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Canyon · Wasatch Range

Bells Canyon

Five miles of glacial gorge, 4,700 feet to Lone Peak, and a granite cirque hiding some of the best alpine climbing in the Lower 48 — a quiet wilderness one ridge south of SR-210.

Also known as: Bell Canyon, Bells

Salt Lake Valley · Central Wasatch · Lone Peak Wilderness

Length
5 mi
Relief
6,050 ft
Elevation
5,210 → 11,260 ft
Gradient
940 ft/mi
Valley
u-shaped
Drainage
Bells Canyon Creek

Overview

Bells Canyon is the wild, undeveloped twin of Little Cottonwood: a five-mile U-shaped glacial gorge that rises 4,700 feet from the Salt Lake Valley floor to the 11,260-foot summit of Lone Peak, bounded by the 30,088-acre Lone Peak Wilderness. Where LCC carries a state highway, two ski resorts, and daily avalanche artillery, Bells carries a single trail, a pair of irrigation reservoirs, two waterfalls, and a headwall cirque that holds some of the best alpine granite climbing in the Lower 48. It is Utah's clearest example of how a single ridge-crest can separate a canyon engineered for 50,000 daily winter visitors from a wilderness designated specifically to stay quiet.

Tributaries & side-drainages

Named tributary drainages of Bells Canyon
Name Side Notes
Dry Creek south Inner-moraine drainage; Alpine Formation deposits overlap Bull Lake outer-moraine channels. Valley of Dry Creek was first cut in the interval separating Bull Lake's two stades (per Richmond 1964).

Named lakes & reservoirs

  • Lower Bells Canyon Reservoir

    Elevation: 5,400 ft

    Type: reservoir

    Drainage: Bells Canyon Creek

    Privately owned by Sandy Irrigation Co. Short (~1.3 mi RT) family-friendly hike; no swimming in the reservoir itself.

  • Upper Bells Canyon Reservoir

    Elevation: 9,381 ft

    Type: cirque reservoir

    Drainage: Bells Canyon Creek

    Strenuous 9.6 mi RT / 4,192 ft gain hike through the Lone Peak Wilderness to the headwall basin.

  • Hardy Lake

    Elevation: 10,300 ft

    Type: cirque

    Drainage: Bells Canyon / American Fork divide

    Small wilderness lake along the ridge to American Fork Canyon. Off-trail.

Activities

Hiking

Bells Canyon's central activity. Four marquee destinations layer on top of each other along a single main trail: the Lower Reservoir (family), the Lower Falls (classic half-day), the Upper Falls (slightly beyond), and the Upper Reservoir + Lone Peak summit (all-day or overnight).

marqueeHikeCount
4
easiestHike
Lower Reservoir (~1.3 mi RT from Preservation TH)
hardestHike
Lone Peak via Bells (~14+ mi RT, ~5,900 ft gain)

Season: Late May–October for lower hikes; late June–September for Upper Reservoir and Lone Peak.

Regs: Standard Lone Peak Wilderness rules above the Lower Reservoir: no mechanized travel, groups ≤10, dispersed-camping setbacks from water. No mountain bikes. Dogs on leash allowed (different from LCC).

Climbing

The Lone Peak Cirque is one of the most sustained, high-quality granite alpine venues in the Lower 48 — hiding in plain sight above Sandy's suburban fringe. 400–500 ft walls of clean quartz monzonite, grades Class 3 through 5.12 and one aid line at 5.9 A3. Six miles and ~5,000 ft of approach from Bells trailheads to camp at the lake below the cirque; typical trip is an overnight.

approachMiles
6
approachGainFeet
5000
gradeRange
Class 3 to 5.12 (plus 5.9 A3)
rockType
Quartz monzonite (Little Cottonwood stock)
style
Alpine trad, some bolted face routes

Areas: Summit Wall; Question Mark Wall; Triple Overhangs Buttress

Season: Mid-June through September

Triple crown of the cirque (all 4-star routes): Triple Overhangs (5.10a, 4 pitches, rightmost Summit Wall, final namesake roof); Vertical Smile (5.10a); The Undone Book (5.9+ R). Question Mark Wall's Lowe Route (5.8) is the popular entry-level classic, likely named for George Lowe of the seminal Wasatch alpinist family. Reference: Ellison & Smoot, Wasatch Rock Climbs.

Winterbackcountry

Bells Canyon's upper bowls and the north-facing Lone Peak cirque hold serious backcountry ski terrain — committing descents that require wilderness-travel ethics (no mechanized access, no avalanche artillery support). Far less skier-traffic than LCC's lift-serviced terrain.

