The 1500 acre campus is located on the western flank of the Wasatch Mountains overlooking Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah (Metropolitan area population of 800,000). Salt Lake City is the cultural hub of the intermountain area with nationally acclaimed, professional arts organizations, including the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera Company, Ballet West, and several modern dance companies. The Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association also has its home in Salt Lake City. The Utah Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey have offices in Salt Lake City close to the University campus. Utah offers an unusual diversity of natural environments, ranging from mountains to deserts.

Salt Lake City is convenient to a wide array of outdoor recreational activities. There are hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails in settings ranging from urban trails to desert landscapes to alpine terrain. Superb skiing is just minutes away from the University campus at several major ski resorts in the canyons of the Wasatch Mountains and world-class river running is just hours away. The state contains five national parks (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion), six national monuments (Cedar Breaks, Dinosaur, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge and Timpanogos Cave), and two national recreation areas (Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon).

The Millenium Edition of Places Rated Almanac rated 354 North American metropolitan areas for education, living costs, transportation, job outlook, climate, crime, the arts, health care, and recreation. Their overall ranking of Salt Lake City was #1 of 354.

In February 2002, Salt Lake City and the University of Utah hosted the XIX Winter Olympic Games.

Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock units from Precambrian to Recent age are well-exposed in the Wasatch Mountains near the University campus, as are all types of faults and folds of both compressional and extensional origin. The campus itself is situated on the boundary between the Basin-Range Province (immediately to the west) and the Rocky Mountain Province (immediately to the east). The Colorado Plateaus Province in central and southern Utah is located a short distance to the southeast of Salt Lake City.