At 9,600 feet, Notch Peak is a moderately tall mountain as mountains go in the Basin and Range region of the Western USA.  What makes Notch Peak so spectacular is the over 4000 foot cliff face that falls nearly straight down just a few steps from the peak itself.  The cliff face itself starts at Notch Peak and stretches around the saddle and westward below Sawtooth and adjacent peaks.  It is a sight to behold after a 4 mile hike from the trailhead, when you come to the edge and the world falls away at your feet.

Layer after layer of ancient limestone forms the cliff face from below, deposited as uncountable millions of tiny skeletons in an ancient sea over 450 million years ago.  Just to the east, away from the cliff and below Sawtooth, lives a grove of bristlecone pine trees.  Who knows, but these may be several thousands of years old - old to us, though very very young by the standards of the cliff they grow near.

Here along the ridge of the House Range, we have a commanding view of the surroundings.  The narrow white band of hardpan (dried lake plain) to the south is within the Tule Valley while the much broader tan-white hardpan to the southeast marks the remains of Sevier Lake.  The Sevier Lake bed is bounded to the east by the Cricket mountains.  To our immediate west, the Confusion mountains form the next range with the Snake Range in the far distance, home to Great Basin National Park.  To the south stretch the Wah Wah mountains.

On the day of this hike, we could see for 50 or more miles in all directions.