Season: January–April

Regs: Wilderness — no motorized or mechanized travel. No avalanche artillery control; full commitment to UAC forecast reading and touring-partner safety practice.

Andrew McLean's Chuting Gallery treats Lone Peak area descents as elite Wasatch objectives. Routes are long, exposed, and unmitigated.

Fishing

Bells Canyon Creek and the two reservoirs hold stocked trout. Unlike LCC, Bells is not Salt Lake City's protected watershed — it drains to Sandy Irrigation Co. — so the regulations are standard Utah fishing rules, not watershed-enforced no-contact rules.

Regs: Utah fishing license required. No swimming in the reservoirs themselves (privately owned).

Informal pools below the Lower and Upper Falls are sometimes used for wading — confirm current signage at the trailhead.

Peaks

  • Lone Peak

    11,260 ft

    Class: Class 3 (walk-up via Bells) / up to 5.12 (cirque walls)

    Drainage: Bells Canyon / American Fork Canyon (headwaters)

    Signature summit of the Lone Peak Wilderness and head of Bells Canyon. Its northeast cirque — the Lone Peak Cirque — holds some of the best alpine granite climbing in the Lower 48:...

Hikes

Featured hikes in Bells Canyon
Hike Distance Gain Difficulty Season
Bells Canyon Lower Falls 4.8 mi RT 1,400 ft moderate Late May–October. Snow possible into early June most years; spring runoff makes creek crossings serious April–May.
Bells Canyon Upper Falls 5.89 mi RT 2,268 ft strenuous June–October.
Upper Bells Canyon Reservoir 9.6 mi RT 4,192 ft very strenuous July–September. Snow in the upper basin often persists into July.
Lone Peak via Bells Canyon 14 mi RT 5,900 ft extreme July–September. Snow on the summit scramble into early July most years.

Geology

Bells Canyon shares the full Pleistocene glacial sequence with LCC (pre-Bull Lake through Historic stade) but contains no complex intermediate-till exposures — a single dominant rock type (quartz monzonite) and a steeper headwall make its moraines simpler and its cirque topography more severe. The outer Bull Lake moraine is much more mature-looking than the inner, which Atwood (1909) originally read as evidence of an interglaciation between them; Richmond (1964) reinterpreted this as a product of repeated Lake Bonneville submergence (first rise, then second) rather than a major climatic amelioration.

Bedrock

  • Canyon walls (throughout): Quartz monzonite (Little Cottonwood stock) (Tertiary intrusive) — Single dominant rock type. Yields very bouldery till — blocks up to 10 ft in pre-Bull Lake deposits.
  • Upper cirque walls: Precambrian metasediments (minor) (Precambrian) — Minor exposures on Lone Peak summit ridge.

Glacial history

  1. Pre-Bull Lake (Early–middle Pleistocene)

    Upslope lateral moraine remnant from Bells — 30–40 ft high ridge at 7,000–7,120 ft, composed of boulders up to 10 ft; extends from saddle to LCC. Oldest glacial deposit in the drainage.

  2. Bull Lake Glaciation — Early stade (Late Pleistocene)

    Max elevation: 4,920 ft

    Outer moraine forms a broad dissected arcuate mass ~100 ft high at mouth, gentle slopes, sparse quartz-monzonite boulders. Mature in appearance.

  3. Bull Lake Glaciation — Late stade (Late Pleistocene)

    Max elevation: 5,100 ft

    Inner moraine — ridge ~600 ft high upslope of outer, steep and bouldery, overlying outer moraine at east end. Covered with whitish quartz-monzonite boulders.

  4. Pinedale Glaciation (Late Pleistocene)

    Max elevation: 5,680 ft

    Bouldery lateral moraines from both sides of the canyon extend to floor at 5,680 ft (just east of mountain front). No preserved terminal moraine of the lower till.

  5. Temple Lake — Neoglaciation (Holocene)

    Lobate rock glacier in Lone Peak NE cirque; moraine of Temple Lake Stade at head of the canyon.

  6. Historic stade — Neoglaciation (Last ~1,000 years)

    Rock glaciers in cirque reactivated during historic stade; steep cascading block fronts suggest some may still be marginally active.

Relationship to Lake Bonneville

At Bells Canyon mouth, Alpine Formation lake sediments (first Bonneville rise) lie against the front of the inner Bull Lake moraine, and Bonneville Formation gravels (second rise) cap the wave-cut bench on its western slope. This stratigraphy demonstrates — along with the corresponding sequence at LCC — that the inner and outer moraines were separated by an interstadial (not a full interglaciation). Erosional remnants of the lake deposits on the outer moraine prove the outer moraine was submerged at least twice during Lake Bonneville's rises.

