The Red Mountains of
Washington County,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
is a mostly circular long mountain range.
[''Utah Atlas & Gazetteer,'' DeLorme, 9th ed., 2014, p. 56 ] The small
massif
In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...
of the mountains is surrounded by two large ranges, northwest and northeast, the
Bull Valley and
Pine Valley Mountains
The Pine Valley Mountains are a mountain range in Washington County, Utah, United States, spanning the county north of the city of St. George. The highest point in the range is Signal Peak at . The mountains are part of Dixie National Forest ...
. Bordering southwest is the smaller
Beaver Dam Mountains
The Beaver Dam Mountains are a long mountain range located mostly in extreme southwest Washington County, Utah, west of St. George, with the south of the range extending into the Arizona Strip.
The range contains the Beaver Dam Mountains Wi ...
. Between the Beaver Dam and Bull Valley Mountains, are river courses, streams, or washes, and encircling the west and northwest foothills is the
Santa Clara River. It has multiple source streams, but the river arises off the southeast,
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...
-type flank of the Bull Valley Mountains, that lies northwest and north of the Red Mountains.
The southeast portion of the Red Mountains contains
Snow Canyon State Park
Snow Canyon State Park is a state park in Utah, located in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. The park features a canyon carved from the red and white Navajo sandstone of the Red Mountains, as well as the extinct Santa Clara Volcano, lava tubes, l ...
, which extends south and southeast beyond the mountains. The park is also about 7-mi in length.
[
]
Description
The small Red Mountains are nearly circular except on its southeast where Snow Canyon and West Canyon merge into Snow Canyon.
The highpoint of the range is unnamed, but is about .[
]
Access
The Red Mountains are surrounded by communities and roadways.
The west and northwest of the range is bordered by the Santa Clara River. Gunlock Road follows the river and the mountain foothills from Veyo at the north, through Gunlock on the northwest flank, and south to the west of Shivwits
The Shivwits Band of Paiutes is a sovereign, federally recognized tribe located in southwestern Utah. The Shivwits Band is one of five Bands comprising the inter-Tribal government of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
Name
''Shivwits'' comes from ...
. From Shivwits at the south foothills of the Red Mountains, Highway 91, (former U.S. 91), leaves Ivins at the mountain's south foothills and connects to Utah State Route 18
State Route 18 (SR-18) is a state highway in southern Utah, running for in Washington and Iron Counties from St. George to Beryl Junction. It forms part of the Legacy Loop Highway from St. George to Parowan. The highway closely follows the ro ...
at St. George, Utah
St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the no ...
, about 5-mi from Ivins.[
Utah Route 18 follows the entire east side of the mountains. At the range's southeast, a route exits to ]Snow Canyon State Park
Snow Canyon State Park is a state park in Utah, located in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. The park features a canyon carved from the red and white Navajo sandstone of the Red Mountains, as well as the extinct Santa Clara Volcano, lava tubes, l ...
; east and northeast, Utah 18 traverses Diamond Valley, with unimproved access routes to the northeast and north of the Red Mountains; also unimproved routes exit northeasterly to the southwest flank region of the Pine Valley Mountains.[
]
References
External links
Red Mountains, at lat-long.com (coordinates)
Mountain ranges of Washington County, Utah
Mountain ranges of Utah
{{Utah-geo-stub