Rocky Mountain Rail Tour | USA Today Rocky Mountain Rail Tour The high waterways of British Columbia can be breathtaking after a thaw. (Photo: Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images ) Train Trip Packages in the Rockies Train travel is an affordable and relaxed way to view the interior landscape of the Rockies, a chain of mountain ranges tracking up through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and into western Canada. Public passenger trains travel larger segments of the route in a utilitarian manner, while small private rails tailor their trips for those wanting to spend some time to view the sites or experience the history. Public Rail Travel segments of the Canadian Rockies using Canada's VIA Rail system. The lines from Vancouver take you through the mountains of Alberta, while the Prince Rupert-Jasper line travels parts of the Rockies in British Columbia. Sections of Amtrak's east-west routes in the United States will bring you across parts of the Rocky Mountains. The California Zephyr takes you through Colorado's mountains, the Empire Builder through Montana and the Southwest Chief through New Mexico. Canadian Rockies The "Rainforest to Gold Rush" route of the Rocky Mountaineer runs through large segments of the Canadian Rockies and passes its highest peak, Mount Robson. A second line travels further west through British Columbia.

The Mountaineer line is designed for comfortable trips over several days; it connects with a cruise line for those who wish to continue their tour off the coast. For a high-end, comprehensive tour of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, look into the private Royal Canadian Pacific line, which departs from Calgary. Royal Canadian also charters trains for private trips in the region. Colorado and New Mexico In Colorado, the Rocky Mountains are known for hiking in the fourteeners (the term for mountains higher than 14,000 feet), for their mining history and for their high lakes and majestic beauty. Many of the private trains used for Rockies tours here today have historical links to the gold mining industry. The Durango & Silverton coal-powered train runs through the San Juan range on a narrow gauge suited to the winding curves of the mountain landscape. The company offers a variety of specialty tours, including a Christmas tour. Trips run all day, with seven hours spent on the train, round-trip, and a few hours in Silverton for exploring. Small operators travel other Rockies ranges. The Rio Grande travels through the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains, out of Alamosa in Southern Colorado.

The Cumbres & Toltec travels the San Juans out of Chama, New Mexico. Touring trains out of Leadville, the highest incorporated city in Colorado, and Georgetown explore the Front Range. A cog railway travels up the privately owned Pikes Peak outside of Colorado Springs, the mountain that inspired verses in Katherine Lee Bates' "America the Beautiful." Montana and Wyoming The national parks of Montana and Wyoming, particularly Glacier and Yellowstone, cover vast expanses and make for less private rail travel; to view the Tetons or other Rocky Mountain scenery, auto tours or Amtrak are sometimes your only good options. Some private travel companies will piece together train tours with motorcoach tours to cover the area. The State of Montana's Alder Gulch short line will bring you to mining country near the Beaverhead range. References The Rockies Subscribe To This Site's Feed The Rockies The Rockies are a well-named group of jagged, snow-capped peaks which run through the western part of North America. This chain of mountains extends over 3,000 miles and is almost 1,000 miles wide in some places. They begin in Northern New Mexico and extend as far as northern Alaska.

From New Mexico, the mountain range stretches through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. At the International Border, the part of the range known as the Canadian Rockies passes through the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory of Canada. The Rocky Mountain range is part of the Cordilleran chain which reaches from Cape Horn to the Arctic Circle. The Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico and the Andes of South America form the southern part of this chain. Many people tend to include several peaks and ranges adjacent to the Rocky Mountains as a part of them, when they really are not. Geographers, however, do not include such ranges as the Sierra Madre in Mexico, the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Coast ranges in the United States, and the Coast, Gold and Selkirk ranges of Canada. Most of the peaks in this range were formed in a great upheaval of the earth's crust. The sides of the mountains have been found to contain the fossil skeletons of animals that once lived in the sea, and rocks that were formed in the hot interior of the earth. In the southern half of the range, there are mountains which were once volcanoes.

Evident signs of volcanic activity are also found in the huge lava sheets of Idaho and the geysers of Yellowstone National Park. Since the time they were formed, the peaks have been cut into their sharp spires and angled faces by the forces of glaciers. The glaciers hollowed out the valleys between the mountain peaks. The great mineral riches of the Rocky Mountains include gold, silver, lead and copper, as well as coal, oil shale, and phosphate rock. These mountains are famous for their scenic beauty and natural wonders. Several national parks of the United States are located in this range, including the oldest and largest, Yellowstone National Park, and the Rocky Mountain National Park of Colorado (a nice place to visit, I might add. I climbed Long's Peak here in 2000). Such mighty rivers as the Columbia, the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Colorado and the Rio Grande begin here. The highest and broadest part of the range lies south of the Laramie Plains in Colorado and Utah.

