POTD September 11, 2013: Little Cottonwood Canyon, Wasatch Range, Salt Lake County, Utah

Little Cottonwood Canyon, Wasatch Range, Salt Lake County, Utah
Photographer: Mike Hylland

Ice Age (late Pleistocene) glaciers carved a classic U-shaped valley into granitic rock of the Oligocene-aged Little Cottonwood stock at Little Cottonwood Canyon. Across Salt Lake Valley, the Oquirrh Mountains are home to the Bingham Canyon mine, the largest open-pit copper mine in North America.