Cirque at Wheeler Peak

A small rock glacier exists in the bowl-shaped valley between Wheeler Peak and Jeff Davis Peak. A rock glacier is a slow moving accumulation of loose rock, ice, snow, mud, and water that creeps and slides down the mountain, averaging a rate of a few inches per day. The rocky surface of the rock glacier can be seen at the base of the bowl-shaped glacially carved valley. Geomorphic features suggest that a much more extensive alpine glacier existed here during the maximum extent of the last glaciation period. Evidence of a much large glacier is also recorded by several moraine-dammed lakes in the valley around the base of Wheeler Peak, and the extensive deposits of glacial till that extend down Lehman Creek valley (Van Hoesen, 2001).