The Sheeprock Mountains are a 24-mile (39 km) long mountain range located in extreme southeast Tooele County,

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 ...

, and part of northeast

Juab County Juab County ( ) is a county in western Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 11,786. Its county seat and largest city is Nephi. Juab County is part of the Provo– Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statisti ...

. The range trends southeasterly and forms a section of the northeast perimeter of the large Sevier Desert, which lies southwest of the Sheeprock Mountains. The Sheeprock Mountains also lie adjacent to two other region perimeters. About 15-mi northwest is Dugway and the entrance to the

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a United States Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway Provin ...

, on the southeast perimeter of the

Great Salt Lake Desert The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert) is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the ei ...

. The northeast flank of the range forms the southwest border of

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 ...

Rush Valley; Rush Valley, and endorheic Cedar Valley adjacent east, are west of

Utah Lake Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Sa ...

(and

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

), with all three valleys being just south of the

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 ...

perimeter region.

Description

The center of the Sheeprock Mountains contains a southeast-trending ridgeline about 10-mi long. Just northwest of center is the range highpoint, Black Crook Peak, at .Utah DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, p. 24. Black Peak, , and Dutch Peak, anchor the southeast section of the ridgeline. The southeast of the range merges north into mountains/hills that extend into Rush Valley, forming a small valley west, against the Sheeprock northeast flank. The mountainous area is from both the south Sheeprocks and the north of the West Tintic Mountains. Red Skin Knolls, , of the Sheeprocks lies between, at the south of Rush Valley. At the Sheeprock Mountains northwest terminus, a narrow stretch of hills/ or mountains extend due-north to connect to the south of the Onaqui's; Lookout Pass separates Little Mountain, (a standalone mountain peak, at ), from Red Pine Mountain in the north terminus region of the Sheeprocks, (at ).

Access

The major access to the Sheeprock Mountains is to its northeast section at the south of Rush Valley, by way of Utah State Route 36, and Vernon. The route transits due-south to Vernon, but then goes southeast to Lofgreen, (at the north-northeast of the West Tintic Mountains), and the East Tintics. South from Vernon, is farmland routes, but numerous creeks, and canyons descend northeasterly from the Sheeprocks, containing unimproved roads. The northwest of the range has to be accessed from Dugway, (

)-(southeast perimeter region of the

), by way of unimproved roads. Utah 199 and Utah 196 access Dugway. The south of the range has to be accessed from unimproved roads from the Sevier Desert; the south of the range lies adjacent west, of the West Tintic Mountains, southern terminus. The desert can be accessed from Jericho Junction by way of

U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6) or U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the United States Numbered Highway System. While it ...

. File:Utah Lake Landsat.png, False color Landsat photo, Sheeprock Mtns at southwest of Rush Valley
(see text, description of

Rush Valley and Cedar Valley)

References

External links

Black Crook Peak (approx. range center-(northwest)) (coordinates)
{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Tooele County, Utah Mountain ranges of Juab County, Utah Mountain ranges of the Great Basin Mountain ranges of Utah Uinta National Forest