St. George, Utah

St. George is a peaceful, picturesque link between the Southwest and the Rocky Mountains. It sprawls across a small desert basin surrounded by towering forested peaks, multicolored domes and precipices, and enormous red sandstone cliffs. In this unique gateway to the Rockies, hard freezes and snowfalls are scarce enough that palm trees flourish outdoors year-round. Mormon colonizer Brigham Young brought settlement and cotton farming to this area during the Civil War. The town grew slowly until the 1950s when modern air conditioning made deserts livable.

Today, St. George is a major destination with a rich diversity of mountain and desert parks, a burgeoning array of golf courses, an aquatic complex, and a large college. Downtown is being slowly revitalized as good taste is replacing garish signage with well-landscaped buildings, and new resorts northwest of town have developed an architectural style worthy of the area’s magnificent natural setting. Restaurants are primarily oriented toward family fare with a notable culinary contribution–superb frozen custard.

For more information, check with the local Chamber of Commerce.