The rapid movement along this fault is a big part of the Alta experience. From the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon to the top of Mount Baldy you pass through eight separate climatic zones.
They are:
- Desert Shrub zone of sagebrush, rabbit brush and grasses.
- Oak Woodland consisting of scrub oak and Desert Mahogany.
- Piñon Pine and Juniper forest.
- Pine Forest
- Subalpine Fir Forest.
- Englemann Spruce and Subalpine Fir Forest.
- Krummholz Alpine Zone of stunted evergreens and tundra.
- Alpine tundra.
Most of Alta falls within the Englemann Spruce and Subalpine Fir Forest with thick stands of evergreens, beautiful meadows, babbling brooks and scattered groves of Limber Pines clinging to rocky cliffs. The top of the Sugarloaf chair marks the Krummolz zone and the transition to the zone of Alpine tundra capping Sugarloaf Peak and Mount Baldy.
| The Wasatch Fault and “triangular facets” on ridges immediately south of Little Cottonwood Canyon. |
The enormous movement along the Wasatch Fault over the past tens of thousands of years is displayed in this photo of “triangular facets” on ridges immediately south of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Notice how the ridge lines terminate at the edge of the Salt Lake Valley in flat triangular planes. This is the actual fault plane of the Wasatch Fault which has truncated the original erosional topography.
The rapid movement along this fault is a big part of the Alta experience. From the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon to the top of Mount Baldy you pass through eight separate climatic zones.
They are:
- Desert Shrub zone of sagebrush, rabbit brush and grasses.
- Oak Woodland consisting of scrub oak and Desert Mahogany.
- Piñon Pine and Juniper forest.
- Pine Forest
- Subalpine Fir Forest.
- Englemann Spruce and Subalpine Fir Forest.
- Krummholz Alpine Zone of stunted evergreens and tundra.
- Alpine tundra.
Most of Alta falls within the Englemann Spruce and Subalpine Fir Forest with thick stands of evergreens, beautiful meadows, babbling brooks and scattered groves of Limber Pines clinging to rocky cliffs. The top of the Sugarloaf chair marks the Krummolz zone and the transition to the zone of Alpine tundra capping Sugarloaf Peak and Mount Baldy.
| The Wasatch Fault and “triangular facets” on ridges immediately south of Little Cottonwood Canyon. |