The ant Formica xerophila is one of 37 species known to occur in the Avenues foothills. Studies of its ecology in other locations have found it tending aphids and scavenging dead arthropods. The photo from a minor trail below the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and west of Limekiln shows locations of two nest entrances that we observed to be active before the snowfalls of April 11-12. The ant shown is about 5 mm (3/16”) long. Specimen casent0005379 (California Academy of Sciences), photo © AntWeb.org / CC-BY-SA-3.0.

Sego Lily, Utah State Flower

Late Paleozoic limestones exposed along the summit-ridge of Black Mountain were horizontal when deposited in a shallow marine environment, but now stand vertical as a result of geologic events that occurred during the Cretaceous Period.

Where Urban Meets the Natural

History of Lake Bonneville