Handbook: Utah

“I love Utah,” we continually say, over and again, to one another as our–back then–young love absorbs deep into the seats, leather bracelets and weathered skin that is our life living out of a Volkswagen Bus while traversing the Beehive State’s offerings.

Where many states have epic national parks, Utah has five in a row, the distances between those parks filled with state parks, national monuments and BLM land galore. The northern stretch, along US Route 40, is a beauty all of its own and crossing the state from west to east via US Route 50 one can see the layers upon layers of farmed fields, desert expanses, red rock arches in the lower elevations and towering snowcapped mountains beyond.

Much more than just mormons and weak beer, Utah is the most beautiful state–combining aspects of all other surrounding states–in the American West by many measures.