Overlying the Tintic Quartzite is the Ophir Shale a dark red-brown, deep water sediment. The Ophir Shale is best known at Alta for forming the jagged outcrops above the High Traverse. This rock unit crosses the trail near the end of the High Traverse and when snow depths are low, fragments of these outcrops litter the snow. The Ophir Shale also forms the cliffs on the upper part of the Back Side. Eddies High Nowhere, Gunsight and the High Notch are narrow chutes cut through this rock unit. The Ophir Shale also runs along the base of Devils Castle but is difficult to see because outcrops are largely obscured by talus from overlying rocks.
| Near vertical beds of Ophir Shale form the cliffs above Sunspot. |