Mosquito Range
Encyclopedia
The Mosquito Range is a high mountain range in the Rocky Mountains
of central Colorado
in the United States
. The peaks of the range form a ridge running north-south for approximately 40 miles (64 km) from southern Summit County
on the north end, then along the boundary between Lake
and Park
counties. The ranges forms a high barrier separating the headwaters of the Arkansas River
near Leadville
from South Park
and the headwaters of the South Platte River
near Fairplay
. The highest peak in the range in Mount Lincoln
at an elevation of 14,286 ft. Other fourteener
s in the range are Mount Bross
(14,172 ft), Mount Democrat
(14,148 ft), and Mount Sherman
(14,036 ft).
s formed as part of the Sawatch Uplift
during the Laramide orogeny
approximately 65 MYA. The mountains were originally contiguous with the higher Sawatch Range
to the west but were separated during the formation of the rift valley at the headwaters of the Arkansas River approximately 35 MYA. The range is primarily of granite
. The eastern flank of the range along the rim of South Park overlain by Paleozoic
and Mesozoic
sedimentary rock
s. The northern end of the range was glaciated
during Pleistocene
time, forming u-shaped valleys in the canyons.
The high ridge of the range forms a relatively difficult barrier between South Park and the Arkansas headwaters. Several of the high peaks of the range are prominently visible from the southern side of Fremont Pass
along State Highway 91
between Climax
and Leadville. The range is not traversed by any major highway, but only in two places by backroads over high passes: Mosquito Pass
and Weston Pass. Much of the range is located within the Pike National Forest
.
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
of central Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The peaks of the range form a ridge running north-south for approximately 40 miles (64 km) from southern Summit County
Summit County, Colorado
Summit County is the 19th most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 23,538 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Breckenridge...
on the north end, then along the boundary between Lake
Lake County, Colorado
Lake County is one of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The highest natural point in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountains is the summit of Mount Elbert in Lake County at 14,440 feet elevation. The county population was 7,812 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat...
and Park
Park County, Colorado
Park County is the 17th most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named after the large geographic region known as South Park, which was named by early fur traders and trappers in the area. The geographic center of the State of Colorado is...
counties. The ranges forms a high barrier separating the headwaters of the Arkansas River
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...
near Leadville
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...
from South Park
South Park (Colorado basin)
South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...
and the headwaters of the South Platte River
South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...
near Fairplay
Fairplay, Colorado
The Town of Fairplay is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Park County, Colorado, United States. Fairplay is located in South Park at an elevation of . The town is the fifth-highest incorporated place in the State of Colorado. The population was 610 at the...
. The highest peak in the range in Mount Lincoln
Mount Lincoln (Colorado)
Mount Lincoln is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is the eighth highest peak in the state, and the 11th highest in the contiguous United States. It is located in the Mosquito Range, just west of Hoosier Pass, and is the highest peak in that range...
at an elevation of 14,286 ft. Other fourteener
Fourteener
In mountaineering terminology in the United States, a fourteener is a mountain that exceeds 14,000 feet above mean sea level. There are 547 fourteeners in the world. The importance of fourteeners is greatest in Colorado, which has the majority of such peaks in North America...
s in the range are Mount Bross
Mount Bross
Mount Bross is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado, located approximately 1 mile south of Mount Lincoln in the Mosquito Range. It lies in northwestern Park County....
(14,172 ft), Mount Democrat
Mount Democrat
Mount Democrat is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado, located approximately 1 mile west of Mount Lincoln, in the Mosquito Range. It lies in northeastern Lake County and northwestern Park County, about 2 miles southeast of the town of Climax...
(14,148 ft), and Mount Sherman
Mount Sherman
Mount Sherman is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Mosquito Range, approximately eight miles south of Mount Lincoln...
(14,036 ft).
Geology
The mountains are faulted anticlineAnticline
In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is...
s formed as part of the Sawatch Uplift
Sawatch Uplift
The Sawatch Uplift is a prominent geologic anticline in the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado in the United States. It was formed as a bulge in the North American Plate approximately 70–65 MYA during the Laramide orogeny that created the modern Rocky Mountains. The uplift runs north-south...
during the Laramide orogeny
Laramide orogeny
The Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the orogeny are in dispute, as is the cause. The Laramide...
approximately 65 MYA. The mountains were originally contiguous with the higher Sawatch Range
Sawatch Range
The Sawatch Range is a mountain range in central Colorado which includes eight of the twenty highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains, including Mount Elbert, at elevation, the highest peak in the Rockies....
to the west but were separated during the formation of the rift valley at the headwaters of the Arkansas River approximately 35 MYA. The range is primarily of granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. The eastern flank of the range along the rim of South Park overlain by Paleozoic
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...
and Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s. The northern end of the range was glaciated
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
during Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
time, forming u-shaped valleys in the canyons.
