Mount Garfield is a mountain summit located in San Juan County,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is situated eight miles south of the community of Silverton, in the

Weminuche Wilderness The Weminuche Wilderness is a wilderness area in southwest Colorado managed by the United States Forest Service as part of the San Juan National Forest on the west side of the Continental Divide and the Rio Grande National Forest on the east side ...

, on land managed by

San Juan National Forest The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezu ...

. It is part of the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

range which is a subset 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 ...

of North America. 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 marke ...

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, part of the Colorado River System. The Animas-La Plata Water Project was completed in 2015. The project pumps w ...

. The peak can be seen from U.S. Route 550 and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...

is significant as the west aspect rises over above the river and railway in approximately one mile. It is set six miles west of the Continental Divide, one mile west of

Electric Peak Electric Peak is the tallest mountain in the Gallatin Range of southern Montana, close to the Wyoming border and rises to an altitude of . The peak has some of the greatest physical relief in Yellowstone National Park, rising above its base. E ...

, and three miles east-southeast of Snowdon Peak.

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, Mt. Garfield 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

Mt. Garfield is a

glacial horn A pyramidal peak, sometimes called a glacial horn in extreme cases, is an angular, sharply pointed mountain peak which results from the cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from a central point. Pyramidal peaks are often examples o ...

of the Uncompahgre Formation, which is a sequence of

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

and black

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. It is primarily compo ...

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 The Statherian Period (; grc, σταθερός, statherós, meaning "stable, firm") is the final geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic Era and lasted from Mya to Mya (million years ago). Instead of being based on stratigraphy, these dates a ...

period and is interpreted as metamorphosed marine and fluvial

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

, mudstone, and shale. The formation overlies plutons with an age of 1,707 million years.

Gallery

File:Magnificent Colorado (31051619677).jpg, Electric Peak, Graystone Peak (center), Mt. Garfield (right) viewed from Molas Lake File:Mt. Garfield from Durango and Silverton.jpg, Garfield (right) seen with Animas River from Durango and Silverton train File:Beside the Animas River, Colorado (24940227887).jpg, Garfield seen with Animas River from 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) File:Mt Garfield, CO.jpg

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Mount Garfield
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield, Mount Mountains of San Juan County, Colorado San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Mountains of Colorado North American 3000 m summits San Juan National Forest