Cecret Lake
Of Little Cottonwood Canyon
Alika Lindsay
November 18, 2014
Geology 1010
Cecret Lake, (sometimes spelled Secret Lake) is a beautiful small body of water located
in the Albion Basin up Little Cottonwood Canyon. It is a 1-mile hike from the top parking lot,
unless you hike from the bottom (which I did). Little Cottonwood Canyon has a very colorful
Geologic history. “The nine miles of Little Cottonwood Canyon reveal more about the geologic
evolution of North America than most of its National Parks, including the Grand Canyon.”(Harris, pg 7) It tells the story of millions of years of earthquakes, glacial ice, and weathering.
The high rock ridges rose 25 million years ago when tectonic plates collided causing
earthquakes. 16,000 years ago a huge glacier 12 miles long, 2 miles wide, and 2,000 feet high
came through the mountain peaks and created the “U” shape of the canyon by ice, snow, and
water. Over the past 140 years of history, this Canyon has gone from a mining town to a skiing
community. (Harris, pg 12)
If you look at the rocks in Little Cottonwood Canyon, they go from older rocks to
younger rocks moving up the canyon. There are intrusions of Granite that are relatively young
you will see. Granite is felsic in composition, and contains minerals such as quartz, and
potassium feldspar. Granite is phaneritic in texture. Large blocks of granite were taken from the
canyon walls and dumped at its mouth by glaciers, making it possible to quarry.
In Utah the State Capital and the Salt Lake City LDS Temple were built from these quarried
Granite blocks. Glaciers also bulldozed piles of rock known as glacial till to the sides of the
canyon, forming streamline moraines (Harris, pg 18) This photo taken by me on the next page,
shows an example of glacial till, a chaotic mixture of silt, sand, gravel. and boulders ranging
widely in size and shape. (Eldredge)
At the head of the canyon where glacial ice originates, glaciers have carved out cirques or
amphitheater shaped basins, partially bound by steep walls. Small lakes called tarns form in these
depressions after the glaciers have retreated. Cecret Lake is an example of one of these tarns.
Headward erosion cutting into the sides of a mountain peak by two of more glacier chisels it into
a sharp, often pyramid-shaped peak called a horn. Between two adjacent glacial valleys or
ciques, the dividing rock wall is eroded into a serrated, narrow ridge known as an arete.
(Edlredge) You will also see hanging valleys where tributary glaciers merged with the main
glacier, causing the thicker main glacier to erode the canyon floor. Rock fragments embedded in
the base of a glacier will carve parallel linear grooves called glacial striations into the underlying
bedrock. (Eldredge) These tell you a clear story of the direction the glacier was flowing.
Striations and other features are abundant around Cecret Lake (which is a tarn) as you can see in
the photo I took below.
The place where you can find Cecret Lake within the Little Cottonwood Canyon, is
known as the Albion Basin, within the city of Alta. Within the Albion basin, you will see
eastward tilted sedimentary layers that consist of Cambrian and Mississippian Age sandstone,
shale, and limestone.
Once you reach the top of this hike, you find an open clear water surrounded by large
peaks. One you will notice from up there is called Devils Castle, a fortress made of limestone.
Steep piles of broken rock known as talus cones accumulate at the base of Devils castle due to
wedging effects of freeze-thaw cycles. In this lake live only tiger salamander larva (ambystoma
tigrinum) who can only survive in bodies of water with no fish. Apparently, they are also called
“waterdogs”. They are really fun to watch, and when I was there it seemed most of them were
very large, almost fully grown.
(image from wikipedia)
I really enjoyed hiking to Cecret Lake and I am sure I will visit it again in the spring.
There are so many cool places to enjoy within Little Cottonwood Canyon.
MAPS
Works Cited
1) Baker, Steve. Short Hike Of The Week, Salt Lake Tribune. Web.
http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site297/2006/0823/20060823_074846_Cecret_Lake
_Trail.pdf
2.) Eldredge, Sandy. Glacial Landforms in Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons.
http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/geosights/cottonwood_canyons.htm
3.) Department of Natural Resources. Geologic Guide to Central Wasatch Front Canyons.
Little Cottonwood Canyon. http://geology.utah.gov/geo_guides/c_wasatch/pdf/pi-87.pdf
4.)Harris, Ron. Exploring the Geology of Little Cottonwood Canyon, The greatest story ever told
by nine miles of rock. Provo, UT BYU Press 2011.
5.)Secret Lake - Wasatch Mountains. Climb Utah. Web.
http://climb-utah.com/WM/secretlake.htm
6.)Tiger Salamander, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_salamander