Emerald Lake is a small

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around t ...

near the summit of

Mount Timpanogos Mount Timpanogos, often referred to as Timp, is the second-highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range. Timpanogos rises to an elevation of above sea level in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With of topographic prominence, Timpanogos is ...

in the middle of the Mount Timpanogos Wilderness in the

Wasatch Range The Wasatch Range ( ) or Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Gr ...

in northeastern

Utah County Utah County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Utah. The county seat and largest city is Provo, which is the state's fourth-largest city, and the largest outside of Salt Lake County. As of the 2020 United States census ...

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 ...

, United States.

Description

The lake is northeast of the summit of Mount Timpanogos, at the base of the almost vertical northeast face of the mountain, with an elevation of . The now mostly vanished and completely buried Timpanogos Glacier left behind a terminal

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

which now impounds the lake. The runoff from the

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms that consist either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in between. Rock glaciers are normally found at hi ...

feeds the lake and colors it blue. The lake is accessible by

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

, the Mount Timpanogos Trail (also known as the Aspen Grove Trail) from Aspen Grove being the fastest way to reach it. The lake is from the trailhead, or about two-thirds of the way up to the summit. During summer weekends the Timpanogos Emergency Response Team (TERT) of the county sheriff's office stations volunteers at a camp near Emerald Lake to assist with emergency incidents that frequently occur on the mountain. According to some versions of ''The Legend of Timpanogos'', Emerald Lake is the immortalization of Red Eagle, after he fell to his death from the peak of Mount Timpanogos.

References

External links

Lakes of Utah Lakes of Utah County, Utah Tourist attractions in Utah County, Utah Wasatch Range Proglacial lakes {{Utah-geo-stub

Description

See also

References

External links