With an elevation of 11,260 feet (3,430 m), it is one of the highest peaks in the range and among the most prominent of the Wasatch Front, towering over the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper and easily visible from most of the valley, which makes it a popular destination for hiking and rock climbing.

The first person in recorded history to scale the summit of Lone Peak was Richard Bell, Sr. of Riverton, Utah.

Lone Peak consists almost entirely of quartz monzonite (a granitoid or granite-like rock) of the 30.5 million-year-old Little Cottonwood Stock.

A major section of the trail, climbing from the lower two-track roads to the meadow below Ennis Peak, was rebuilt in 2022, adding several miles to the round-trip hiking distance but substantially decreasing the steep grade of the previous trail by introducing numerous switchbacks.

After a few hours of hiking, the trail levels off and veers north into the trees crossing the water of cold springs in Bear Canyon.

The trail continues up above the cabin to the southeast and crosses over to the south into another drainage at a low point on the ridge.

The Outlaw Cabin, located at 40°31′12″N 111°46′53″W / 40.52000°N 111.78139°W / 40.52000; -111.78139 on the southwest side of a meadow, was constructed in the summer of 1960 by the Allen Brothers and Alan Summerhays.

In October 1997, a family from Draper was caught in a blinding snow storm and took shelter in the cabin until they were rescued.