Little Cottonwood: Apatite & Alunite Rockhounding in Salt Lake County, Utah

Plan your visit

Permission required before collecting

County

Salt Lake County

State

Utah

Nearest road

Little Cottonwood Road

Postcode

85092

Coordinates

40.57016, -111.71354

Coordinates are approximate. Confirm the exact ground in the RockHoundR app, where land overlays show which agency manages the area.

Land & collecting status

Permission required before collecting

Requires landowner or agency permission before any collecting. Do not enter without explicit authorization.

Public-land rules vary by agency, season, and field office. The RockHoundR app pulls live BLM, USFS, NPS, and tribal overlays so you can see exactly which agency manages the ground at this spot.

Best time to visit Little Cottonwood

Comfortable months (45 to 90°F highs)

Best months: April to October. Typical highs run 80°F in midsummer and 38°F in midwinter, with winter lows near 22°F.

Climate normals: NOAA 1991-2020 monthlies, ALTA station (4 mi away), adjusted for elevation.

Geology at Little Cottonwood

This spot sits on ground mapped as Alluvium that formed within roughly the last 12,000 years. Loose deposits like these are float-collecting ground: erosion keeps moving durable rocks and minerals into gravel bars, cutbanks, and washes.

Mapped unit

Alluvium

Age

< 1 Ma (Holocene)

Elevation

6,800 ft

Geologic mapping via Macrostrat and the underlying state geological survey maps (CC BY 4.0). Bedrock at the surface can vary within a mapped unit.

Sources & verification

Spot details combine the public RockHoundR location dataset, normalized mineral labels, agency land-status checks in the app, and community submissions. Coordinates are approximate until verified in the field.

State guidance last verified: April 1, 2026

• BLM Utah, Rockhounding overview
• Utah Geological Survey, collecting guidelines
• SITLA, surface use rules
• Community submissions reviewed against published agency rules