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Places

Canyons

Glacier-carved gorges and the ranges that shaped them.

  • Bells Canyon — Steep glacial canyon on the west slope of the central Wasatch, heading at Lone Peak (11,260 ft). Entirely within the Lone Peak Wilderness (designated 1978, 30,088 acres). Quartz monzonite bedrock shared with LCC. Access via three valley-floor trailheads (Boulders, Granite, Preservation). Primary uses: day hiking to the Lower and Upper Falls, strenuous hike to Upper Reservoir and Lone Peak summit, and alpine granite climbing in the Lone Peak Cirque — Triple Overhangs, Vertical Smile, Question Mark Wall. Watershed rules differ from LCC: Bells drains to a private irrigation reservoir, not Salt Lake City's municipal system.
  • Big Cottonwood Canyon — A mixed V-to-U canyon on the west slope of the central Wasatch, ~12 miles southeast of Salt Lake City along SR-190. Bedrock spans the ~1-billion-year-old Big Cottonwood Formation quartzite (oldest rocks in Utah; tidal rhythmites) and the Cryogenian Mineral Fork Tillite. Skiing (Brighton since 1936, Solitude since 1957), the Lake Blanche / Donut Falls / Brighton Lakes hikes, the Wasatch Crest mountain-bike shuttle, the SR-190 road climb to Guardsman Pass, quartzite climbing at Storm Mountain and the S-Curves, and Salt Lake City's protected drinking-water watershed — strict no-swim, no-dog rules.
  • Corner Canyon — Corner Canyon is a foothill trail network on the east bench of Draper, where the Wasatch Range meets the Traverse Mountains, roughly 20 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City. It is one of the country's premier municipal mountain-bike systems — 30-plus miles of purpose-built singletrack from about 5,000 to 7,400 feet, including Ghost Falls, Canyon Hollow, Clark's, Rattler, Rush, and the technical Jacob's Ladder — and a heavily used hiking, trail-running, and equestrian area. The terrain is the East Traverse Mountains mega-landslide and the Lake Bonneville shoreline bench; the land was preserved as a regional park in the mid-2000s after Draper voters and the Trust for Public Land headed off a 1,200-home development. Dogs are allowed on-leash below the Bonneville Shoreline Trail but banned in the watershed area above it, and Draper closes trails when they are wet.
  • Little Cottonwood Canyon — U-shaped glacial gorge on the west slope of the Wasatch, 15 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Quartz monzonite bedrock, 500+ inches of annual snow at Alta, and the cradle of US avalanche forecasting. Skiing (Alta, Snowbird), trad granite climbing (Gate Buttress, Fin Wall), alpine hiking (Red Pine, Pfeifferhorn, Cecret Lake), a 10.5-mile road-cycling climb, and Salt Lake City's protected drinking-water watershed — strict no-swim/no-dog rules.