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Canyon against canyon, live. Same bench, same Class 3 traction standard, same enforcement. Different snow, different avalanche exposure, different closure habits. This is the page for the Wasatch Boulevard decision.
Little Cottonwood Canyon is open. Road surface: Dry. Weather: Fair. No traction restriction is posted for this corridor right now.
Data: UDOT Traffic | UDOT report Nov 4, 9:23 AM MT
Big Cottonwood Canyon is open. Road surface: Dry. Weather: Fair. No traction restriction is posted for this corridor right now.
Data: UDOT Traffic | UDOT report Nov 4, 9:23 AM MT
| Corridor | Road | High point | Cameras listed | Traction segment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Cottonwood Canyon | SR-210 | Alta (top of SR-210), 8,530 ft | 14 | Yes, Rule R920-6 |
| Big Cottonwood Canyon | SR-190 | Brighton (top of SR-190), 8,730 ft | 7 | Yes, Rule R920-6 |
Little Cottonwood is shorter, steeper, and snowier, with slide paths crossing SR-210 in more than a dozen places and a UDOT avalanche program that closes it proactively. Big Cottonwood is longer and gentler, with fewer paths and a closure record driven more by crashes, rockfall, and volume. Both are Class 3 when posted, so your vehicle never decides between them. The live postings do.
The trap is the substitution surge: one canyon closes, the other absorbs its traffic at about 1,000 vehicles an hour of real capacity, and open stops meaning moving. Read the events lists with the verdicts. An open canyon with a two mile queue posted is a closed canyon wearing a costume.
Which canyon gets more snow?
Little Cottonwood, clearly. Alta averages around 500 inches a year, among the deepest measured totals in the country. Big Cottonwood is snowy by any normal standard and second in this family by a wide margin.
Which canyon closes less?
Big Cottonwood, because fewer avalanche paths cross SR-190. It still closes, for crashes, rockfall, and slides in its upper reaches, and its verdict above is live, not a reputation.