged, and even astonished. Salt Lake is a premier lifestyle mind trip from hiking to sailboarding in the summer to skiing and snowmobiling in the winter. There is something to satisfy every one of the Beehive State’s 18 million-plus yearly visitors, most of whom start in the capital city (visit www.travel.utah.gov for comprehensive and up-to-date information).

Winter Sports

The ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ attracts visitors from November through April to Utah’s high-ranking resorts. Salt Lake boasts seven ski resorts within 35 miles of the airport and four cross-country courses. Another six resorts and five courses are spread around the state. Skiers can enjoy Nordic, alpine, and jumps—all within an hour of touching down at Salt Lake International Airport. Little wonder that reader surveys conducted by national magazines consistently rank the state’s ski areas among the best anywhere.

The “Greatest Snow on Earth” motto on Utah license plates is confirmed by everyone who takes to the slopes. Even in a down year overall for skiing across the board, the Utah Ski Association (www.skiutah.com) notes the 2006-07 season in Utah again broke attendance for the fourth year in a row. Utah is now the third most skied state.

And why not? Whatever your style or ability, Utah skiing has it all—from cultivated resort slopes to extreme helicopter or snowcat skiing in the backcountry, to au natural resorts that neither make snow nor groom it. After a day on the slopes, skiers and riders relax at aprés ski lodges, restaurants, clubs, or in one of the many local microbreweries.

Utah resorts also offer a great deal of diverse terrain for snowboarders. As the sport grows, so does new terrain. Park City Mountain Resort is again a top-ten venue; ranked number 5 by Ski Magazine and number one by Transworld Snowboard Magazine. The Eagle Superpipe (with new 22-foot walls) again hosted the World Superpipe Championships; King’s Crown Super Park, Jonesy’s Park, and Payday Park round out the venue. The many improvements have one the praise of Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White. “The parks are the best in North America and the new Superpipe is huge,” he says. Snowbird added a new Superpipe for the 2004-05 season at Snowbird—375 feet long, 50 feet wide, with 18-foot walls—that compliments their expanded terrain parks. There are also terrain parks and pipes at Brighton, the Canyons, and Powder Mountain.

For those who prefer their winter activities with fewer crowds and more solitude, Utah offers hundreds of miles of groomed trails for cross-country skiers, including Soldier Hollow, site of the cross-country events in the 2002 Winter Games. Snowshoeing is attracting new winter back-country fans as well. Snowmobiling remains a traditional winter activity in Utah, where more than 800 miles of groomed snowmobile trails can be found.

Utah Olympic Park

All of the athletic facilities constructed for the 2002 Winter Games remain in place and are open to the public including uncommon winter sports like ski jumping and bobsleigh/luge at the Utah Olympic Park. In addition, ice-skating is open to the public at two Olympic facilities—The Oquirrh Park Oval in Kearns, rightly dubbed “the fastest ice on Earth,” since 18 Olympic and world records have been broken there and The Ice Sheet in Ogden—as well as at other facilities. Both facilities offer periodic lessons in hockey, speed skating and curling to interested adults and kids.

Most of the resorts also offer summer programs to compliment the winter fun!

Spring, Summer & Fall Sports

Even after the snow has melted, Salt Lake continues to be an outdoor haven. Utah offers an extensive menu of recreational opportunities to enjoy.

Prominent Tour De France rider Dale Zabriskie, a Utah native, trains for the tour in the mountains in and around Salt Lake City. Bicycling is easy in Utah because rides present themselves in almost any direction. Scenic rides in the alpine terrain along the Wasatch Front are as popular as rides in the red rock country of Utah’s Dixie—just a few hours from Salt Lake City.

To experience Utah in its most natural state you probably have to hoof it, and the State’s countless hiking and backpacking treks allow nature lovers to fully experience the diverse landscape. Easy day hikes to clear mountain lakes and alpine meadows are within a 30-minute drive of Salt Lake in the nearby Wasatch Mountains. For those wanting true seclusion and a hard-core walkabout, the High Uintahs Wilderness Area is just a couple of hours drive from downtown and offers a plethora of intricate hikes into pristine wilderness areas, including King’s Peak, the highest point in Utah at 13,529 feet. But don’t forget a jacket, because even in August storms can bring snow at altitude.

For golfers Utah is a little slice of heaven. “Almost all the population of Utah has a choice of 25 golf course within a half-hour drive of their home,” says Joe Watts, executive director of the 30,000-member Utah Golf Association. And many of them are reasonably-priced government-owned courses. According to the National Golf Foundation Utah has more government-owned courses per capita than any other state. The result is that greens fees average perhaps half the cost of comparable courses in neighboring Nevada or Arizona. In the Salt Lake Valley alone there are over 40 golf courses with another 30 less an hour from downtown. Course designs range from links-style courses that would be at home in Scotland, to parkland courses now in their second century, to lake-side courses with picture-postcard views of snow-capped mountains, to sparkling desert courses. When it comes to golf, Utah has it all.

The quality of Salt Lake’s golf rivals the choicest public courses in the country and features country-club-like course conditions. For example, the Golf Club at Thanksgiving Point, a Johnny Miller signature designed course, ranked as one of the top 10 new courses in the country at its founding. For more information, Utah golf vacations, Tee Times, and “Stay & Play” golf packages, visit www.utahgolftrail.com or www.slc-golf.com.

Utah’s deserts rival the deserts anywhere for splendor and yet the State ranks sixth in the United States for the surface area of ‘boatable’ water per capita. In fact Utah has more than 100 bodies of water considered boatable and hundreds more lakes and ponds that you’ll long to linger near. But it’s not the number of lakes, but the diversity. From houseboating on the one-of-a-kind Lake Powell to fishing emerald waters in alpine forests, to floating freely in the largest salt lake in North America, Utah lakes offer diversity like none other.

Offshore enthusiasts enjoy water sports such as water skiing, sailboarding, wakeboarding, and river running. The southern part of the state is world-renowned for its whitewater rafting on the Green, Colorado, and San Juan Rivers.

The State is home to more than 630 species of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, and amphibians and most species are protected by state law. Given the proximity to the outdoors, wildlife watching is popular. For instance, every spring brings an influx of hundreds of bald eagles to the shorelines of the Wasatch Front, within range of millions. Many Utahns also cherish