Electric Peak (San Juan Mountains)
Electric Peak is a 13,292-foot-elevation (4,051 meter) mountain summit located in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. It is situated eight miles south of the community of Silverton, in the Weminuche Wilderness, on land managed by San Juan National Forest. It is part of the Needle Mountains which are a subset of the San Juan Mountains, which in turn is a subset of the Rocky Mountains. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into tributaries of the Animas River. The peak can be seen from U.S. Route 550 and the Durango and Silverton Narrow  Gauge Railroad. Topographic relief is significant as the west aspect rises over 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) above the river and railway in approximately two miles. It is set five miles west of the Continental Divide, and one mile east of Mount Garfield. The mountain's name, which has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names, was in use before 1906 when Henry Gannett published it in the "Gazetteer of Colorado". Climate. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Electric Peak is located in an alpine subarctic climate zone with very long, cold, snowy winters, and cool  to warm summers. Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer, with a dry period in late spring. Geology. Electric Peak is part of the Uncompahgre Formation, which is a sequence of quartzite and black phyllite some in thickness. The formation dates to the Statherian period and is interpreted as metamorphosed marine and fluvial sandstone, mudstone, and shale. The formation overlies plutons with an age of 1,707 million years.