The Tushar Mountains are the third highest mountain range in Utah after the Uinta Mountains and the La Sal Range. Located in the Fishlake National Forest, Delano Peak, 12,174 ft (3,711 m) NAVD 88, is the highest point in both Beaver and Piute counties and has a prominence of 4,689 ft (1,429 m). Delano Peak is named for Columbus Delano (1809–1896), Secretary of the Interior during the Grant administration. The Tushars receive an ample amount of snow annually even though they are situated within the rainshadow of the Sierra Mountain Range located in California and the Snake Range located in Nevada. The Tushar mountains are bounded roughly by I-15 to the west, I-70 to the north, U.S. 89 to the east and S.R. 20 to the south.
Some of the more prominent peaks are:
Mount Belknap 12,119 feet (3,693.87 meters)
Mount Baldy 12,090 feet (3,685.03 meters)
Mount Brigham 11,709 feet (3,568.90 meters)
Edna Peak 11,654 feet (3,552.14 meters)
Copper Belt Peak 11,358 feet (3,461.92 meters)
Circleville Mountain 11,338 ft (3,455.82 meters)
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The spectacular peaks of the Tushars were formed between 22 and 32 million years ago by volcanic activity that included a calamitous explosion that blew off the top of a massive peak perhaps as high as Himalayan peaks. At the cusp of the Great Basin, the range also shares characteristics of the Plateau Province to the east. The renowned geologist and explorer Clarence Dutton called the high peaks of the Tushars: "noble cones ending in sharp cusps [that] stand pre-eminent, while behind them numerous dome-like masses rise to nearly the same altitude. The resultant sculptural forms are correspondingly bold and craggy."
Geologically complex, this area dominated by past volcanism is composed of lava flows, ash-flow tuffs from calderas, volcanic domes, cinder cones, rhyolite, basalt-like rocks, conglomerate, and metals such as gold, molybdenum, and uranium. Akin to an outdoor geology textbook, the area contains developed and undeveloped geothermal activity, fluorite, and the hydrothermically-altered rocks of Big Rock Candy Mountain.
In a survey of Natural Landmark Areas of the North Portion of the Colorado Plateau, Biotic and Geologic Themes, conducted by Brigham Young University scientists, the Big Rock Candy Mountain Altered Zone was described as "unexcelled in the Colorado Plateau." The same study recognized a grouping of volcanic rocks known as the Skinner Canyon Ignimbrite, calling the exposure of low-grade volcanic glass in Clear Creek Canyon "one of the most spectacular displays of strongly jointed ignimbrites in the Colorado Plateau."
The Tushars have at least seven high alpine glaciated canyons, Cottowood Canyon, North Fork of Cottonwood Canyon, South Fork Basin, The Pocket Basin, Bullion Basin, Beaver Basin and City Creek Basin. All were heavily glaciated during the last know ice age of the North American Continent.
The Tushars contain a variety of annual and perennial streams that receive their flow from annual snowpack. The entire watershed region is divided into two main watershed locations: Beaver River (Beaver) originates in the Tushar Mountains east of Beaver at the confluence of the South Fork and several other creeks and springs. It drains west past Beaver, Milford, and the southern end of the Mineral Range then turns north and disappears into the ground at the Beaver Bottoms near Red Rock Knoll and Black Rock in Millard County. In earlier days it was known for its large number of beaver colonies. Jedediah Smith called it "The Lost River" and Dominguez and Escalante called it "El Rio de **Tejedor" (The Beaver River).
The Sevier River (pronounced /sɛˈvɪər/), extending 383 miles (616 km), is the longest Utah river entirely in the state and drains an extended chain of mountain farming valleys to the intermittent Sevier Lake. The Upper Sevier is used extensively for irrigation, and consequently Sevier Lake is now essentially dry. Sevier Lake is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a freshwater lake that covered much of the western and north western portions of current day Utah. Utah lake and The Great Salt Lake are also remnants of Lake Bonneville.
Some of the more prominent creeks and streams are: Clear Creek,Pine Creek, Beaver Creek, Cottonwood Creek and various other small steams which drain into the Sevier River. All the watershed from the Tushars has a final terminus in Sevier Lake located in western Utah and is part of the Great Basin. No water reaches any ocean from the Tushars.
The Tushar Mountain range is part of a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion. Common trees include ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, trembling aspen, and Gambel oak. Unknown to most, the Tushars contain several Old Growth stands of pine, some of which are the oldest in the state of Utah.
Astonishingly diverse due to elevation change, the Tushars support alpine and sub-alpine vegetation, mountain meadows, dense aspen and spruce/fir stands, ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, mountain brush, sagebrush steppe, pinion-juniper woodlands, oak, mountain mahogany, and upland mountain grasslands. The area contains endemic species such as the Tushar Paintbrush, as well as rare and sensitive plants. Recent fires in the area, both natural and prescribed, have been of great benefit to vegetation, causing regeneration of Aspen and other species.
Eagle Point ski resort is located on the western slopes and accessed from Beaver UT, the Tushar range is home to a host of other outdoor pursuits as well. Hundreds of miles of mountain biking and hiking trails wind through the canyons and alpine valleys of the Tushar Range offering back country access. The Tushars are also host to a vast portion of the Paiute ATV Trail system, one of the longest ATV trails of its type in the United States.
The area possesses a very high degree of naturalness, palpable solitude, and nearly unlimited opportunities for primitive and unconfined recreation. The area contains a number of unique and special features. The Big Rock Candy Mountain Altered Zone, a site that is of truly national significance and are either unique to or distinctive of the Colorado Plateau. The Altered Zone unexcelled in the Colorado Plateau for showing the effects of hot water or hydrothermal alteration of igneous rocks and the development of clays in the weathering process associated with the late phases of igneous activity. The highly altered, brightly colored rocks associated with a variety of igneous intrusions and extrusions make the area distinct and virtually unique in the Colorado Plateau. Also found are outcrops of strongly jointed volcanic glass in Clear Creek Canyon along the I-70 corridor called the Skinner Canyon Ignimbrites a spectacular development and exposures of columnar joints in the rewelded ash flow tuffs here are almost unique in the Colorado Plateau because of the limited exposures of these types of volcanic rocks.
In addition to the nationally significant geological areas above, the Tushar Mountains contain other special features such as Ice Caves, "The Face", historic mining and sawmill sites, mountain goats, pristine alpine tundra, river segments eligible for Wild and Scenic status.
The Tushars can be easily accessed from several different locations. U.S. 89 Through Marysvale, Junction and Circleville, Utah, I-15 Through Beaver, Utah and from I-70 in Clear Creek Canyon.