Mammoth Lakes or Moab?

Neither town is a beach destination. Mammoth Lakes at least has real mountain lakes for a cold dip in midsummer, Horseshoe Lake in the Lakes Basin or the larger Crowley Lake, though most visitors paddle or fish rather than swim.

Moab's water is harder to enjoy. There are shallow pools in Mill Creek, Ken's Lake and sandbars on a fast, silty Colorado that calls for care, so the motel pool is the realistic place to swim.

Both towns feed hungry outdoor people rather than food lovers, but Mammoth Lakes has a little more range because it caters for a big winter ski crowd. It has steakhouses, craft beer brewed in town and a few more ambitious kitchens around the Village.

Moab's Main Street has similar burgers, tacos and breweries, some with Southwestern touches, and dusty boots are welcome everywhere. Utah's alcohol rules make a drink with dinner more formal, though, and there is less choice in winter.

Neither town has much to see. Mammoth Lakes has a small history museum in a log cabin and a lot of modern lodges, and its real heritage sites, Bodie and Manzanar, are an hour or more away.

Moab's history is older and closer to hand. Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont petroglyph panels line the cliffs along Potash Road and Kane Creek, minutes from town, and there are dinosaur trackways and the small Museum of Moab as well. It is rock art rather than buildings, but you see it without a long drive.

Mammoth Lakes at least has an après-ski scene. In winter the Village bars and brewery taprooms fill up in the late afternoon, and long ski weekends can run late. Moab has a couple of brewpubs full of bikers and rafters, and the town is mostly asleep by eleven. Its real attraction after dark is a very dark, star-filled sky. Neither town has clubs.

Both are first-rate outdoor bases, so the choice comes down to landscape. Mammoth Lakes is alpine and volcanic: a huge ski mountain, granite-ringed lakes, the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses and Devils Postpile. In summer Tioga Pass opens the way to Yosemite's high country.

Moab is red-rock desert. Arches is at the edge of town, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point are within an hour, and Slickrock and the Whole Enchilada are among the best-known mountain bike trails anywhere. Add rafting on the Colorado, canyoneering and jeep trails. Moab is at its best in spring and autumn, Mammoth in winter and summer.

Mammoth Lakes has the better outings. Bodie, a preserved gold-rush ghost town, is a little over an hour north, and Manzanar, the wartime internment camp, lies to the south. Mono Lake, June Lake and Bishop are all on the same highway.

From Moab most day trips are simply more scenery. Green River, Monticello and Bluff are small towns, and the Ancestral Puebloan sites at Blanding and Hovenweep take up a full day.

Mammoth Lakes is easier with children. In winter there is a large ski school, beginner slopes and a tubing hill. In summer there are rowing boats, trout fishing and short lakeside walks, and condominium kitchens make meals simpler. Allow a day or two for the altitude.

Moab thrills school-age children who love scrambling over rock, with Junior Ranger programmes, dinosaur tracks and gentle raft floats. Summer heat, unfenced drops and long drives make it hard work with toddlers.

In Mammoth Lakes a ski trip works without a car. Free winter shuttles and the gondola from the Village reach the slopes, and in summer a trolley serves the Lakes Basin and a shuttle runs into Reds Meadow. Moab's Main Street is easy to walk and a paved bike path runs to the Arches entrance, but nearly everything else needs your own vehicle, ideally high-clearance, or an outfitter's tour.

Shopping is practical in both towns, and neither has fashion streets. Mammoth Lakes is stronger on ski, snowboard and fly-fishing gear and has galleries of landscape photography. Moab has bike and climbing shops, rock shops selling geodes and fossils, and Navajo jewellery and weavings, which make the more distinctive souvenir.

Lift tickets make the real difference. In ski season Mammoth Lakes is one of the costlier places to go in America, as passes, rentals and peak-week lodging add up fast. A summer visit spent hiking and self-catering in a condominium narrows much of the gap.

Moab's rooms are not cheap either, and rafting or jeep tours soon add up, but the landscape itself costs little. One national park pass covers a week, the best hikes are free, and public campgrounds and dispersed camping give you an inexpensive bed, especially in winter.

Mammoth Lakes keeps a small stage going all year. A community theatre company plays on the college campus, and summer adds a long-running jazz festival, chamber music and outdoor concerts in meadows with the mountains behind.

Moab has essentially one event, the Moab Music Festival at the end of summer. Its chamber concerts in canyon grottoes reached by boat are worth timing a trip around, but outside those weeks there is little beyond a brewpub band.

Mammoth Lakes is the better place to unwind. Its volcanic ground feeds simple natural hot springs out in the sagebrush, with the Sierra across the valley, and the big lodges have spas, hot tubs and massage for tired legs.

Moab has no hot springs and only a few small massage studios, and its days start early and run hot. The rest it offers is quieter: desert evenings and watching the cliffs turn red at sunset.