Lakes and Wetlands

Fish Lake and Fish Lake Basin

Directions: Head south on I-15 from Salt Lake City, UT. Take the Scipio exit (188) to US Highway 50. Travel 30 miles on Highway 50 to Salina. Travel from Salina to Sigurd on I-70 (take exit 48, which is the start of Utah Highway 24). Follow Highway 24 south to the Fish Lake turnoff (Utah Highway 25, the Fish Lake Scenic Byway).

Travel north on I-15 from Southern Utah or Cedar City, UT. Take exit 95, travel southeast on Utah Highway 20 for 21 miles. Then take US 89 north to Kingston. At Kingston, take US Highway 62 east and then north at Otter Creek Reservoir to its junction with Utah Highway 24. Head south on Highway 24 to the Fish Lake turnoff (Utah Highway 25, the Fish Lake Scenic Byway). Follow Utah Highway 25 northeast 13 miles to the end of the byway. Here you will enter the Fishlake National Forest about three miles along the route.

Description: Much of the underlying rock of Fish Lake Basin is composed of basalts that flowed from fissures then cooled. The basin itself formed when one block dropped down between two faults on either side. On the southeast side of the lake lie the slopes of Mytoge Mountain and on the northwest side, Fish Lake Hightop Mountain.

The fault blocking occurred at different times and at different places along a10 mile stretch. The ends of the basin have not settled concurrently as recent evidence suggests that the lake once drained to the south rather than its current route to the north at Lake Creek.

Glacial activity also played a role in carving canyons and depositing moraines in Fish Lake Basin. Well noted evidence of this activity is at Pelican Canyon (Godfrey.)

Redfish Lake

Directions: Redfish Lake Lodge is located 60 miles north of Sun Valley and 8 miles south of Stanley just off Highway 75.

Description: Redfish Lake is a glacial lake that occupies a U-shaped, glacially carved valley. The water is contained on the sides by lateral moraines and on the north end near the lodge by a terminal moraine. Redfish Lake lies on a platform of Pleistocene glacial sediment, rimmed by Pinedale age moraines and flanked to northwest and southeast by Bull Lake age moraines and outwash terraces. The prominent morainal ridges high above the lake to the northwest and southeast are similar to the large, outermost moraines marking major drainages farther south on the Sawtooth front, likely constructed during early or middle Wisconsin time. Due west of this location are similar moraines, merging with the large Redfish moraines but constructed by glaciers descending the Fishhook Creek drainage. Smaller, younger moraines mark the shores of the lake and areas upvalley, but, surprisingly, remain unstudied. Redfish Lake Moraine Research Natural Area encompasses a section of the large lateral moraine on the east side of Redfish Lake.

Iron Bog

Directions: Drive up American Fork Canyon as far as you can towards Mineral Basin. When the road gets too rough for your vehicle, get out and start walking. After about 1.25 miles, a sign indicates the location of the erstwhile fen. Several hundred yards down the road the Bog Mine discharges red, iron rich, acidic water into the creek. The Iron Bog and Bog Mine are located below Pittsburg Lake.

Description: The "Iron Bog" as it is called, is not a bog at all, it is a peat deposit formed in a fen that was destroyed when the Bog Mine intercepted groundwater and dewatered the fen.  Now the dry peat routinely catches of fire. This fen and its peat deposit formed over thousands of years since the end of the last ice age. Fens are wetlands that develop where a relatively constant supply of ground water to the plant rooting zone maintains saturated conditions most of the time and the water chemistry reflects the mineralogy of the surrounding and underlying soils and geological materials. The water that discharges from the Bog Mine portal is acidic and contributes metals to the creek. This is a prime example of the kind of damage to wetlands, streams, and aquatic ecosystems caused by historic mining in the west.