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I can't imagine why this is a debate. SLC's mountains are much closer and more scenic from the city. Denver just has a brown ridgeline in the distance. If Boulder was the question it would be a competition.
You make it sound like Denver is constantly covered in a thick layer of smog like LA...There are rarely days you can't see the mountains in Denver because of the smog. Maybe a week or 2 out of the year total smog is really bad, but not that bad. And secondly SLC is known for its terrible inversions.
After looking up those inversions SLC gets, they look worse than the haziness Denver gets, so I guess it's a moot point when comparing them. But while Denver isn't as bad as LA, but it's usually in the upper ranks of cities with bad air quality.
I have a soft spot for the Front Range- I think it's one of the best places in the country. That being said, I think SLC is underrated in many, many ways, and it has a pretty dramatic setting.
Salt Lake City is far closer to the mountains than Denver is, to echo everyone else.
For the scientific answer, as the crow flies, one can get to 10,000 ft. elevation from
DT Salt Lake City in 10 miles
DT Los Angeles in 37 miles
DT Denver in 25 miles
I'm actually kinda surprised that in Denver's case it's only 25 miles. In Denver, you can't really go out and realistically expect to get in terrain hiking, like up a mountain, after work. Salt Lake City is the only somewhat major city in the world I have observed that in, at least to that degree.
Of note here is the elevation of the respective downtowns. Denver and SLC are 4-5,000 ft up. DTLA is 305 feet. So, you're talking about a 10,000 foot elevation climb from DTLA in those 37 miles. Only 5-6k from Denver and SLC. So, in terms of dramatic optics on mountains, looking towards the mountains from DTLA can be even more dramatic. Of course, if there's too much smog that goes out the window!
I just got back from visiting SLC, Park city etc. It is amazing how convenient the SLC airport is to the ski resort areas! The one thing that did disappoint me was I just wasn't impressed with SLC as a city. It's got an international airport, an NBA team...and that's about it that distinguishes it from, say, Riverside, CA.
Utah, as a state is far more impressive than SLC as a city.
Utah is incredibly beautiful state to visit. I would never ever want to live there because it is sooo conservative and Republican.
SLC is not super impressive, however.
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