Active processes

  • Rock glaciers in Lone Peak NE cirque (marginally active)
  • Talus and protalus rampart accumulation at cirque bases
  • Spring floods and seasonal high-water pulses through the narrows above Lower Reservoir

Sources

  • Richmond, G. M. (1964). Glaciation of Little Cottonwood and Bells Canyons, Wasatch Mountains, Utah. USGS PP-454-D.
  • Atwood, W. W. (1909). Glaciation of the Uinta and Wasatch Mountains. USGS PP-61.

Ecology

Vegetation zones by elevation
Zone Elevation Dominant species
Sagebrush-grass (Upper Sonoran) 5,000–5,200 ft Artemisia tridentata, grasses
Oak-juniper 5,000–9,000 ft Quercus gambelii, Juniperus spp.
Maple (valley-bottom lower) ~5,200–7,500 ft Acer grandidentatum, Acer glabrum
Spruce-fir 6,000–11,000 ft Picea engelmannii, Abies lasiocarpa, Populus tremuloides
Alpine tundra above 11,000 ft grassy tundra, cushion plants on Lone Peak summit ridge

Timberline: 10,800–11,000 ft

Wildlife: moose, mule deer, mountain goat, black bear, cougar, bobcat

Bells Canyon shares the ecological gradient of LCC one ridge north, but its wilderness designation and lack of road have preserved a denser undisturbed middle-elevation forest. Mountain-goat sightings on Lone Peak cirque walls are reliable year-round.

History

Bells Canyon has almost no documented 19th-century extraction history and no ski-resort development. Its modern identity was shaped in three discrete steps: Pleistocene glaciation (studied stratigraphically by Atwood 1909 and Richmond 1964), the Lone Peak Wilderness designation (1978), and the post-1970s cirque-climbing development led by the Lowe family. It stays quiet on purpose — that is its regulatory identity.

Wilderness designation

Lone Peak Wilderness — designated 1978 by Endangered American Wilderness Act of 1978 (30,088 acres). Bounded by LCC to the north, American Fork Canyon to the south, Salt Lake and Utah Valleys to the west, and Twin Peaks Wilderness to the east. Jointly administered by Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Lone Peak was the only designated wilderness in Utah until the 1984 Utah Wilderness Act; it is one of the cohort of US wildernesses designated by the 1978 act specifically for their urban-adjacent character — frequently (imprecisely) called 'the first urban-adjacent wilderness.'

Avalanche science

Bells Canyon sits outside the primary avalanche-forecasting corridor — UAC issues forecasts but there is no artillery control or road-closure apparatus as in LCC. Users are responsible for their own decisions.

Recreation development

Three trailheads on the valley floor have been developed in stages. The newest, Preservation Trailhead, was added by Sandy City to relieve pressure on the earlier Boulders and Granite trailheads.

Key events

  1. 1909 Atwood publishes first glaciation survey including Bells
  2. 1931 Blackwelder correlates Bells moraines with Bull Lake Glaciation of Wind Rivers
  3. 1964 Richmond publishes USGS PP-454D with definitive Bells glacial stratigraphy
  4. 1978 Lone Peak Wilderness designated (Endangered American Wilderness Act) — 30,088 acres
  5. 1984 Utah Wilderness Act expands the state's designated wilderness system; Lone Peak is no longer the sole Utah wilderness

Notable figures

  • George Lowe — Wasatch alpinist, credited for multiple Lone Peak Cirque first ascents; wrote foreword to Wasatch Rock Climbs
  • Mike Lowe, Jeff Lowe, Greg Lowe — extended Lowe family, cirque FAs through the 1960s–70s

Modern issues

  • Trailhead capacity and Sandy City management

    Status: Active — Preservation Trailhead opened to relieve earlier trailheads

    As of: 2026-04-23

    Bells trailheads have faced weekend overflow as Salt Lake Valley population has grown. Sandy City manages Preservation Trailhead; Forest Service co-manages the wilderness access. No permit system is currently proposed.

Access & regulations

Road

None — trailhead access only — Local streets . Year-round. None

Trailheads

  • Boulders Trailhead (5,210 ft) — Small lot at Wasatch Blvd & 10122 S . Steep start; shorter overall route to Lower Reservoir.
  • Granite Trailhead (5,100 ft) — Small lot at 3450 E Little Cottonwood Road . Just below LCC mouth; fills early on weekends.
  • Preservation Trailhead (5,170 ft) — Newest and largest lot; between Boulders and Granite trailheads . 1.4 mi RT to Lower Reservoir; best for family day hikes.

Fees: None

Permits: None for day use. Wilderness permits are voluntary self-registration at the trailhead.

Adjacent canyons