A glacial end (terminal) moraine in Pine Creek Valley, Wasatch Mountain State Park.

This Saturday Utah Geological Survey geologist Jim Davis and Utah State Parks naturalist Kathy Donnell led a leisurely hike up to Wilson Peak in Wasatch Mountain State Park for Utah State University students enrolled in the course “Utah Master Naturalist.”  The Utah Master Naturalist Program is a three credit certification course open to anyone who is interested in learning more about Utah’s natural world.  The topics for the Wilson Peak hike, part of the “mountains” section of the course, included the Wasatch Mountain’s geologic history, alpine glaciation and glacial landforms, the ice ages, and identification of rocks such as the Tertiary Pine Creek and Valeo volcanic stocks that are granodiorites, the Cambrian Tintic Quartzite, and the Precambrian Mineral Fork Tillite.

Utah Master Naturalist Program, Utah State University