Cecret Lake
Encyclopedia
Cecret Lake is a small alpine lake
in Albion Basin near Alta, Utah
. This area is also part of the Wasatch National Forest
. Cecret Lake is also a protected watershed
for Salt Lake City, Utah
. It is not known why the name was spelled with a C instead of an S. Assumptions are that it was named by a miner working in the area.
The lake can be accessed in the summer by parking on the main road in Little Cottonwood Canyon
and hiking up a dirt trail to the lake. The lake is surrounded by quartz monzonite
, commonly mistaken for granite
rock. Cecret Lake is also surrounded by the Alta
and Snowbird
ski resorts.
Cecret Lake is considered a watershed area which supplies drinking water for the greater Salt Lake area. This drinking water comes from several hundred inches of snow each year that lasts into July.
Alpine lake
Alpine lakes are classified as lakes or reservoirs at high altitudes, usually starting around 5,000 feet in elevation above sea level or above the tree line....
in Albion Basin near Alta, Utah
Alta, Utah
Alta is a town in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 370 at the 2000 census, a slight decrease from the 1990 figure of 397....
. This area is also part of the Wasatch National Forest
Wasatch National Forest
Wasatch National Forest was established as the Wasatch Forest Reserve by the U.S. Forest Service in Utah on August 16, 1906 with to the east of Salt Lake City and Provo. It became a National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908 Grantsville National Forest and Salt Lake National Forest were...
. Cecret Lake is also a protected watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
for Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
. It is not known why the name was spelled with a C instead of an S. Assumptions are that it was named by a miner working in the area.
The lake can be accessed in the summer by parking on the main road in Little Cottonwood Canyon
Little Cottonwood Canyon
Little Cottonwood Canyon lies within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest along the eastern side of the Salt Lake Valley, roughly 15 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah. The canyon is part of Granite, a CDP and “Community Council” designated by Salt Lake County. The canyon is a glacial trough , carved by...
and hiking up a dirt trail to the lake. The lake is surrounded by quartz monzonite
Quartz monzonite
Quartz monzonite is an intrusive igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. The plagioclase is typically intermediate to sodic in composition, andesine to oligoclase. Quartz is present in significant amounts. Biotite and/or hornblende...
, commonly mistaken for granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
rock. Cecret Lake is also surrounded by the Alta
Alta Ski Area
Alta is a ski area located in the Wasatch Mountains, just east of Salt Lake City, Utah. With a skiable area of 2200 acres , beginning at a base elevation of 8530 ft and rising to 10,550 ft for a vertical gain of 2020 ft . Alta is one of the oldest ski resorts in the country,...
and Snowbird
Snowbird, Utah
Snowbird is an unincorporated area based in Little Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains in Salt Lake County, Utah, U.S. It is most famous for Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, an alpine skiing and snowboarding area, which opened in December 1971.- History :Snowbird is a...
ski resorts.
Cecret Lake is considered a watershed area which supplies drinking water for the greater Salt Lake area. This drinking water comes from several hundred inches of snow each year that lasts into July.