This is the Southern Rockies, with 55 peaks in Colorado rising over 14,000 feet (4,267 m.) above sea level; also there are many other peaks in Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming over 13,000 feet (3.962 m.). The highest point in the Rockies is Mount Elbert in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401 m.). The range in Canada includes dozens of peaks more than 11,000 feet (3,353 m.) high, and several reaching to more than 12,000 feet (3,657 m.). Mount Robson, in British Columbia at 12,972 feet (3,954 m.) is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. Another notable peak in Canada is Mount Assiniboine at 11,870 feet (3,618 m.). In the beautiful national parks of Jasper and Banff in Alberta, you'll find some of the finest scenic areas in North America.

As the range extends north through Alaska, the peaks gradually become lower until they disappear in a series of ice-covered hills at the Arctic Circle. Continental Divide | mountain ridge, North America | Britannica.com Continental Divide Tarim Basin Continental Divide, fairly continuous ridge of north-south–trending mountain summits in western North America which divides the continent’s principal drainage into that flowing eastward (either to Hudson Bay in Canada or, chiefly, to the Mississippi and Rio Grande rivers in the United States) and that flowing westward (into the Pacific Ocean). Most of the divide runs along the crest of the Rocky Mountains , through British Columbia and along the British Columbia–Alberta border in Canada, and through the states of Montana , Wyoming , Colorado , and New Mexico in the United States . It continues southward into Mexico and Central America, roughly paralleling the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre del Sur, with their associated ranges in Central America . In general usage the name continental divide is applied to the main water parting in any continent. Bearhat Mountain above Hidden Lake on a crest of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, … Ray Atkeson/EB Inc. in Colorado: Transportation and telecommunications ...the Mountain states in road mileage.

Main highways tend to be east-west, circumvent high mountain masses, and follow valleys and canyons to their heads in the more than 30 mountain passes over the Continental Divide. The highest of the passes, at 12,183 feet (3,713 metres), is on the seasonal Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. A number of other passes exceed 10,000 feet (3,000... in Montana (state, United States): Drainage Montana is the only state in the union from which waters flow to Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. The northwestern section of the state lies west of the Continental Divide and is drained to the Columbia River—and thus ultimately to the Pacific—by the Kootenai River and by the Clark Fork and its major tributary, the Flathead River. The Flathead flows into and... in Wyoming (state, United States): Drainage The Continental Divide crosses Wyoming from the south-central portion of the state, trending northwest and leaving the state through Yellowstone National Park.

Partly because of the presence of the divide, Wyoming contributes to the headwaters of four major North American drainage systems—the Colorado, Columbia, and Missouri rivers and the Great Salt Lake. The most significant of these to... A Reference and Travel Guide for the Rocky Mountain States A Reference and Travel Guide for the Rocky Mountain States Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah & Wyoming Imagine... a place where the elk outnumber the people. A place where bighorn sheep ignore human intruders in their space. Imagine special trout waters in the very heart of wild mountain splendor . Imagine flocks of birds with eight-foot wingspans sharing the flyways with great V's of geese, ducks and other migratory waterfowl. Imagine snow-capped pink granite skylines , views of forever and the siren call of wilderness. You've imagined the last frontier, the last of undiscovered America: the hinterlands of the the Intermountain Western United States. Come on in and see for yourself...

I began building this site back in 1998 as a chronicle of my exploration of my "neighborhood." Over time, I've kept on exploring, taking lots of photos, talking to the local folks, posting my findings, and I've slowly turned Sangres.com into an area information site and vacation planner. You're liable to find all kinds of stuff here that the "big boys" (and their websites) don't go into. I'm a bit different and I like to check out everything. What you've found here is a personal exploration and travelog of some of the most gorgeous countryside on Earth, chronicled by someone who's madly in love with the place. So then... I've got information, maps and photos of National Forests, National Parks, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges, National Wilderness Areas, BLM recreational areas, and unique natural features. I've also thrown in many of the designated Scenic Byways and a lot of state parks and ski resorts... (No, I'm not done yet, there's a lot here and I'm still exploring...) Scattered throughout the site are photo galleries of many of the natural wonders in our area.

