I used to travel to SLC for business about 6-10 times a year. It's a beautiful state / city but it's a little strange. There are a lot of Mormons obviously, and then there are a lot of people actively trying to prove they're not Mormon. The politics are dominated by LDS values so you get some bizarre rules although that's starting to change a little. That sort of stuff is livable though.
The SLC valley can get pretty smoggy though because it's trapped between two mountain ranges, but you can get to a lot of really great places for fishing, camping, biking etc from Salt Lake City without very much driving. We used to stay in down town SLC and go skiing, rather than gettng a hotel in the mountains because they are just that close.
I'm getting to the point where I'd like to live anywhere *but* California, so I'm a little jealous.
