Provo is Utah's third largest city, sitting in a broad valley between Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. It's best known as the home of Brigham Young University (BYU), the largest religious university in the United States, which gives the city a strongly Mormon character — Provo is one of the most religiously homogeneous metropolitan areas in America, with correspondingly low alcohol consumption and a particular family-oriented culture.
The mountains directly above the city are the real draw for outsiders. Provo Canyon, running east from downtown, is spectacular scenery — the walls close in quickly and the Provo River is a good trout stream. Sundance Mountain Resort, Robert Redford's eco-minded ski resort, is up the canyon. Timpanogos Cave National Monument is accessible nearby, with guided tours through cave formations. In summer, the canyon road leads to Bridal Veil Falls and the access point for hiking Mount Timpanogos, one of Utah's most popular peaks (11,752 feet).
The BYU campus is worth visiting for the Museum of Art alone — one of the best free art museums in the Mountain West. Downtown Provo has the Provo City Center Temple, rebuilt inside the shell of the 1898 Tabernacle after it burned in 2010, and the Provo Tunnels, a repurposed network of century-old underground passages now home to artists and small businesses. Utah Lake — the largest freshwater lake in the western United States — borders the city to the west.
Provo is a convenient base for exploring the central Utah mountains and is significantly cheaper to stay in than Park City.