The high ridge of the range forms a relatively difficult barrier between South Park and the Arkansas headwaters. Several of the high peaks of the range are prominently visible from the southern side of Fremont Pass
Fremont Pass (Colorado)
Fremont Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.It forms the continental divide on the border between Lake County and Summit County. The pass is named for John C. Fremont, an explorer of the American West who discovered the pass while traversing...
along State Highway 91
Colorado State Highway 91
State Highway 91 is a stretch of highway in Colorado that connects Leadville to Interstate 70 at Copper Mountain.-Route description:SH 91 stretches , starting at its southern junction with U.S. Highway 24 near Leadville. It runs northeast over Fremont Pass, passing the ghost town of Climax, home...
between Climax
Climax, Colorado
Climax was an unincorporated mining village and a former U.S. Post Office located in Lake County, Colorado. Climax was known for its large molybdenum ore deposit. The former Climax Post Office had the ZIP Code 80429. Climax is located along the Continental Divide at an elevation of about 11,360 feet...
and Leadville. The range is not traversed by any major highway, but only in two places by backroads over high passes: Mosquito Pass
Mosquito Pass
Mosquito Pass is a high mountain pass in the Mosquito Range of central Colorado in the United States.The pass lies on the boundary between Lake and Park counties between Leadville and Fairplay . One of the highest passes in the state, it is traversable only on foot or with a proper four-wheel...
and Weston Pass. Much of the range is located within the Pike National Forest
Pike National Forest
The Pike National Forest is located in the Front Range of Colorado, USA, west of Colorado Springs and including Pikes Peak. The forest encompasses 1,106,604 acres within Clear Creek, Teller, Park, Jefferson, Douglas and El Paso counties. The major rivers draining the forest are the South Platte...
.
Highest peaks
Rank | Peak | Elevation |
---|---|---|
1 | Mount Lincoln Mount Lincoln (Colorado) Mount Lincoln is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is the eighth highest peak in the state, and the 11th highest in the contiguous United States. It is located in the Mosquito Range, just west of Hoosier Pass, and is the highest peak in that range... |
14,293 feet = 4356.5 m |
2 | Quandary Peak Quandary Peak Quandary Peak is a fourteener in the US state of Colorado and the highest peak in the Tenmile Range, a northern extension of the Mosquito Range. It is the 12th, 13th, or 14th highest peak in Colorado, depending on how it is ranked. It has nearly the same elevation as Castle Peak and Mount Evans... |
14,265 feet = 4348.0 m |
3 | Mount Democrat Mount Democrat Mount Democrat is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado, located approximately 1 mile west of Mount Lincoln, in the Mosquito Range. It lies in northeastern Lake County and northwestern Park County, about 2 miles southeast of the town of Climax... |
14,148 feet = 4312.3 m |
4 | Mount Sherman Mount Sherman Mount Sherman is a fourteener in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Mosquito Range, approximately eight miles south of Mount Lincoln... |
14,036 feet = 4278.2 m |
5 | Fletcher Mountain PB | 13,951 feet = 4252.3 m |
5 | Gemini Peak PB | 13,951 feet = 4252.3 m |
7 | Pacific Peak PB | 13,950 feet = 4252.0 m |
8 | Horseshoe Mountain Horseshoe Mountain Horseshoe Mountain is a mountain just west of Mount Fleming, standing on the north side of the head of Taylor Glacier, near the edge of the polar plateau in Oates Land, close to its boundary with Victoria Land. Discovered by the Discovery expedition and so named because of its shape.... PB |
13,898 feet = 4236.1 m |
See also
- Tenmile RangeTenmile RangeThe Tenmile Range is a mountain range in U.S. state of Colorado. The range is an extension of the Mosquito Range which is part of the Rocky Mountains. The two ranges are effectively the same range. They are split only by the Continental Divide and name. The Tenmile Range is on the west side of...
, the western extension of the Mosquito Range - Geography of ColoradoGeography of ColoradoThe geography of the state of Colorado is diverse, encompassing both rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains, desert lands, desert canyons, and mesas. The state of Colorado is defined as the geospherical rectangle that stretches from 37°N to 41°N latitude and from 102°03'W to 109°03'W longitude . ...
- Mountain peaks of ColoradoMountain peaks of ColoradoThis article comprises three sortable tables of the major mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a precise mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface...
- Mountain ranges of ColoradoMountain ranges of ColoradoThe following table lists the major mountain ranges of the U.S. State of Colorado.-Mountain Ranges:-See also:*4000 meter peaks of Colorado*Colorado mountain passes*Geography of Colorado*Lists of mountains*Mountain peaks of Colorado...
- Rocky MountainsRocky MountainsThe Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
- State of Colorado
External links
- Rocky Mountains @ Peakbagger
- Topographic map from USGS via Microsoft Research Maps