Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties are the most urban followed by Washington and Cache. If you take the population of these six counties alone it would probably add up to 95% of the states population. Other areas are extremely rural. Even though these counties have high populations and more restrictions they still have a few smaller unincorporated areas with less restrictions.

You really need to think about your soils and climate. Utah has more variation between counties than most eastern states have from border to border. Here is a map that might help.

http://ibis.health.utah.gov/indicator/view/CliChaDivMap.Map.html

Our soil here can be awful! One of our biggest challenges to gardening is high soil pH. It gets so hard to find things that will grow with a pH over 7.8. Its just too much stress on plants in combination with our harsh climates. You might want to get on the web soil survey and look at the soil maps and then read the description of that series before a purchase. I have been looking for land... I have thought about parleys or fielding loam areas in rural northeastern box elder county. 16" of precipitation annually, usda zone 6a and rural.

I also love san pete county. It's beautiful there; and i see good deals on land there. Also I think western Cache county is nice. Other areas are nice too just look at the usda hardiness, soil texture and pH, and annual precipitation.

As a landscape architect I feel the need to say please stay away from steep slopes (landslides, avalanches, access) even though people here build on them all the time. (Look at Bountiful, Utah) Also the extremely rural mountain and desert areas are prone to wildfire. Just a thought.

There are always listings for mountain property in the size you want. For areas closer in to civilization, check out the towns in Cedar Valley. It is west and over the mountain from Utah Lake. The towns there are Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield.

West of Salt Lake is Tooele Valley, there are some good sized lots there as well. It's pronounced too-WILL-a or too-WELL-a depending on the accent. Further west is Skull Valley, Very little out there, but tons of land.

North of Salt Lake you would need to go to Brigham City or Tremonton to find the size you want for anything resembling a decent price. Other towns in that area are Corinne, Thatcher and Honeyville. That would put you a god 50 or 60 miles north of Salt Lake and on the Northern edge of the Wasatch Front.

South of Salt Lake, your best bet is on the south end of Utah Lake from Santaquin through to Elberta and Goshen then south to Nephi and maybe Levan.

That would put you about 90 miles south of Salt Lake if you went to Levan and on the southern edge of the Wasatch Front.

Logan, in the north is a nice place, still mostly rural and home of the Utah State University. Park City and Heber City are getting rather expensive. Further east though, Hennifer and Coalville are still reasonable and rural. But again 50 miles or more from Salt Lake.

Other areas to consider are the San Pete valley around the towns of Ephraim and Manti. The area around the town of Fillmore. Beaver and the Parowan/Cedar City area are nice.

Moab is getting pricy but north of there in Green River or south in Monticello is still good.

How rural do you want it? How important would access to a population center be to you? Do you want flat land or a mountain setting? Wind a privacy are no a problem as we have both in abundance. You just need to know where to look.

A bit of advice, if you are planning on using ground water our well water, make sure you buy the water rights for the land. Water is life out here and water laws go back to the first settlers and can be sticky sometimes.

I would like to help more, if you need it. I'm not a realtor so my advice is plentiful and free. You can go to google earth or google maps to look up the places I have mentioned. If you have any more questions or need more info on anything, email me. pilgrim_53@hotmail.com