I also have lots of pannable and zoomable Google maps: flat area maps and satellite images. I offer demographics, climate data, local attractions and local businesses wanting to serve you (for those of you who are planning vacations or coming in for business reasons). I've also got some data about some of the excursion trains that run through some of the most scenic countryside in our area (places that you just can't see in any other way). A lot of what I cover here is from the "under-served" areas, although there is some data from the cities. Rocky Mountains | mountains, North America | Britannica.com Rocky Mountains Sangre de Cristo Mountains Rocky Mountains, byname the Rockies, mountain range forming the cordilleran backbone of the great upland system that dominates the western North American continent. Generally, the ranges included in the Rockies stretch from northern Alberta and British Columbia southward to New Mexico , a distance of some 3,000 miles (4,800 km). In places the system is 300 or more miles wide. Limits are mostly arbitrary, especially in the far northwest, where mountain systems such as the Brooks Range of Alaska are sometimes included.

The Rockies are bordered on the east by the Great Plains and on the west by the Interior Plateau and Coast Mountains of Canada and the Columbia Plateau and Basin and Range Province of the United States. Physical features of western North America. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The Rocky Mountains include at least 100 separate ranges, which are generally divided into four broad groupings: the Canadian Rockies and Northern Rockies of Montana and northeastern Idaho ; the Middle Rockies of Wyoming , Utah , and southeastern Idaho; the Southern Rockies , mainly in Colorado and New Mexico; and the Colorado Plateau in the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona .

These four subdivisions differ from each other in terms of geology (origin, ages, and types of rocks) and physiography (landforms, drainage, and soils), yet they share the physical attributes of high elevations (many peaks exceeding 13,000 feet [4,000 metres]), great local relief (typically 5,000 to 7,000 feet in vertical difference between the base and summit of ranges), shallow soils, considerable mineral wealth, spectacular scenery from past glaciation and volcanic activity, and common trends in climate, biogeography , culture , economy, and exploration. Physical features Physiography The Canadian Rockies include the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountains of the Yukon and Northwest Territories (sometimes called the Arctic Rockies) and the ranges of western Alberta and eastern British Columbia. The Northern Rockies include the Lewis and Bitterroot ranges of western Montana and northeastern Idaho. These ranges formed along the eastern edge of a region of carbonate sedimentation some 17 miles (27 km) thick, which had accumulated from the late Precambrian to early Mesozoic time (i.e., between about 1 billion and 190 million years ago).

This structural depression, known as the Rocky Mountain Geosyncline , eventually extended from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico and became a continuous seaway during the Cretaceous Period (about 145 to 66 million years ago). The ranges of the Canadian and Northern Rockies were created when thick sheets of Paleozoic limestones were thrust eastward over Mesozoic rocks during the mountain-building episode called the Laramide Orogeny (65 to 35 million years ago). Some of these thrust sheets have moved 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) to their present positions. The western margin of the Canadian Rockies and Northern Rockies is marked by the Rocky Mountain Trench , a graben (downfaulted, straight, flat-bottomed valley) up to 3,000 feet (900 metres) deep and several miles wide that has been glaciated and partially filled with deposits from glacial meltwaters. Forested slopes of the Beartooth Mountains, Mont., in the northern Rocky Mountains. © John Elk Eric Engbretson/U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service The people The human presence in the Rocky Mountains has been dated to between 10,000 and 8,000 bce. American Indian peoples inhabiting the northern mountains in modern times include the Shuswap and Kutenai of British Columbia, the Coeur d’Alene and Nez Percé of Idaho, and the Flathead of Montana. The traditional lands of the Shoshone in Idaho and Wyoming and the Ute in Utah and Colorado extended into the west-central ranges. Southwestern groups include the Hopi and other Pueblo Indians and the Navajo . Nomadic Plains Indians who once ranged into the eastern Rockies included the Blackfoot , the Crow , and the Cheyenne . Group of Pueblo Indians playing a game, 1890. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Incursions by Europeans began in the Southwest in the 16th century. By the early 19th century, exploration and economic exploitation brought them into contact, and often conflict, with virtually all the indigenous mountain peoples. These encounters, along with shifting food supplies and intertribal territorial wars, generated extensive migration and attrition among some groups.

