Here, high in the mountains; this is where life begins in Utah. Above all else; these snowy fields, in the mountain, make it so we can stay in the valleys below. The Sierra Mountains of California block the storms that sweep in off the Pacific Ocean. There the clouds drop most of their moisture; as they struggle up those rocky peaks. On the other side there is thirsty desert that stretch across Nevada and Western Utah.

The clouds pushed high into the thin atmosphere hold tight their life giving gift as they stream across those deserts. Until, until they hit the next hurdle; Utah's Wasatch and Uintah Mountains. Here again they are blocked for a time. A brief time where they drop more of that most precious moisture.

Most of Utah's population live at the base of those mountains; on a narrow strip of land fed by the streams and rivers that start high up in the mountains. Almost every drop from those streams and rivers are used and then what remains flows into the Great Salt Lake.

So here in these high pastures is where the snow falls. Here is where the water that will fill the reservoirs comes from. The water that feeds the fields and orchards, waters the lawns, fills pools and fountains down in the valleys.

Here is where life begins in Utah.