The Uinta
Mountains are an east-west mountain range in northeastern Utah extending
slightly into southern Wyoming. It is a subrange of the
Rocky Mountains. They are the highest mountain range (ranging from 11,000–13,528 feet) in
the contiguous United States that runs east to west. They start about 100 miles east
of Salt Lake City. The highest point is Kings Peak, which is also the highest
point in Utah.
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| Kings Peak from above the Henry's Fork Basin. Taken by Hyrum K. Wright |
Most
of the high peaks are outcrops of the Uinta Mountain Group. Many of the peaks
are ringed with bands of cliffs, rising to form broad or flat tops. The
mountains are bounded to the north and south by reverse faults that meet below
the range, on the north by the North Flank fault and on the south by the Uinta
Basin boundary fault.
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| Gilbert Peak seen from Lake 151, ctsy Philthy54 |
The
high Uintas were extensively glaciated during the last ice age, and most of the
large stream valleys on both the north and south sides of the range held long valley
glaciers. Even though some peaks reach as high as over 13,500 feet in
elevation, the dry climate of today has resulted in there being no glaciers
that have survived. The Uintas are the most poleward mountain range in the
world to reach over 13,000 feet without modern glaciers, and are the
highest mountain range in the contiguous United States with no glaciers.
They do have permafrost at elevations above 10,000 feet. If you wish to know
more about the heavy-duty science stuff like which era the rocks were formed
and pushed up to where they are today, I’ll refer you to Wikipedia.
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| Utah Road Map - Uinta Range barely south of Wyoming |
Large
portions of the mountain range receive over 40 inches of precipitation annually. That's a lot of snow and rain. The highest peaks remain snowcapped most of the year except for late July
through early September.
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| July Snow in Uintas - NASA Earth Observatory |
The Uinta Mountains have more than 400 miles of
streams and 1,000 lakes and ponds. It is part of the Wasatch and Uinta montane
forests ecoregion. Nearly the entire range lies within Uinta-Wasatch-Cache
National Forest on the north and west and Ashley National Forest on the south
and east. Because it does run east to
west, it sort of T-bones these other ranges. The highest peaks of the range are
protected as part of the High Uintas Wilderness. The forests contain many
species of trees plus many species of grasses, shrubs, and flowering plants.
The
Bear and Weber rivers, the two largest tributaries of Great Salt Lake, start
on the west slope of the range. The Provo River, the largest tributary to Utah
Lake, begins on the southern side of the range and flows west to Utah Lake,
which itself drains via the Jordan River into Great Salt Lake.
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| Weber River starts on west of Uintas |
The
south and east sides of the range are largely within the Colorado River
watershed, including the Blacks Fork and the Duchesne River, which are
tributaries of the Green River. The Green is the major tributary of the
Colorado River. All that water means there are about 500 small lakes, one of
the most popular being Mirror Lake.
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|
Hayden
Peak and Mount Agassiz seen from Bald Mountain -
|
This
past June I traveled throughout Wyoming. From Interstate 80, I was able to look
to the south and see this mountain range—very impressive with all the snow that
time of year. (See my title header.) Little did I know then I would be writing two books for a series
set in those mountains. I passed through Evanston, Wyoming (been there several
times) which is the biggest town north of the setting of the book. It is where
folks then and now caught the trains on the Trans-Continental Railroad.
I
recently put my first book in The Widows of Wildcat Ridge series, Nissa,
on preorder. To read the book description and access the purchase link, PLEASE
CLICK HERE. The book will be released October 15th. My
second book, Diantha, will be published in April.
The
following is a snippet from the book:
