Overview | Prehistory | American Indians | Explorers and Trappers | Mormon Settlement
Territorial Days | Crossroads of the West | Mines and Minorities | Transition| Statehood
Adjustment | War and Depression | Utah Today | Bibliography | Glossary
A Unique Setting
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Delicate Arch |
Utah presents an uncommon landscape with three major land formations (physiographic provinces). They are the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Plateau, and the Basin and Range provinces. The Rocky Mountain Province takes up a V-shaped section of northeastern Utah. In this area are the Uinta and Wasatch mountains. The Colorado Plateau Province lies in the east central and southeastern area of Utah. It includes the area from the Uinta Basin south to Canyonlands. The Basin and Range Province is an area of deserts and mountain ranges. They are separated by broad valleys.
Within these three areas, Utah varies in elevation from the lowest point at Beaver Dam Wash, 2,350 feet above sea level in the south, to the highest point on Kings Peak in the Uinta Mountains, 13,528 feet above sea level. Most of Utah's cities are located between 3,000 and 7,000 feet above sea level.
In each of these areas there are different kinds of plants and animals. At 3,000 feet you will find sagebrush, Joshua trees and the horned rattlesnake. Around 4,000 feet you can look at pinons, junipers and herds of mule deer. In the higher mountains you will see quaking aspen, douglas fir, the Canada lynx and North American elk. At the very top of the mountains, past 8,000 feet, you can find alpine fir and Engleman spruce trees.
Utah's temperatures vary widely. The mountains and high valleys are cooler, while the lower elevations and southern parts of the state have higher temperatures. The highest temperature ever recorded is 117o F on July 5, 1985, at St. George, Utah. On February 1, 1985, at Peter's Sink in Logan the temperature sank to -69o F, the lowest recorded temperature in Utah.
