Mount Moss is a mountain summit on the common boundary shared by La Plata County and Montezuma County in

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 ...

Description

Mount Moss is located northwest of the community of Durango 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 ranks as the third-highest summit of the

La Plata Mountains The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of Colorado, United States. They are located on the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties, about northwest of Durango. Their name is Spani ...

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 ...

. 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's west slope drains to the Mancos River, the southeast slope drains to the La Plata River, and the northeast slope drains into the headwaters of Bear Creek which is a tributary of the

Dolores River The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in the U.S. states of Colorado and Utah. The river drains a rugged and arid region of the Colorado Plateau west of the San Juan Mountains. Its name derives from the Sp ...

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 summit rises above the La Plata River in two miles (3.2 km) and above Owen Basin in one-half mile (0.8 km). Neighbors include Centennial Peak, to the north, Lavender Peak, to the northwest, and

Hesperus Mountain Hesperus Mountain (Navajo: ) is the highest summit of the La Plata Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent thirteener is located in San Juan National Forest, northeast by east ( bearing 59°) of the Town of M ...

to the northwest.

Etymology

The mountain's toponym has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names. The name was applied by

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Ar ...

circa 1875 to honor John Thomas Moss (1839–1880), an American frontiersman, prospector, and miner. John Moss was the founder of Parrott City which was six miles south of the peak. Moss and E.H. Cooper platted the townsite in 1874 and by 1876 it had 50 buildings, a courthouse and two sawmills.''Parrott City'', Animasmuseum.org
Retrieved May 21, 2023

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, Mount Moss has an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions o ...

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.

Gallery

File:Lavender Peak.jpg, Mount Moss (left) and Lavender Peak (right) viewed from Centennial Peak File:Hesperus aerial.jpg, Aerial from west: Hesperus, Lavender, Moss File:Hesperus Mountain Sunset.jpg, Hesperus Mountain (left) and Mount Moss (center) from the west at sunset

References

External links