Notch Peak is a distinctive summit located on Sawtooth Mountain in the House Range

House Range

The House Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is famous for Notch Peak, one of the tallest limestone cliffs in the world, and a fossil Lagerstätte of Cambrian age, which has an array of Burgess Shale type fauna, including Elrathia kingii, a trilobite that is...

, west of Delta, Utah

Delta, Utah

Delta is a city in Millard County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Delta is located at ....

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

Wilderness study area

A wilderness study area contains undeveloped United States federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, and managed to preserve its natural conditions...

. Bristlecone pine

Bristlecone pine

The bristlecone pines are a small group of pine trees that are thought to reach an age far greater than that of any other single living organism known, up to nearly 5,000 years....

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 9654 feet (2,943 m) above sea level. The northwest face of the mountain is a massive carbonate rock

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 and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...

 (limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 and dolomite

Dolomite

Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....

) cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

 with 2,200 feet (670 meters) of vertical rise, making it among the highest cliff faces in North America. Overall, the summit rises about 4450 feet (1,356 m) above Tule Valley

Tule Valley

Tule Valley, also known as White Valley, is a north-south trending endorheic valley within the Great Basin , Great Basin Desert , and Basin and Range Province of west-central Utah...

.

The significance of this cliff is debatable, mainly because of the variation in the definition of the term 'cliff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

.' It is the highest carbonate rock

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 and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...

 cliff in North America and/or the second highest pure vertical drop in the United states after El Capitan

El Capitan

El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park, located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith extends about from base to summit along its tallest face, and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.The formation was...

. There is not a reliable source for cliff ranking or pure-vertical-drop ranking.

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. The hike is about four miles long (6.4 km), with 2,700 feet (820 m) 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 900 feet (275 meters) 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

Cambrian

The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...

 to Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...

 carbonate rock

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 and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...

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

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...

 and monzonite

Monzonite

Monzonite is an intermediate igneous intrusive rock composed of approximately equal amounts of sodic to intermediate plagioclase and orthoclase feldspars with minor amounts of hornblende, biotite and other minerals...

, which is Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

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

Lake Bonneville

Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...

 fossiliferous marl

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

s occur.

Because of the intrusion, a hike up the canyon below the notch can clearly show a well-developed metamorphic aureole and even inter-fingering textures between the intrusion

Intrusion

An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...

 and the bedrock

Bedrock

In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...

. Also, small quantities of tungsten

Tungsten

Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...

 and placer gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

have been found around the Notch Peak area.

The exact geologic cause of the formation of the 'notch' is unknown.