GEOLOGY 1010

Self-Guided
Field Trip
Uinta Mountains, Utah




Jesse Tice
8/8/2014


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The geologic site that I wanted to do my report on is the Uinta mountains located
primarily in Northeastern Utah. A unique facet of the Uinta's is that they are the highest
East/West mountain range in the lower continental United States (Kings Peak). The highest
point is Kings peak, sitting at 13,528 feet it is sometimes referred to as America's Roof. This
area also has a rich history going through multiple cycles of mountain building as well as burial.
Some areas in the core of the Uinta's have Precambrian rocks as old as 2.6 Billion years old
(Milligan, Mark). The orogenous forces that uplifted the Uinta's in its current cycle started
around 60-65 million years ago. This process was done due to compression forces creating a
buckle in the crust called an anticline. For tens of millions of years physical and mechanical
weathering slowly eroded the range down until tectonic activity picked up again around 15
million years ago (National Park Service, 1950). It then underwent another round of erosion
which continues to this day.
The most significant factor leading to the erosion in this area was due to glacial erosion.
During the Last Glacial Maximum period about 14,000-32,000 years ago the canyons and basins
of the Uinta mountain range were filled with hundreds of feet of alpine glaciers. A large
contributing factor to the size and extent of the glaciers was precipitation carried over from lake
Bonneville (Biek, Bob). As the glaciers continued to erode they carved out large U-shaped
canyons called cirques. When viewing the Uinta valleys from a high elevation such as Kings
peak or Bald mountain, you can see many of the remains from glacial erosion. In the shown
example photos looking down from Bald mountain you can see horns out in the distance,
beautiful sets of paternoster lakes and deposits of the leftover till at recessional moraine points.
From where I was at it was hard to see the end moraine points, they were probably further down
the valleys considering how big the glaciers were.
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After going on a few hikes in the Bald mountain area and stopping at a few places going
up the canyon, I was able to get an idea of what much of the composition of the area was of.
When walking by talus slopes you see tons of shale and slate. There was also a lot of quartzite I
found along some of the trails that was formed from the tectonic compression of previously laid
sandstone. One type of rock that really stood out, but I wasn't sure on what it was I included in
my sample photos. Due to the foliation I believe it was a gneiss, but I'm not positive.
After taking this class it has given me a far greater understanding of the processes that
come into play to create the geological features that we see around ourselves every day. It also
gives me insight to how unique of an area that we live in, in Utah. I'm very glad I had the
opportunity to take this class and would encourage others to do the same.

Works Cited:
"Kings Peak, Utah." Kings Peak. N.p., 2014. Web. 08 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=5507>.
Milligan, Mark R. "How Was Utah's Topography Formed? - Utah Geological Survey." How
Was Utah's Topography Formed? Utah Geological Survey, Jan. 2000. Web. 08 Aug. 2014.
<http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/gladasked/gladtopoform.htm>
National Park Service. (1950). A Survey of the Recreational Resources of the Colorado River
Basin. Washington: United States Government Printing Office.
Biek, Bob, Grant Willis, and Buck Ehler. "Utah's Glacial Geology." Geology.Utah.Gov. Utah
Geological Survey, Sept. 2010. Web. 08 Aug. 2014.
<http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/articles/pdf/utah_glacial_geology_42-3.pdf>.
Fuller, Craig. "Uinta Basin." Utah History to Go. State of Utah, 2014. Web. 08 Aug. 2014.
<http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/the_land/uintabasin.html>.


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Library Research

National Park Service. (1950). A Survey of the Recreational Resources of the Colorado River
Basin.
Geology.Utah.Gov
Historytogo.Utah.Gov













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Photos:

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Topographical Map Drawing