Sheep Mountain is a mountain summit located on the shared boundary of
Dolores County
Dolores County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,326. The county seat is Dove Creek.
History
It is thought that the area has been the site of human habitation since at least 2500 B ...
with
San Miguel County, in southwest
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 three miles south of
Trout Lake and two miles southeast of
Lizard Head Pass, 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 ...
and
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 ...
. Sheep Mountain 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 ...
which are 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 ...
, and is west of the
Continental Divide.
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 southwest aspect rises above the Dolores River in approximately 2.5 miles. Neighbors include
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn ( tr, Altın Boynuz or ''Haliç''; grc, Χρυσόκερας, ''Chrysókeras''; la, Sinus Ceratinus) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with t ...
and
Vermilion Peak to the east, and
Lizard Head to the northwest. Sheep Mountain can be seen from the
San Juan Skyway
The San Juan Skyway Scenic and Historic Byway is a All-American Road, National Forest Scenic Byway, and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, San Juan, and San Miguel counties, Colorado, ...
in the Lizard Head Pass and Trout Lake areas. The mountain's name, which has been officially adopted by the
United States Board on Geographic Names, was in use in 1906 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 Gazetteer of Colorado''.
[Henry Gannett, ''Gazetteer of Colorado'', 1906, US Government Printing Office, page 153.]
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, Sheep Mountain is located in an alpine
subarctic climate 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. 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 south into the nearby
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 ...
, and north into tributaries of the
San Miguel River.
Gallery
File:Sheep Mountain, Trout Lake.jpg, Sheep Mountain to right, with Trout Lake
File:Sheep Mountain, north aspect.jpg, North aspect
File:Sheep Mountain from Lizard Head Pass.jpg, Sheep Mountain from Lizard Head Pass
File:Trout Lake. Sheep Mountain, Colorado.jpg, Sheep Mountain from Trout Lake
See also
*
*
References
External links
* Weather forecast
National Weather Service* Sheep Mountai
NGS Data Sheet* Sheep Mountain photo
Flickr{{Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of San Miguel County, Colorado
Mountains of Dolores County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Mountains of Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
San Juan National Forest
Uncompahgre National Forest