Potosi Peak is a 13,786-foot-elevation (4,202 meter) mountain summit located in
Ouray County of
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.
It is situated five miles southwest of the community of
Ouray, on land managed by
Uncompahgre National Forest
Uncompahgre National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering 955,229 acres (1,492.55 sq mi, or 3,865.68 km2) in (in descending order of land area) parts of Montrose County, Colorado, Montrose, Mesa County, Colorado, Mesa, San Miguel Count ...
. It is part of the
Sneffels Range
The Sneffels Range, regionally conterminous with San Juans, is a young, prominent, and rugged range of mountains in southwestern Colorado of the San Juan Mountains. The Sneffels range form the southern border of Ouray County and run west to east ...
which is a subset 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 ...
, which in turn is part 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 ...
. It is situated west of the
Continental Divide, 2.2 miles south of
Whitehouse Mountain, and 2.5 miles southeast of
Mount Sneffels
Mount Sneffels is the highest summit of the Sneffels Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent fourteener is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of Uncompahgre National Forest, west by south ( bearing 256°) of the ...
. Potosi ranks as the 113th-highest peak in Colorado,
and the fourth-highest in the Sneffels Range.
Recreation enthusiasts heading for
Yankee Boy Basin traverse below the southern base of the mountain.
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 southeast aspect rises 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) above the
Camp Bird Mine
The Camp Bird Mine is a famous and highly productive old gold mine located between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado. The mine is within the Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride mining district in the San Juan Mountains.
It was discovered by Thomas ...
in approximately 1.5 mile. The mining activity in the immediate area produced significant amounts of gold and silver. "Potosi" in
Quechuan language
Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most wid ...
translates to "great wealth.". The mountain's name, which has been officially adopted by the
United States Board on Geographic Names, was in use before 1899 when
Henry Gannett
Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an American geographer who is described as the "father of mapmaking in America."Evans, Richard Tranter; Frye, Helen M. (2009).History of the Topographic Branch (Division) (PDF). ''U.S. Geo ...
published it in ''A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States''.
[Henry Gannett, ''A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States'', 1899, US Government Printing Office, page 94.]
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, Potosi Peak is located in an alpine
subarctic climate zone with 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. 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
Uncompahgre River
The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison River, approximately 75 mi (121 km) long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. Lake Como at 12,215 ft (3723m) in northern San Juan County, in the Uncompahgre National ...
.
Gallery
File:Teakettle Mountain, Potosi Peak.jpg, Potosi Peak centered, Teakettle Mountain to left
File:Potosi Peak from Sidney Basin.jpg, South aspect of Potosi Peak seen from Sidney Basin area.
Teakettle Mountain at left edge of frame.
See also
*
References
External links
* Weather forecast
Potosi Peak{{Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Mountains of Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
Uncompahgre National Forest