Many Native Americans now live on the reservations established throughout the region. Although settlement is now widespread throughout most of the Rockies, population is concentrated in urban areas generally located at the base of mountains, along railways, or in river valleys. The economy Water resources The Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States are a region of water surplus, where precipitation exceeds losses from evaporation, runoff, and transpiration. The lands on either side of the mountain front, however, experience a water deficit. The people living in these areas have looked to water-storage projects in the Rockies for irrigation, domestic and industrial use, navigation, and hydroelectric power generation, as well as for flood control. Most of the potential sites for large dams already have been utilized, and smaller dams in the headwater regions are now being constructed. One of the most ambitious of these projects is in the Colorado Rockies, where a complex network of reservoirs, tunnels, and pipelines diverts water from the western slope of the Front Range to the large urban area centred on Denver along the eastern slope. This scheme, opposed by residents of the range’s western slope, is the first in a series of projects extending downstream in the Colorado River system that may eventually utilize the entire flow of the river.

Mineral resources Minerals have been of economic significance since the mid-19th century, although worldwide market fluctuations often have caused mine closures. Copper , easily the most valuable of the many metallic resources of the Rocky Mountains, has been extracted from large mines in British Columbia, Montana, Utah, and Arizona. The Rockies are more noted for their many underground mines for silver , gold , lead , and zinc , found in British Columbia, Colorado, Montana , Idaho , Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona . The Rockies also have produced large quantities of molybdenum , beryllium , and uranium . Sapphires are mined in Montana, while great reserves of other nonmetallic minerals occur in various places in the mountains. These include phosphate rock, potash , trona , magnesium and lithium salts, Glauber’s salt, gypsum , limestone , and dolomite . The large basins between the uplifts of the ranges contain many petroleum and natural gas fields. Alberta, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Utah are all substantial producers, with the Powder River basin of Wyoming proving to be one of the leading regions.

The Rockies also hold extensive shale deposits containing a solid hydrocarbon material that can be driven off as crude oil by heat treatment. These oil shales occur principally around the Uinta Mountains in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Immobile oil also is located in certain sandstones in various places. These deposits are called bituminous, oil, or tar sands . In both cases, the amounts of potential oil are vast, and by the early 21st century these reserves were beginning to be exploited. The Rocky Mountains and the adjacent Great Plains to the east contain the Western Hemisphere’s most abundant and accessible coal reserves. These consist largely of bituminous , subbituminous , and lignitic deposits and constitute a tremendous energy source. Most of this low- sulfur coal is mined using surface strip-mining techniques and sent to factories and electric-power plants via large trains. National parks, forests, and recreational areas Many of North America ’s finest national parks , national monuments, and wilderness areas are in the ranges of the Rocky Mountains and in the Colorado Plateau .

To these areas of natural beauty have been added such large recreation facilities as the National Recreation Area, located on either side of Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona, and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, in Wyoming and Utah. The area in and around Yellowstone National Park represents one of the largest relatively intact temperate-zone ecosystems on the planet. More than 10,000 hot springs, along with the large populations of elk , bison , and moose and high-quality trout fisheries, draw large numbers of tourists. A thermal geyser basin at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S. Paul Chesley—Stone/Getty Images The construction of roads over high mountain passes have made recreational areas more accessible, especially Jasper and Banff national parks in Alberta and Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton , and Rocky Mountain national parks in the United States. An increasing number of the high mountain roads, while closed to automobiles during winter, are used by snowmobile enthusiasts. High-speed highways facilitate long-range trips to the Rocky Mountain region from other sections of North America. Although transcontinental Canadian rail travel has been discontinued, Banff and Jasper national parks can still be reached by rail from the larger cities in Alberta and British Columbia.

Small commuter airlines also have increased access to the parks. Most of the land in the Rockies has been designated as national or provincial forests . In the United States the principle of multiple use governs management of these forests, with lumbering, mining , oil and gas drilling, and grazing permitted under federal regulation. The Canadian Rockies produce a large portion of that nation’s timber, supporting numerous sawmills and pulp and paper mills. In the United States, by contrast, timber production from the Rockies is small compared with other forested regions, and recreation (skiing, hiking , hunting) is the principal source of revenue in the national forests. Environmental concerns Serious problems have arisen as a result of timber harvesting, grazing, oil exploration, mining, and reservoir operations in the Rockies. Logging and oil exploration have been responsible for accelerated slope erosion , both from the operations themselves and from the access roads built to reach them. Erosion has stripped away the often thin soil cover and caused serious silting of streams. Trace quantities of harmful metals have been released into streams and groundwater from mining operations, particularly from the leaching of mill tailings. Reservoir operations have disrupted fisheries by altering the temperature and flow patterns of streams and by disrupting riparian (streamside) vegetation communities.

