Stuart Range
Encyclopedia
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
in central Washington, USA. The range lies within the eastern extent of the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
immediately southwest of Leavenworth
Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth is a city in Chelan County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Wenatchee–East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,965 at the 2010 census. The entire town center is modelled on a Bavarian village.-History:...
and runs east-west. The western peaks make up a single sharp ridge. The eastern half of the range splits into two parallel ridges, the northern of which is known as the Enchantment Peaks. Between these ridges lies the Enchantment Basin, which holds the dozens of tarn
Tarn (lake)
A tarn is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. A corrie may be called a cirque.The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond...
s known as the Enchantment Lakes. Collectively, the basin and the encircling eastern peaks of the Stuart Range make up The Enchantments
The Enchantments
The Enchantments is an area comprising an upper and a lower basin, the lakes and tarns contained within them, and the peaks of the Stuart Range bounding the basins. The area is located entirely within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness about southwest of Leavenworth, Washington in the United States...
, a well-known backpacking destination. The south face of the Stuart Range falls off steeply to Ingalls Creek, beyond which rise the roughly parallel Wenatchee Mountains
Wenatchee Mountains
The Wenatchee Mountains are a range of mountains in central Washington State, United States of America. A major subrange of the Cascade Range, extending east from the Cascade crest, the Wenatchee Mountains separate the drainage basins of the Yakima River from the Wenatchee River...
.
Partial list of peaks
A list of notable peaks is below. Within each subsection, peaks are ordered as nearly as possible from west to east.Western peaks
- Mount StuartMount StuartMount Stuart is a mountain in the Cascade Range, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in the state, after Bonanza Peak and tenth-highest overall...
- 9415 feet (2,869.7 m) - Sherpa Peak - 8605 feet (2,622.8 m)
- Argonaut PeakArgonaut PeakArgonaut Peak is a tall mountain in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. Part of the Stuart Range part of the Wenatchee subrange of the Cascades, it is within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Wenatchee National Forest and part of the region known as The Enchantments. At in...
- 8453 feet (2,576.5 m) - Colchuck Peak - 8705 feet (2,653.3 m)
- Dragontail PeakDragontail PeakDragontail Peak, also known as Dragon Tail, is a mountain in the Stuart Range, in Chelan County, Washington. While climbing an adjacent peak, Lex Maxwell, Bob McCall, and Bill Prater remarked that the needles on the crest, southwest of the summit, resembled a "dragon tail". The name was officially...
- 8840 feet (2,694.4 m) +
Eastern peaks of south ridge
- Witches Tower - 8520 feet (2,596.9 m)
- Little Annapurna - 8440 feet (2,572.5 m) +
- McClellan Peak - 8364 feet (2,549.3 m)
- Rocket Peak - 7375 feet (2,247.9 m)
- Gremlin Peak - 7250 feet (2,209.8 m)
Enchantment Peaks (eastern peaks of north ridge)
- Colchuck Balanced Rock - 8200 feet (2,499.4 m) +
- Cannon Mountain - 8638 feet (2,632.9 m)
- Enchantment Peak - 8520 feet (2,596.9 m) +
- Prusik Peak - est. 8000 feet (2,438.4 m)
- Mount Temple - 8292 feet (2,527.4 m)
Geology
The Mount Stuart batholithBatholith
A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust...
underlies the Stuart Range and the nearby Wenatchee Mountains
Wenatchee Mountains
The Wenatchee Mountains are a range of mountains in central Washington State, United States of America. A major subrange of the Cascade Range, extending east from the Cascade crest, the Wenatchee Mountains separate the drainage basins of the Yakima River from the Wenatchee River...
. The batholith is about 13 by 16 miles in extent. Two plutonic masses are separated by a thin screen of Chiwaukum Schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
and rocks of the Ingalls Complex. The more-eastern pluton
Pluton
A pluton in geology is a body of intrusive igneous rock that crystallized from magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Plutons include batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, and other igneous bodies...
is 93 million years old, while the more-western rock mass is between 83 and 86 million years old. Exposed rock tends to be quartz diorite
Quartz diorite
Quartz diorite is an igneous, plutonic rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase with 10% or less potassium feldspar. Quartz is present at between 5 to 20% of the rock. Biotite, amphiboles and pyroxenes are common dark accessory...
and granodiorite
Granodiorite
Granodiorite is an intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase than orthoclase-type feldspar. Officially, it is defined as a phaneritic igneous rock with greater than 20% quartz by volume where at least 65% of the feldspar is plagioclase. It usually contains abundant...
.
The range sits near a convergent plate boundary where one plate overrides another. In Western Washington, the North American plate
North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Siberia, Japan and Iceland. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust...
overrides the Juan de Fuca plate
Juan de Fuca Plate
The Juan de Fuca Plate, named after the explorer of the same name, is a tectonic plate, generated from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and subducting under the northerly portion of the western side of the North American Plate at the Cascadia subduction zone...
, resulting in both volcanic and seismic activity. This convergence has been ongoing for over 200 million years. Continuing uplift and erosion has exposed the underlying granite batholith, making for one of the more spectacular mountain ranges in Washington.