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At the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, above the town of Sandy, Utah, the Alta Resort offers 2,200 skiable acres and an average of more than 550 inches of snowfall a year. While the steep slopes of the Wasatch mountains draw expert skiers, there is plenty of terrain for intermediate skiers and a number of programs within the ski school to get beginners and first-timers out and enjoying themselves. As for families, even those with little ones as young as two months old, day care is available all day long and into the early evening through Alta Children’s Center, and on Fridays and Saturdays until 6:30 p.m. with its Après-Ski Care. To get tykes skiing and on the slopes, Alta partners with the ski school.

Having been raised on National Geographic magazines, I have always been fascinated by western landscape of America. The jagged peaks of Tetons have been on my to-see list ever since I have known the works of Ansel Adams. Last labor day weekend, my husband and I could finally make a trip to Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming. We started our trip by flying into Salt Lake City, Utah and then drove about 5 hours north to Jackson Hole in Wyoming. The roads are beautiful, the landscape mind blowing. We were in the Jackson Hole area for about 4 days and one of the days we left our car behind and instead rented a bike to go back and forth between the Teton National Park and Yellowstone Nat Park. It was worth every single aching muscle :)

Bordered on the south by its eponymous deep-red cliffs, the national monument is home to broad plateaus, endangered California condors, and some of the oldest petroglyphs in the United States. But the area’s greatest hit is the Wave, a dramatic, undulant orange rock formation. There are trailheads, maps, and minimally marked checkpoints along the trail leading to the famous spot, but unless you opt to hire an authorized guide, you’ll have to pick your way carefully across relatively untouched desert—that is, if you manage to snag one of the 20 daily hiking permits. Apply online four months in advance or enter the daily lottery at the visitor center in Kenab, Utah. Didn’t make it? Grab a map, make sure you have a spare tire, and explore the monument’s lesser-known slot canyons and gulches, or head to the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park; both are within a two-to-three-hour drive. You can always try again the next day. Permits are $6 and $7.

Feldman’s—modeled on the classic Jewish deli one would expect to find in New York City—has landed and is thriving on the east side of Salt Lake City. The deli’s hot half-pound sandwiches include multiple variations on the Reuben (sauerkraut or slaw, pastrami or turkey, corned beef and pastrami, etc.) as well as items like beef tongue, which are hard to find in Utah. At breakfast, order a plate of eggs and salami, try a bagel with a schmear or one of the sandwiches for lunch, and go for a bowl of matzo ball soup with some pierogis for dinner. If you know New York delis, the available-all-day dessert selection will make you happy: rugelach (rolled pastry filled with cinnamon and nuts) or blintzes with fruit compote, or maybe a nice slice of Black Forest cake? Feldman’s also regularly offers live entertainment in the evenings.

Carved into cliffs of Ojo Alamo sandstone, this unconventional hideaway was originally intended to be an office for geologist (and owner) Bruce Black. Now, it’s the perfect place for adventurous travelers to engage in Flintstonian fantasies.

Overlooking the La Plata river valley, the cave and its two patios afford views of the Four Corners—Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The cave itself is about 1,700 square feet, with a central stone pillar anchoring the main living areas: living room, dining room, kitchen, and kiva, or traditional ceremonial room, with traditional horno (fireplace). The separate master bedroom has a queen bed and a bathroom with a waterfall shower and Jacuzzi.

The cave is stocked with an assortment of DVDs and CDs, and while you can get cell service, there’s no Wi-Fi. Your neighbors are squirrels, chipmunks, ring-tail cats, and hummingbirds.

The charming Swiss village of Verbier is a breeding ground for fearless, thrill-seeking mountain bikers. Be warned, though: Even a rockstar mountain biker from Colorado or Utah will feel like he needs training wheels when he tackles these mountains. In town, local bike shops outfit cyclists with bikes and Transformer-like protective gear. A gondola whisks cyclists to the top of the mountain where they can tackle trails of varying degrees of difficulty in La Tzoumaz Bikepark. Less death-defying trails wind around the mountain past quirky sculptures such as a giant penguin and a huge skeleton of a wooly mammoth. Apparently, a mountain-biking battle wound is an essential Swiss souvenir. I took home a double-fractured finger after launching over my handlebars (A note: Men who get injured apparently get stitched up by a hot Swiss nurse. I got a scholarly Swiss doctor, but I also didn’t get a bill). For something a bit more low-key, rent an electric mountain bike and cruise around town past the fancy hotels (Verbier W opened in 2014) and charming homes. Just a touch of pressure on the pedal makes you feel like Lance Armstrong ascending the hills.

At this unique formation, Navajo sandstone in shades of deep red to white was first eroded by water and then primarily by wind to create smooth, rolling terrain that resembles ocean waves. The differing densities of stone have caused the structure to erode at varying speeds, resulting in undulating fins of rock along the entire surface. Made up of two separate U-shaped troughs, the Wave is as narrow as seven feet, as wide as 60 feet, and more than 100 feet long. To preserve its serene nature, the Bureau of Land Management only issues 20 permits per day to visitors. If you’re lucky enough to secure one, you must then hike nearly three miles across the open desert from the trailhead closest to the site to reach it.

