Notch Peak is a distinctive summit located on

Sawtooth Mountain Sawtooth Mountain is a shield volcano, and part of the polygenetic Indian Heaven Volcanic Field in Washington, United States. It is located midway between Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams, and dates from the Pleistocene and Holocene. Sawtooth ...

in the

House Range The House Range is a north-south trending mountain range in Millard County, of west-central Utah. The House Range was named in 1859 by James H. Simpson. It was named by Simpson because "...of its well-defined stratification and the resemblance ...

, west of Delta,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The peak and the surrounding area are part of the Notch Peak Wilderness Study Area (WSA).

Bristlecone pine The term bristlecone pine covers three species of pine tree (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus'', subsection ''Balfourianae''). All three species are long-lived and highly resilient to harsh weather and bad soils. One of the three species, ''Pinus ...

s, estimated to be 3,000 to 4,000 years old, are located on the ridges surrounding Notch Peak.

The Cliff

Notch Peak is one of the highest peaks in the House Range, reaching . The northwest face of the mountain is a massive

carbonate rock Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite (different crystal forms of CaCO3), and dolomite rock (also known as dolosto ...

(

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

)

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

with of vertical rise, making it among the highest cliff faces in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. Overall, the summit rises about above

Tule Valley Tule Valley (also known as White Valley) is a valley in Millard County, Utah, United States. Description The valley is a north-south trending endorheic valley within the Great Basin (geographically), Great Basin Desert (ecologically), and Ba ...

. It is the second highest pure vertical drop in the United States after

El Capitan El Capitan ( es, El Capitán; "the Captain" or "the Chief") is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is about from base to summit along its tal ...

. as well as the highest

cliff in North America.

Recreation

One of the more popular uses of the area is the hike to Notch Peak so you can look down the notch in person. The summit can be reached by following a trail from the east side of the mountain in

Sawtooth Canyon Sawtooth may refer to: Science and technology * Tooth of a saw blade (original meaning) * Sawtooth wave, a type of waveform * Sawtooth (cellular automaton) * Tokamak sawtooth, a phenomenon in plasma physics * Sawtooth, code name for the Power Mac ...

. The hike is about 7.5 miles round trip (12 km), with elevation gain.

Climbing

The north face of Notch Peak is divided by a large shelf into an upper and lower wall. There are several rock climbing routes on the limestone cliffs. "The Swiss Route" (never repeated), "Direct North West Ridge (AKA. Pillars of Faith), and "Book of Saturdays" ascend the upper wall. On the lower wall "Appetite for Destruction" and "Western Hardman" reach of vertical. Climbing on all of these routes is adventurous with rockfall hazard and loose flakes of widely varying size. In addition to the face of Notch Peak, the granite found in the canyon below the notch is also used for climbing.

Geology

This part of the House Range is chiefly made up of a passive margin sequence of

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ...

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

s. The top of the range is the type section for the aptly named Notch Peak Dolomite. At the base of the range is the pink/orange Notch Peak

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

and

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an o ...

, which is

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

in age (143 to 169 million years old). Around Notch Peak, especially from the west side (Tule Valley side), white

Lake Bonneville Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperature ...

fossiliferous

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part ...

s occur.Hintze and Davis, 2002, Geologic Map of the Tule Valley 30' x 60' Quadrangle Because of the intrusion, a hike up the canyon below the notch can clearly show a well-developed

metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...

aureole and even inter-fingering textures between the

intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

and the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...

. Also, small quantities of

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

and placer

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

have been found around the Notch Peak area.

Gallery

Image:Evening_at_Notch_Peak.jpg, Notch Peak at sunset. Image:NotchPeakUtahByPhilKonstantin.jpg, Notch Peak as seen from the southwest on the Tule Valley floor. Image:NotchPeakSunset.JPG, Notch Peak sunset. Image:NotchPeakFromSawtooth.JPG, Notch Peak, from the canyon below the notch. Image:NotchPeakMoon.JPG, Notch Peak with the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

in the notch, at sunset. Image:NotchPeak2004.jpg, Notch Peak in 2004. Image:Evening_at_Notch_Peak.jpg, Notch Peak at sunset. Image:NotchPeakWinter.jpg, Base of Notch Peak after a snowstorm, February 2022.

References

External links

* {{cite summitpost , id=151567 , name=Notch Peak Mountains of Utah Mountains of Millard County, Utah Cliffs of the United States