Mount Timpanogos, Wasatch Mountains, Utah

The Alpine Loop Road southeast of Salt Lake City provides easy access to some of Utah’s most beautiful mountain vistas. Beginning in American Fork Canyon under the north face of Mount Timpanogos and ending about 15 miles later near Sundance Resort beneath the southeast face of the mountain, the Alpine Loop winds its way through extensive aspen groves high on the shoulders of this rugged glacier-scoured peak. At 11,749 feet above sea level, the snow-capped summit of Mount Timpanogos provides a spectacular backdrop along the way. Named by the indigenous people to this area, the word “Timpanogos” roughly translates to “water on rock”. This terminology likely pertains to the numerous cascades of tumbling water which flow from the high alpine cirques of this mountain during the spring snowmelt. Vast cirques and basins were gouged into the flanks of this peak by an abundance of glacial ice during the height of the last glacier advance around 20,000 years ago. By 12,000 years ago, most of this ice had melted to reveal the rugged profile we see today. A remnant of a glacier from a much more recent cool period still persists high in a cirque just under the summit ridge.