The Traverse Mountains, or sometimes Traverse Range, are an anomalous, geologically complex, east-trending range that separates Salt Lake Valley

Salt Lake Valley

Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...

 and Utah Valley

Utah Valley

Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains Provo, Orem, and their suburbs, including Highland, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Lehi, Payson, and...

 in the U.S. State of Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

. The Traverse Mountains mark the boundary between the Salt Lake and Provo segments of the Wasatch Fault

Wasatch Fault

The Wasatch Fault is an earthquake fault located primarily on the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains in the U.S. state of Utah. The fault is 240 miles long, stretching from southern Idaho, through northern Utah, before terminating in central Utah near the town of Fayette...

, and they are themselves much faulted and locally involved in landslides. Lake Bonneville

Lake Bonneville

Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...

 once covered Salt Lake and Utah Valleys and shorelines and deposits from the ice age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 lake are now etched into the flanks of the Traverse Mountains. Over the past decade it has seen a huge housing boom due to its spectacular views of Salt Lake and Utah counties.

The eastern section of the range (often called Traverse Mountain, or Point of the Mountain), is split up between the cities of Lehi

Lehi, Utah

-Attractions:Lehi Roller MillsLehi Roller Mills was founded in 1906 by a co-op of farmers. George G. Robinson purchased the mill in 1910, and since then it has remained in the family. It is run today by grandson R. Sherman Robinson....

 and Draper

Draper, Utah

Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah Counties in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Between 1990 and 2000 Draper was Utah's fastest-growing city over 5,000 people . Its population in 1990 was 7,143 and had grown to 25,220 by the 2000 census...

. The Draper portion contains the Suncrest community, while the Lehi portion contains the Traverse Mountain community. The western section of the range is part of the Camp Williams National Guard Training Site.

Air recreation

Two locations on the far west end of the eastern section of the range are Point of the Mountain and Steep Mountain, considered to be among the world's premier paragliding

Paragliding

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...

 and hang gliding

Hang gliding

Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider ....

destinations in North America.