Lead Mountain is a summit in

Grand County, Colorado Grand County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 15,717. The county seat is Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, Hot Sulphur Springs. History When Grand County was ...

, in the United States. With an elevation of , Lead Mountain is the 970th-highest summit in the state of Colorado. Lead Mountain was named in 1879 on account of its

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

deposits. Lead Mountain is situated on 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 ...

along the boundary shared by Grand County and Jackson County. It is part of the

Never Summer Mountains The Never Summer Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in north central Colorado in the United States consisting of seventeen named peaks. The range is located along the northwest border of Rocky Mountain National Park, forming t ...

which are a subrange of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

. The mountain is situated on the western boundary of

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

, and the west side of the peak is in the Never Summer Wilderness, on land managed by

Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest is the official title to a U.S. Forest Service managed area extending over in the states of Wyoming and Colorado, United States. What were once three separate areas, Medicine Bow National Forest, Routt Nat ...

. 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's west slope drains into tributaries of the

Michigan River The Michigan River is a tributary of the North Platte River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 21, 2011 in north central Colorado in the United S ...

and the east slope drains into headwaters of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

. The counterintuitive direction of water flow is because the Continental Divide forms a loop in this area, whereby the peak's west slope runoff flows to the Atlantic Ocean and the east slope to the Pacific.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, the mountain 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 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.

References

Mountains of Grand County, Colorado Mountains of Jackson County, Colorado Mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park Mountains of Colorado North American 3000 m summits Routt National Forest Great Divide of North America {{Colorado-geo-stub

Climate

See also

References