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Places

Canyons

Glacier-carved gorges and the ranges that shaped them.

  • 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.