Electric Peak is a 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
The Needle Mountains are a subrange of the San Juan Mountains of the Rocky Mountains located in the southwestern part of the U.S. State of Colorado. Much of the range is protected in the Weminuche Wilderness of the San Juan National Forest. The ...
which are a subset of the
San Juan Mountains, which in turn is a subset of the
Rocky Mountains. Precipitation
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
from the mountain drains into tributaries of the
Animas River
Animas River (''On-e-mas''; es, Río de las Ánimas) is a river in the western United States, a tributary of the San Juan River (Colorado River), San Juan River, part of the Colorado River, Colorado River System.
The Animas-La Plata Water Pro ...
. The peak can be seen from
U.S. Route 550
U.S. Route 550 (US 550) is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway. and the
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a fe ...
.
Topographic relief is significant as the west aspect rises over above the river and railway in approximately two miles. It is set five miles west of the
Continental Divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
, and one mile east of
Mount Garfield. The mountain's name, which has been officially adopted by the
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...
, 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
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
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
The Uncompahgre Formation is a geologic formation in Colorado. Its radiometric age is between 1707 and 1704 Ma, corresponding to the Statherian period.
History
The formation was first named by Charles Whitman Cross and Ernest Howe in 1905 ...
, which is a sequence of
quartzite and black
phyllite some in thickness.
[Rob Blair, Tom Ann Casey, William H. Romme, ''The Western San Juan Mountains: Their Geology, Ecology, and Human History'', 1996, University Press of Colorado, , page 350.] The formation dates to the
Statherian period and is interpreted as metamorphosed marine and fluvial
sandstone,
mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...
, and
shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
. The formation overlies plutons with an age of 1,707 million years.
Gallery
File:Magnificent Colorado (31051619677).jpg, Electric Peak (left), Graystone Peak, Mt. Garfield (right) viewed from Molas Lake
File:Mt. Garfield from Durango and Silverton.jpg, Electric Peak (left), Garfield (right) seen with Animas River from Durango and Silverton train
File:Electric Peak, Graystone Peak, Mt. Garfield.jpg, Electric Peak, Graystone Peak (center), Mt. Garfield (right) from Molas Lake
File:San Juan Mountains.jpg, Electric Peak, Graystone Peak (center), Mt. Garfield (right)
See also
*
Thirteener
*
*
Electric Peak (Sangre de Cristo)
References
External links
* Weather forecast
Electric Peak{{Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of San Juan County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Mountains of Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
San Juan National Forest