Natural History Museum of Utah

Built into a foothill above the University of Utah, this copper-clad museum steps up the slope so that its galleries climb through the building like geological strata. Its paleontology collection is a highlight, rich in horned dinosaurs and other creatures unearthed from the state's extraordinary fossil beds, several displayed as full skeletons. Other halls cover Great Salt Lake ecology, Native peoples of the region, and the land's deep-time formation. A rooftop terrace opens onto views of the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding mountains.