Wildlife habitat has been lost through the development of lands for agriculture and livestock grazing. Thus, the degree to which land in the Rocky Mountains remains natural generally declines as elevation decreases. Study and exploration The Rocky Mountains were one of the last regions in North America to be explored by Europeans, because of the inaccessibility and ruggedness of the terrain. Roman Catholic missionaries worked their way northward from Mexico into New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1776–77 Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and his party explored and documented their travels into what is now Utah, reaching almost to the Great Salt Lake . The Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie , searching for a river course to the Pacific Ocean from the Canadian prairie, crossed the Rockies (1792–93) at a latitude higher than any other expedition until the early 19th century. The Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804–06 explored and charted a route up the Missouri River into Montana and thence across Idaho and Oregon to the Pacific.

The English explorer and fur trader David Thompson explored the headwaters of the Saskatchewan and Columbia rivers in the Canadian Rockies in 1807–11, setting up the first trading posts in that region and producing the first survey of the entire length of the Columbia River. Possibly the most remarkable of all western explorations were those of Jedediah Smith in 1822–31. Following the Missouri River into east-central Montana, Smith first worked his way southward into the Bighorn Basin and thence into southeastern Idaho, northern and southwestern Utah, and southern Nevada, around the Sierra Nevada , and back to the Great Salt Lake across the Great Basin . Also important were the expeditions of John C. Frémont in the 1840s. Frémont followed the North Platte River into Wyoming, went up the Sweetwater River to the south end of the Wind River Range (South Pass), and thence traveled southwestward into Utah. This was an important scientific survey because he charted distances, determined latitudes, longitudes, and elevations, and recorded objectively in some detail what he saw. John C. Frémont. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

(LC-DIG-ppmsca-03210) Four great western surveys were organized by the U.S. government following the American Civil War : the survey of the 40th parallel led by Clarence King (1867–78), the geologic survey of Nebraska and Wyoming led by Ferdinand Hayden (1867–78), the 100th-meridian survey led by George Wheeler (1872–79), and the expeditions to the Green and Colorado rivers in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and southern Nevada led by John Wesley Powell (1871–79). The maps and preliminary observations of these important surveys laid the groundwork for the great mass of scientific research that followed. The Rocky Mountains, with their abundant deposits of fossil fuels, uranium, and other minerals, continue to attract the attention of geologists. US Geography: Mountain Ranges Mountain Ranges The three major mountain ranges of the US are the Appalachian Mountains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains run for 1,500 miles along the east coast of the United States from northern Alabama to Maine.

The highest point of the Appalachians is 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell in North Carolina . The Appalachians are part of a temperate forest biome and are mostly covered with a variety of trees including pine trees, spruce, birch, and maple trees. Animals that can be found in the Appalachians include squirrels, cottontail rabbits, white-tailed deer, wolves, beavers, black bears, and the red-tailed hawk . The Appalachians played an important role in the early history of the United States. They served as a barrier to expansion for the first colonies. At one point, Britain made a deal with the Native American tribes that colonists would not settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains. However, people soon found passes through the mountains and blazed trails beyond the mountains such as Daniel Boone's Wilderness Trail. Some of the smaller ranges within the Appalachians include the Great Smoky Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Green Mountains, White Mountains, Longfellow Mountains, and the Berkshires. Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains form the longest mountain range in North America and the second longest range in the world.

They stretch 3,000 miles north-to-south from New Mexico, across the United States to Montana, and well into Canada. The highest point of the Rockies is Mount Elbert in Colorado which rises 14,440 feet above sea level. The Continental Divide for North America is located along the Rocky Mountains. It is at this point that water flows either to the Atlantic Ocean in the east or to the Pacific Ocean in the west. The Rockies are known for their distinct seasons with warm, rainy summers and cold snowy winters. Much of the Rocky Mountains is covered with forests of spruces trees, pines, oaks, junipers, and firs. A wide variety of wildlife can be found in the Rockies including bighorn sheep, badgers, grizzly bears, black bears, coyotes, elk, bighorn sheep, and white-tailed deer. Rocky Mountains Within the Rocky Mountains are several smaller ranges including the Big Horn Mountains, the Front Range, the Wasatch Mountains, and the Bitterroot Range. There are several national parks protecting areas of the Rockies such as Yellowstone National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Glacier National Park. The Rocky Mountains are considered fold mountains .

