The Most Rugged Regions in the Wasatch Mountains

Domain relief and steepness (DRS) quantifies the ruggedness of a given region. I applied DRS to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah to determine the most rugged portions of the the range with various given sizes. The results are given below in tabular and graph form, with each region linking to a KML file for display in Google Earth or similar program. All values are appproximate. Areas and DRS values should generally be accurate to within 5%, but I have not made a detailed study of the accuracy of the calculations. Here is a somewhat old explanation of ruggedness (now called DRS).

Size (km^2)	DRS (m)	Notes
10.9	160	South side of Provo Canyon/North face Cascade Mountain
31.8	155	Provo Canyon/South face Timpanogos/North face Cascade Mountain
141	136	Provo Canyon/Timpanogos/Cascade, lower Little Cottonwood Canyon (This one is a bit rough.)
613	121	Provo Canyon through (lower) Big Cottonwood Canyon, Mount Nebo
1390	109	Wasatch Front from Mill Creek Canyon to Mount Nebo
3440	89	Wasatch Front from Wellsville Mountains to Mount Nebo (minus Parley's Canyon area) (This actually includes a little of the nearby Bear River Mountains as well.)

Acknowledgements: DRS is based on ORS; see the main ORS page for the relevant acknowledgements. DRS itself was developed by David Metzler and Edward Earl. All DRS calculations on these pages are by David Metzler.

Back to the main DRS (ruggedness) page Back to the main ORS page

Questions and comments welcome:

metzler (at) aa (dot) edu