The Stuart Range is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

in central Washington, United States. The range lies within the eastern extent of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

immediately southwest of Leavenworth and runs east–west. The western peaks make up a single sharp ridge. The eastern half of the range splits into two parallel ridges, the northern of which is known as the Enchantment Peaks. Between these ridges lies the Enchantment Basin, which holds the dozens of tarns known as the Enchantment Lakes. Collectively, the basin and the encircling eastern peaks of the Stuart Range make up

The Enchantments The Enchantments is a region within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area of Washington state's Cascade Mountain Range. At an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,372 m), it is home to over 700 alpine lakes and ponds surrounded by the vast peaks of Cashmere Cr ...

, a well-known backpacking destination. The south face of the Stuart Range falls off steeply to Ingalls Creek, beyond which rise the roughly parallel

Wenatchee Mountains The Wenatchee Mountains are a range of mountains in central Washington State, United States of America. A major subrange of the Cascade Range, extending east from the Cascade crest, the Wenatchee Mountains separate the drainage basins of the Ya ...

Partial list of peaks

A list of notable peaks is below. Within each subsection, peaks are ordered as nearly as possible from west to east.

Western peaks

Mount Stuart Mount Stuart is a mountain in the Cascade Range, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in the state, after Bonanza Peak and seventh-highest overall. Mount Stuart is the highest peak in the Stuart Range, an ...

- - * Sherpa Peak - - * Argonaut Peak - - * Colchuck Peak - - * Dragontail Peak - -

Eastern peaks of south ridge

* Witches Tower - - * Little Annapurna - - *

McClellan Peak McClellan Peak is an 8,364 ft summit located in Chelan County of Washington state. Its name honors Army explorer George B. McClellan who visited the area in 1853. McClellan Peak forms part of the south rim of The Enchantments lake bas ...

- - * Rocket Peak - - * Gremlin Peak - -

Enchantment Peaks (eastern peaks of north ridge)

* Colchuck Balanced Rock - + - * Cannon Mountain - - * Enchantment Peak - + - * Prusik Peak - - * The Temple - -

Geology

The Mount Stuart

batholith A batholith () is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock (also called plutonic rock), larger than in area, that forms from cooled magma deep in Earth's crust. Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock types, such ...

underlies the Stuart Range and the nearby

. The batholith is about 13 by 16 miles in extent. Two plutonic masses are separated by a thin screen of Chiwaukum

Schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

and rocks of the Ingalls Complex. The more-eastern

pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

is 93 million years old, while the more-western rock mass is between 83 and 86 million years old. Exposed rock tends to be quartz diorite and

granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gr ...

. The range sits near a convergent plate boundary where one plate overrides another. In Western Washington, the

North American plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacifi ...

overrides the Juan de Fuca plate, resulting in both volcanic and seismic activity. This convergence has been ongoing for over 200 million years. Continuing uplift and erosion has exposed the underlying granite batholith, making for one of the more spectacular mountain ranges in Washington.

References