This means that they were formed at a point where two of the Earth's tectonic plates meet. Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range runs north-to-south along the west coast of the United States mostly in the state of California and some in the state of Nevada. It is around 400 miles long and 70 miles wide. The highest point in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet, which is also the tallest mountain in the lower 48 United States. The largest trees in the world, the giant sequoia trees, live in the Sierra Nevada. They can grow up to 270 feet tall and over 25 feet in diameter. Some of these trees are believed to be over 3,000 years old. The Sierra Nevada is also home to Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are fault-block mountains, meaning they were formed along a fault in the Earth's crust. Other Ranges Adirondacks - The Adirondacks is a mountain range in northeast New York. The highest point is Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet.

The Adirondack Park is the largest state park in the United States at over 6 million acres. Brooks Range - The Brooks Range stretches over 700 miles across northern Alaska. Its highest point is Mount Chamberlin at 9,020 feet. Cascade Range - The Cascade Range runs for 700 miles along the northwest coast of the United States and into Canada. The highest point is Mount Rainier at 14,411 feet. It is considered part of the Ring of Fire which is a number of volcanic mountains that circle the Pacific Ocean. The active volcano Mount Saint Helens is part of the Cascades. Ozarks - The Ozarks form the largest mountain range between the Appalachians and the Rockies. They are located mostly in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. The highest point of the Ozarks is Buffalo Lookout at 2,561 feet. Alaska Range - The Alaska Range is the tallest mountain range in the United States and is home to Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,237 feet above sea level.

More on US geographical features: Landforms of North America, Mountain Ranges of North America, United States Landforms, Map of the Rocky Mountains - Worldatlas.com Landforms of North America, Mountain Ranges of North America, United States Landforms, Map of the Rocky Mountains World Facts Alaska Range: Mountains of south-central Alaska that extend from the Alaska Peninsula to the border of the Yukon Territory, Canada. The highest point in North America, Mt. McKinley , 20,320 ft. (6,194 m) is located here. Appalachian Mountains: The Appalachians, about 1,500 miles in length, extend from central Alabama in the U.S. up through the New England states and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Quebec. Significant Appalachian ranges include: The Cumberland Mts. in Tennessee The Blue Ridge Mts. in Virginia The Alleghenies in Pennsylvania The Catskills Mts. in New York The Green Mts. in Vermont The White Mts. of New Hampshire The highest point is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 ft (2,037 m) Brooks Range: Mountains of northern Alaska.

Highest point: Mt. Isto, 9,060 ft. (2,760 m) Canadian Shield: This plateau region of eastern and northern Canada and the Great Lakes area of North America mainly includes rough and rocky surfaces, and large areas of coniferous (evergreen) forests. In addition, the northern regions along the Arctic Circle are comprised of rocky frozen tundra. The highest elevation is estimated at 1,640 ft (500 meters). Cascades: A mountain range stretching from northeastern California across Oregon and Washington. Major peaks included Mt. Hood , Mt. Ranier , and Mt. St. Helens . Coast Range: Mountains running along the Pacific Ocean coastlines of California, Oregon, Washington. They also extend along the western border of British Columbia, Canada, and the southern edge of Alaska, all the way to Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island . Coastal Plain: This area of the southern and southeastern U.S extends to the continental shelf and is generally characterized by level (flat) land with assorted mixed forests. The coastal areas include bayous, deltas, marshes, mud flats and swamps.

Continental Divide: In North America the Western Continental Divide is an imaginary line that sits atop a continuous ridge of mountain summits that divide the continent into two main drainage areas. Find here the Details and map . Great Plains: The Great Plains of North America slope east from the Rockies and extend to the edge of the Canadian Shield and the western edges of the Appalachians. The land is generally smooth with large treeless areas and shallow river valleys. Minor hills and mountains are found in the Ozark Plateau of Missouri, and in the Boston Mountains and Ouachita Mountains of northwestern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. Sandhills and buttes cover parts of the north central U.S. in Nebraska. Rivers: Major rivers of North America Rocky Mountains: The Rocky Mountains, about 3,000 miles in length, extend from the U.S State of New Mexico up through the western United States and on into the northernmost reaches of Canada's British Columbia. Major mountain ranges include... Absaroka Wyoming Zuni The highest point in the Rockies is Mt. Elbert, located 10 miles southwest of Leadville, Colorado. It stands at 14,433 ft (4,399 meters).

