A high alpine wilderness in the central Wasatch Range, overlooking the Salt Lake Valley.
Lone Peak Wilderness
Lone Peak Wilderness is a roughly 30,000-acre federally designated wilderness area in the central Wasatch Range of northern Utah, lying within the Uinta and Wasatch-Cache National Forests. It sits along the Wasatch Front, with the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys to the west and the American Fork Twin Peaks to the east, and is bounded by Little Cottonwood Canyon to the north and American Fork Canyon to the south. The wilderness protects an alpine landscape of rugged peaks, glacially carved cirques and narrow canyons, with elevations ranging from canyon bottoms near 5,500 feet to summits above 11,000 feet.
The area is most recognized for its high Wasatch scenery, including Lone Peak itself and the Pfeifferhorn, often called "Little Matterhorn Peak." It functions as both a wild backcountry landscape and a visual backdrop to one of Utah's fastest-growing urban corridors, offering a striking contrast between protected wilderness and the densely populated front-range communities. Establishment in 1978, as part of the Endangered American Wilderness Act, gave the area a strong conservation identity early in the modern Utah wilderness system.
Within the broader context of American wilderness preservation, Lone Peak Wilderness holds a notable place as the only designated wilderness in Utah at the time of its creation, a status that would change only with the later Utah Wilderness Act of 1984.