Utah includes portions of three major natural regions, or physiographic provinces, of the western United States: the Middle Rocky Mountains, the Basin and Range province, and the Colorado Plateau. All three form part of larger physiographic divisions. The Middle Rocky Mountains form part of the Rocky Mountain system, and the Basin and Range province and the Colorado Plateau form part of the Intermontane Plateaus.

The Middle Rocky Mountains, in northeastern Utah, include the Uinta and the Wasatch mountain ranges. The Wasatch Range is noted for its majestic granite peaks, deep canyons carved by valley glaciers, and hundreds of glacial lakes. The older Uinta Mountains, or Uintas, are one of the few major ranges in the Rocky Mountains that extend in an east-to-west direction. Several of the rounded peaks in the range reach elevations of more than 13,000 ft above sea level. The highest, Kings Peak, 13,526 ft above sea level and is the highest peak in Utah. The peaks of the Wasatch Range are lower. The two highest are Mount Timpanogos, 11,750 ft, and Mount Nebo, 11,877 ft. Several other peaks have similar elevations. The western side of the range is often called the Wasatch Front.

The Basin and Range Province, covering approximately the western third of the state, is a region of gray desert plains, shimmering white salt flats, and towering mountains. It constitutes the eastern portion of the so-called Great Basin. Rivers peter out in the Great Salt Lake Desert or drain into Great Salt Lake, a remnant of huge, prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The narrow level strip of land between Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Front, known as the Salt Lake Valley, is the most fertile, productive, and densely populated part of Utah.

The Colorado Plateau is an area of fiery colors and unusual physical variety. The uplifted plateaus, rising in places to heights of more than 11,000 ft, have been carved by rivers and eroded by wind and water over the centuries. The results are hundreds of canyons of great depth that are carved into red, pink, purple, and yellow sandstones and shales. Through these colorful canyons wind the Colorado River and some of its tributaries.

Most of eastern and southern Utah drains into the Colorado River system and eventually to the Gulf of California, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The rest of the state, however, lies within a huge internal drainage system that has no outlet to the sea. The Colorado River flows across southeastern Utah, receiving a major tributary, the Green River, when it is nearly midway in its course across the state. Major streams that drain into the Great Basin are the Bear, Weber, Ogden, Jordan, Provo, Spanish Fork, and Sevier rivers. A very small portion of northwestern Utah drains into the Columbia River system by way of the Raft River.

The largest of Utah’s lakes is the famous Great Salt Lake. The largest inland body of salt water in North America, it is the largest remnant of the once extensive Lake Bonneville, which covered much of Utah and Nevada in prehistoric times. The Great Salt Lake is several times more saline than the oceans. It varies in volume and salinity according to the amount of water that it receives from streams flowing out of the Wasatch Range in the east. Other, smaller natural lakes include Utah Lake, which drains into Great Salt Lake by way of the Jordan River. Huge reservoirs rival the natural lakes in size. Among them is Lake Powell, which lies behind Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River and is partly in Arizona.

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