Sierra Madres: Sierra Madres include two major ranges, and one smaller one. The Sierra Madre Occidental runs parallel to Mexico's Pacific Ocean coastline, with several peaks exceeding 10,000 ft. (3,034 meters) The Sierra Madre Oriental runs parallel to its Gulf of Mexico coastline, with a few mountains reaching 10,000 ft. (3,034 meters) The Sierra Madre del Sur range is located in the southern Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. Sierra Madres, and mountains of the Caribbean and Central America: The Sierra Madres also extend southeast into many of the Central America countries, with most being rainforest-covered volcanos . Additional mountain ranges in Central America and the Caribbean include: Cordillera Central (Dominican Republic) Colorado Ski Resorts | OnTheSnow Colorado Ski Resorts Top Rated Snow Forecast Colorado Ski Resorts Whether you're planning a ski vacation or hitting the slopes for the day, Colorado has endless skiing and snowboarding options throughout the Rocky Mountains that call the state home.

With heavy snowfall, a variety of skiing above 10,000 feet, tons of sunshine and historic ski towns, it’s no wonder they call Colorado “Ski Country USA.” There is an assortment of skiing and snowboarding options in Colorado’s Front Range. Resorts like Vail and Breckenridge offer world class skiing and snowboarding with luxurious lodging, dining and nightlife in their base villages, while Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Ski Area offer hardcore skiing and a down to earth, local’s vibe. Miles deeper into the Rocky Mountains, in the Elk Range, you’ll find the famous town of Aspen , home to Aspen Mountain (Ajax), Buttermilk Mountain, Aspen Highlands and Snowmass Mountain . Aspen provides a wide variety of ski terrain options and some of the best après-ski on Earth. Hit the trails in the southern part of the state for some of the most challenging ski terrain in North America, thanks to ski areas such as Telluride , Silverton and Crested Butte . Click on any resort below to find ski and snow reports for Colorado ski resorts, or visit the other tabs for information regarding Colorado terrain, mountain stats, chairlift information and skier ratings.

Southwest USA Landscapes - Mountains Landscapes > Mountains California's most spectacular and well-known mountain range is the Sierra Nevada, stretching 400 miles from the southern foothills at the edge of the Mojave Desert to its northern end at the Susan River near Quincy, where it merges with the more isolated peaks of the Cascade Range. The Sierra Nevada was formed by faulting, which causes the east face, much of which borders Owens Valley, to rise much more steeply than the west. One consequence of this tilting is that very few roads can approach from the east, and in the steepest section of the range (towards the south), there is only one trans-Sierra pass for 200 miles, and that (the Tioga Road to Yosemite National Park) is closed by snow for over half the year. Many more roads approach the less steep, densely wooded western slopes, leading to the various parks and national forests, which together cover the entire range.

From north to south these are: Giant Sequoia National Monument Sequoia National Forest Although none reach the Sierra crest, a few dead-end roads climb part way up the steep east side of the Sierras - much of which is part of Inyo National Forest - giving relatively quick access to beautiful high elevation regions, such as Big Pine Lakes and Onion Valley . Elsewhere in California are many other mountain ranges, large and small. The deserts of the southeast have basin and range topography, with wide plains separating thin, isolated ridges. To the west rises a more continuous series of hills that border the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolises, principally the Coyote, Santa Rosa, San Jacinto, San Bernardino , San Gabriel and Santa Monica ranges. This latter merges with the southern Coast Range that runs north all the way to San Francisco; a line of steep sided, wooded hills crossed by few roads and without any sites of particular interest. The Coast Range reappears north of San Francisco, forming a similarly steep and undulating barrier between the Sonoma, Mendocino and Redwood coasts and the Central Valley, which extends northwards as far as Redding.

