Wild horses run through Tule Valley, Utah.

The white sediment (foreground) in the northern part of the valley at sunset.

Tule Valley, also known as White Valley, is a north-south trending valley within the Basin and Range Province of west-central Utah. It is bounded on the west by the Confusion Range, on the east by the House Range, to the north by the Middle Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert, and the south by Wah Wah Valley and the Wah Wah Mountains. The central part of the valley has several knolls, the largest of which is Coyote Knolls. The White Valley name comes from the abundance of white rocks noted by James H. Simpson in 1859.^[1] These rock are mostly Lake Bonneville marls.

Tule Valley's most prominent feature may be Coyote Springs, an important spring system for local wildlife and feral horses which populate the valley. It is also used as a gateway to viewing and traveling toward the base of Notch Peak, a 2,200 foot limestone cliff, the tallest in North America. The name "Tule" is a reference to a swamp plant that probably was found at Coyote Springs during early exploration of the valley.^[1]

The valley itself is very isolated, and only has one paved road through its southern end, US Highway 6/US Highway 50. There are no permanent human residents of the valley, though shepherds are known to populate it in the spring. The center of the valley is a large playa, the place where all precipitation from the drainage basin collects, since it is an isolated basin and watershed.^[2] This is the location of the lowest point in Millard County, Utah.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Van Cott, J. W., 1990, Utah Place Names, ISBN 0-87480-345-4
2. ^ http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/huc.cfm?huc_code=16020303
3. ^ Nash, Fred J., 2008, Utah's Low Points: A guide to the Lowest Points in Utah's 29 Counties, pg. 114-122, ISBN 978-0-87480-932-9

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