Alta is a ski area in the western United States, located in the town of Alta in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, in Salt Lake County. With a skiable area of 2,614 acres (10.58 km2), Alta's base elevation is 8,530 ft (2,600 m) and rises to 11,068 ft (3,374 m) for a vertical gain of 2,538 ft (774 m). One of the oldest ski resorts in the country, it opened its first lift in early 1939. Alta is known for receiving more snow than most Utah resorts, with an average annual snowfall of 545 inches (13.8 m). It is also regularly ranked as having the best snow in North America. Alta is one of three remaining ski resorts in the U.S. that prohibits snowboarders, along with nearby competitor Deer Valley and Vermont's Mad River Glen.
Alta Ski Area
Snowbird ski resort is accessible from Mount Baldy at Alta ski resort
Elephant Butt rock in the White Squaw Area
Summit of Point Supreme
The Wasatch Range or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends just into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state.
View of the Wasatch Range from the Salt Lake City Public Library, January 2006
Mount Olympus, a prominent and recognizable mountain visible from much of the Salt Lake Valley, August 2005
The Wasatch Mountains in the fall, September 2003
Kyhv Peak over Rock Canyon at sunset as seen from the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, August 2012.