East of here, California contains the southernmost part of the Cascade Range, the second great mountain chain of the far West. This is formed by a series of dormant and active volcanoes, and it continues north all the way to British Columbia in Canada. Major peaks and hilly areas are (from south to north) Lassen Peak and associated summits (within Lassen Volcanic National Park ) and Mount Shasta in California, then Crater Lake , Newberry Volcano , Three Sisters and other peaks in Oregon. Other mountainous sites in north California include Castle Crags State Park . Nearly all of Nevada is part of the Great Basin Desert, and it contains dozens of narrow mountain ranges running north-south, separated by wide valleys. The highest summit is 13,063 foot Wheeler Peak, contained within Great Basin National Park , the only NPS preserve entirely within the state. Some of the other ranges are part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, and most are public land but none are very much visited, except for Mount Charleston near Las Vegas.

There are two major mountainous regions in Utah - the Uinta Range in the northeast (part of the Ashley, Wasatch-Cache and Uinta national forests), and the Wasatch and Pahvant ranges which run north-south most of the way through the state, separating the basin and range country in the west from the high elevation plateaus of the east. Interstate 10 runs all along the base of the Wasatch Range, and a good selection of roads climb into the hills; popular sites include the Mount Timpanogos region, Nebo Loop and Wasatch Mountain State Park . South and east Utah is home to many of the West's most famous national parks and most is part of the Colorado Plateau, which although largely formed of flat sedimentary rocks does have a few isolated laccoliths (igneous intrusions) such as the Abajo, La Sal and Henry mountains. The Colorado Plateau extends to northeast Arizona, where other volcanic summits include the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, and Navajo Mountain overlooking Lake Powell. The one major mountain range in the state is the White Mountains in the east, crossed US 191 ( Coronado Trail ), but otherwise rather inaccessible.

The Colorado Plateau gives way in the west and south to lower elevation terrain, split by valleys, which come to predominate in the desert regions towards the Mexican border and the Colorado river - typical basin and range landscape, where mountains sometimes have high summits like Mount Lemmon near Tucson (9,157 feet), but in other places are much smaller, rising just a few hundred feet above the surroundings. Some notable locations are Beaver Dam Mountains , Cochise Stronghold , Picacho Peak , South Mountains (southwest of Phoenix), the Superstition Mountains (east of Phoenix) and White Tank Mountain Regional Park (west of Phoenix). About half of Colorado is mountainous; the state contains 450 miles of the Rocky Mountains, which like the Sierra Nevada have a steep east face, contrasting greatly to the dead flat prairie further east, and a more gently sloping west side, as the land merges with the Colorado Plateau and other sandstone ranges. Rocky Mountain National Park showcases one of the most scenic areas and has a good number of trails, to lakes, glacial canyons, and summits including 14,259 foot Longs Peak, one of 53 'fourteeners' in the state.

It also contains the highest paved through highway anywhere in America, Trail Ridge Road, which climbs to 12,183 feet. But there are many more equally spectacular locations in the Colorado Rockies, such as Independence Pass and the Collegiate Peaks, Aspen and the Maroon Bells Wilderness , Mount Evans , San Juan Mountains , Pikes Peak and Arapaho National Recreation Area . The Rockies continue south into New Mexico, as far as Santa Fe and Albuquerque, though some definitions encompass other, more isolated mountains further south including the San Andres and Sacramento ranges, and even the Franklin Mountains of far west Texas. One of the most accessible areas is the Jemez Mountains , west of Santa Fe and Los Alamos. The other main high elevation area in New Mexico is the Mogollon and San Francisco mountains in the west, merging with the White Mountains over the border in Arizona. This large, mostly roadless region does include one national monument ( Gila Cliff Dwellings ), plus scattered hot springs, river canyons and a great variety of wildlife.

The highest peak in Texas (8,749 feet) is found in the Guadalupe Mountains of the far west - a great limestone escarpment that also contains Carlsbad Caverns in south New Mexico. The mountains are part of a national park, lightly visited owing to its remoteness, and primarily a place for hikers, as there is no single attraction, just large areas of hilly wilderness, with great views over the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert plains. West Texas also has many smaller ranges such as the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Davis Mountains and Franklin Mountains . The Rocky Mountains cover the western half of Wyoming, with the two most visited locations being in the far north - the Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, the latter protecting perhaps the most spectacular range in North America, with permanently snowcapped peaks rising very steeply over one mile above the flat-floored valley of the Snake River (Jackson Hole). But the highest peak in the state (and 19 of the top 20) is found in the more remote, lesser known and harder-to-access Wind River Range .

Question: Which mountain range runs through the US states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico?
Answer: The Rocky Mountains