The natives that guide you through Canyon De Chelly are very passionate about their historical heritage: the battles that their people have survived, the ceremonies they live by, and the dwellings that they carved out of the massive cliff sides. The Navajo people had to hide in the mountains, and for extended times they weren’t even able to come down for food or water. The Human Chain is the story of how they created a chain by climbing down each other in the night to bring up baskets of water while their enemy slept. Many survived because of that daring task.

It’s really fun to visit a place that has such rich travel-related history. National Geographic magazine, who photographed the area using Kodachrome film for a 1949 photo-spread, hence its name. This is Grosvenor Arch, named after the former president of the National Geographic Society. You can camp in the little park and hike all around the arch and several rock formations...and see eagle’s nests, which are pretty cool!

Located just off Main Street, the Washington School House Hotel eschews Park City’s typical rustic style for a pared-down, flea-market–chic aesthetic. Before being reimagined as a design-oriented inn in 2011, the 1889 building served as a schoolhouse for miners’ children and a dancehall for the local outpost of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Today, the interior is anything but traditional, from the whitewashed living room with 16-foot ceilings to the antique mirror and the white, lacquered antler chandelier. Outside, a heated pool sits on the hillside surrounded by aspens and boulders. There’s also a fire pit, fashioned from a steel Olympic torch from the 2002 Winter Games.

Each of the guestrooms and suites is unique, though all feature reclaimed wood floors, crystal chandeliers, and tall windows. An artful collection of European antiques and vintage paintings adds a bohemian vibe, while white marble bathrooms offer heated floors, walk-in showers, clawfoot tubs, and period fixtures. Guests can also look forward to plush hooded robes and top-notch toiletries from Molton Brown.

An almost daily occurance in Park City: colorful hot air balloons dotting the big blue skies. The propane flame filling the balloons’ envelopes sounds like a dragon breathing his fiery breath. You might hear it from your condo or hotel room before you see it. Multiple balloon companies offer rides, all year long, which usually include a champagne finish (hot air ballooners traditionally carried champagne with them to appease farmers since they landed in their fields so often). The rides are a unique experience, the views of town unbeatable, but even if you only gaze at the color in the sky from below, it’s another beautiful element of the Park City landscape.

This chalet-style lodge takes its name from legendary Norwegian skier Stein Eriksen, the 1952 Olympic giant slalom gold medalist and 1954 World Cup champion. When he agreed to help develop this ski-in, ski-out spot in the 1980s, he drew from his experiences at the best ski hotels in Europe, lending the lodge an Alpine feel. Inside, fireplaces, stone walls, and rich wood ceilings complement the mountain surroundings. Guestrooms are equally thought out, with beamed cathedral ceilings, stone fireplaces, and leather furnishings. Select rooms have jetted tubs and heated floors.

Looking at a map of this trail might cause a little bit of confusion considering the name, since the shoreline it follows is that of an ancient lake that covered most of what is now northwest Utah. Lake Bonneville, which was a freshwater lake, existed in its largest form around 14,500 years ago. Today, the Great Salt Lake is all that is left of the Pleistocene-era lake that was nearly the size of Lake Michigan. The trail that is being built along this long-ago shoreline is currently in segments totaling 100 miles, but there is a proposal to expand the trail into 280 continuous miles stretching south from the Idaho border to the town of Nephi, Utah.

Skimming along the Arizona border in the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Buckskin Gulch is considered the longest slot canyon in the Southwest. After entering the intimate narrows of the canyon, the route continues on for about 15 miles until it reaches the Paria River. Along those 15 miles, the walls get as narrow as 10 feet and as tall as 500 feet above the canyon floor. While the route can be done in a day, many visitors take overnight gear and camp near the confluence before hiking out the next morning.

There are two ways to arrive at this exclusive Deer Valley perch—ski in from the slopes, or hop on the Swiss-crafted funicular and climb the 250-vertical-foot ridge. The 12-acre, 181-room St. Regis is literally and figuratively in rarefied air, bringing swanky suites, signature butler service, and celebrity chef–driven dining to the high Wasatch Mountain range. Après-ski is a treat at the ski “beach,” which features loungers, an outdoor fire garden, and a menu by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. From there, guests can enjoy a slope-side dip in the steamy pool, or descend a spiral staircase into the 14,000-square-foot Remède Spa for a massage. Come dinnertime, book a window-side table at the J&G Grill.

Natural elements in the lobby and library—stone fireplace, exposed wood, leather furnishings—complement the mountain setting without devolving into log-cabin kitsch. The contemporary aesthetic continues in the spacious guestrooms and suites with dark-wood furniture, state-of-the-art electronics, toasty gas fireplaces, and massive marble bathrooms.