Explorer Corps Marker: Utah County

This medallion is one of twenty-nine the Natural History Museum of Utah set out for its fiftieth anniversary — one in every county, each marking a local natural wonder. Utah County's points to the cliffs overhead: Timpanogos Cave, whose first chamber a logger named Martin Hansen found in October 1887 by following mountain-lion tracks up the canyon wall. Two more caves turned up later, all cut from limestone laid down under a tropical sea 340 million years ago. Reaching them still means a steep mile-and-a-half climb from the visitor center here.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Timpanogos Cave National Monument — steps away
  Three spectacularly decorated caves connected by hand-carved tunnels
• Alpine Loop Summit — 5.0 mi
  The 8,000-foot high point of the Alpine Loop, face to face with Mount Timpanogos
• Aspen Grove — 6.0 mi
  The mountain-base trailhead for Mount Timpanogos and Stewart Falls
• Sundance Mountain Resort — 7.6 mi
  Robert Redford's intimate, arts-minded ski resort on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos, in the North Fork of Provo Canyon.

More markers nearby

• Utah's First Indian Battle — 5.4 mi
• Statue of Responsibility — 5.9 mi
• Peck/Russon Historic Families of Lehi — 6.7 mi
• The Peter Julius Christofferson Family — 7.3 mi