Blue Creek Valley is an long valley located in northeast

Box Elder County Box Elder County is a county at the northwestern corner of Utah, United States. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 57,666, up from the 2010 figure of 49,975. Its county seat and largest city is Brigham City. The county was n ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. It is

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

with the Blue Creek Reservoir its low point located south in the valley's center. The valley is nestled between three mountainous regions. The West Hills and Blue Spring Hills border it east and southeast. The south abuts the north of the

Promontory Mountains The Promontory Mountains are a range in Box Elder County, Utah. The range is oriented north–south and has a length of about . The southern portion forms a cape extending south into the Great Salt Lake. The First transcontinental railroad was c ...

, and the west is formed by a small north–south range, the North Promontory Mountains The north of the valley borders the south of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

's Pocatello Valley.

Valley description

Because Blue Creek Valley is narrow, only 5-8 mi wide, small feeder creeks feed the region from the four cardinal directions. Blue Creek Reservoir is located in the center-south of the valley, with Blue Creek Spring located 2 mi northeast, the main feed to the reservoir. The outlet of Blue Creek Reservoir trends south past

Howell, Utah Howell is a town located in the Blue Creek Valley in northeast Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 245 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which ...

, into agricultural land. A peak associated with the north of the Promontory Mountains ends the valley's south, at the mountain range foothills. The mountain, Engineer Mountain, ,Utah, DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, p. 10-11. and parts of the north Promontory Mountains drain north into the south border of Blue Creek Valley; southwest drainage from the mountain region drains southwest into the Bear River Bay section of the northeast

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

Valley low point

The lowest elevation in the valley is south of Blue Creek Reservoir, its outlet, and to the farmland around Howell, Utah. Blue Creek Reservoir is at .

References

External links

Blue Creek Reservoir Fishing, fishworks.com

valley center: Howell, UT & Blue Creek Reservoir, (topographic map, TopoQuest)

South Valley, (topographic map, TopoQuest)
Endorheic basins of the United States Landforms of Box Elder County, Utah Valleys of Utah {{Utah-geo-stub