Mammoth Lakes or Salt Lake City?

Neither city is a place for swimming, and both send you to lakes. In Mammoth Lakes that means clear, cold mountain water at Horseshoe Lake, or the slightly warmer Crowley Lake, and only in July and August. Hot Creek is off limits. Salt Lake City's novelty is floating in the Great Salt Lake off Antelope Island, from a muddy shore with brine flies. For proper swimming you drive up to Wasatch reservoirs such as Deer Creek or Pineview.

Mammoth Lakes serves ski-town food: big breakfasts, burgers, pizza, steakhouses and beer brewed in town. It is filling after a day outside, but it has no cuisine of its own, and some kitchens cut back in the quiet spring and autumn months.

Salt Lake City eats better, mainly because there is more variety. Mexican, Pacific Islander, Peruvian and Vietnamese kitchens line State Street, and there are local oddities such as fry sauce and dirty sodas, plus brewers and coffee roasters in Sugar House. Wine and cocktails are the weak spot under Utah's rules.

Mammoth Lakes has almost nothing to visit in town apart from a small history museum in a log cabin. It began as a mining camp and grew into a ski resort, so its lodges and condominiums are modern.

Salt Lake City has a compact but real set of sights built around its founding faith. Temple Square holds the granite temple and the domed Tabernacle, with Brigham Young's Beehive House and the Family History Library nearby. Add the State Capitol, the painted interior of the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Natural History Museum, and you have two full days.

In Mammoth Lakes, going out means après-ski in the Village and a few taprooms. Long weekends in the ski season can run late, but the rest of the year the town is quiet before midnight, and there are no clubs. Salt Lake City has more choice: bars and a few dance clubs around Main Street and the Granary District, a long-standing gay bar scene and pubs in Sugar House. Utah's liquor laws still limit stronger drinks and late hours.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference is the setting. Mammoth Lakes sits right in the mountains at about 2,400m. It has Mammoth Mountain's long ski season, the Lakes Basin straight above town, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls, the tufa towers of Mono Lake set in volcanic country and, in summer, Tuolumne Meadows.

Salt Lake City is a city with mountains on its edge. Four ski resorts known for dry powder are under an hour away up Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, and foothill trails start above the Avenues. To the west the land is completely different, with bison on Antelope Island and the white expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Both have a short list of outings, but they differ in kind. From Mammoth Lakes the trips are to history and scenery along an empty highway: the ghost town of Bodie, the Manzanar internment camp, Bishop, and Lee Vining on Mono Lake. The passes close in winter.

Salt Lake City's outings are to towns, led by the Victorian Main Street of Park City about forty minutes away, then Midway, Ogden's 25th Street and the Golden Spike site. Neither city puts its region's famous parks, Yosemite Valley or Zion and Arches, within easy reach for a day.

Mammoth Lakes works for active families. There are a ski school and gentle beginner slopes, snow tubing, rowing boats and trout fishing in the Lakes Basin, and the gondola and bike park for older children. There is nothing indoors for a snowbound day, though, and the altitude can tire young children at first.

Salt Lake City offers far more. Large families are the norm and restaurants expect children, and there is Hogle Zoo, the Living Planet Aquarium, the Clark Planetarium, Tracy Aviary and the Lagoon amusement park. These are spread across the valley, so a car helps.

In both places a car makes life easier, for different reasons. Mammoth Lakes is a small, spread-out town. Free winter shuttles, the gondola from the Village and a summer trolley cover a ski or lakes stay, but the Eastern Sierra beyond means long drives, sometimes with snow chains.

Salt Lake City has real public transport. TRAX light rail runs from the airport, FrontRunner trains run to Ogden and Provo, and there is a walkable core around Temple Square, although the blocks are long. The canyons and the zoo are easier by car, and canyon traffic can be slow on powder days.

In Mammoth Lakes, shopping means gear: ski, climbing and fly-fishing shops, rental outlets, a few landscape photography galleries and souvenirs in the Village. Salt Lake City has more variety. City Creek Center has department stores along its open-air creek, Trolley Square fills old streetcar barns with shops, and there are independent and vintage shops at 9th and 9th and in Sugar House. Neither is worth the journey for fashion.

Mammoth Lakes is the more expensive stay. Lodging, lift tickets and meals carry resort prices, especially in winter, and so do groceries. Summer and the shoulder months bring the bill down, and cooking in a condominium helps.

Salt Lake City is moderately priced for an American city, with fair downtown hotels, cheap light rail and free sights on Temple Square. Skiing from there is still costly, but you can stay in town rather than in the canyons or Park City.

Mammoth Lakes has a community theatre on the college campus and, in summer, jazz, chamber music and concerts in a meadow. These are pleasant but small. Salt Lake City has far more: the Tabernacle Choir with the great organ, daily organ recitals, the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, Utah Opera, Ballet West and touring shows at the Eccles Theater. Here a performance can be worth planning an evening around.

Mammoth Lakes is the better place to unwind. Its volcanic ground feeds simple hot springs out in the sagebrush with the Sierra across the valley, and the lodge spas and slow off-peak weeks add to the calm.

Salt Lake City has one memorable soak, the warm mineral water inside the limestone dome of the Homestead Crater in Midway, about an hour away. Otherwise it relies on resort spas, and rest comes mostly from the city's quiet pace.