Wasatch Range

Encyclopedia : W : WA : WAS : Wasatch Range

View of the Wasatch Range from the Salt Lake City Public Library.

The Wasatch Range (also seen as Wasatch Mountains and Wahsatch Range) is a mountain range that stretches from southern Idaho and Wyoming south through central Utah in the Western United States. It is generally considered the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. The northern extension of the Wasatch Range, the Bear River Mountains, extends into Idaho, constituting all of the Wasatch Range in that state. The name Wasatch is derived from an eponymous Native American tribe in the region.

Eighty-five percent of Utah`s population lives within 15 miles of the Wasatch range. This concentration is commonly known as the Wasatch Front urban area and has a population of just over 2,000,000 residents. Salt Lake City lies between the Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake.

At 11,928 ft (3,636 m), Mount Nebo, located at the southern end of the range near Nephi, Utah, is the highest peak of the Wasatch. In many places the mountains rise immediately from the valley's base elevation of 4,330 feet (1,320 m) to well over 11,752 feet (3,582 m), producing steep inclines. Other notable peaks include Mount Timpanogos, a massive peak which looms over Provo, Utah; Lone Peak, Mount Olympus, and the Twin Peaks, which overlook Salt Lake City; and Ben Lomond just north of Ogden, Utah.

Although the peaks are not especially high compared to the rest of the Rockies, they receive heavy falls of snow, in many places over 500 inches a year. There are many ski areas in the Wasatch, including Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, and Sundance. Due to low relative humidity in wintertime, along with the added lake effect from the Great Salt Lake, the snow has a dry, powdery texture which most of the local ski resorts market as "the best snow on earth!". The 2002 Winter Olympic Games made especially good use of this high quality snow.

Several of the Wasatch canyons in the Lone Peak area, most notably Little Cottonwood Canyon, have a number of high-quality granite outcroppings, and make up a popular climbing area. Further north, Big Cottonwood Canyon features tricky climbing on quartzite.

External links

• [Directions on Hiking many wasatch front peaks]

The Salt Lake Valley, from left to right shown are Twin Peaks (11,489 ft or 3502 m), Lone Peak (11,253 ft or 3430 m), and Mount Timpanogos (11,722 ft or 3573 m) covered in clouds on the far right upper corner. Twin Peaks has a rise of 7099 ft or 2164 m from the valley floor. The valley floor depicted is completely urbanized.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.