The Temple is an

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

mountain summit located in Chelan County of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state. The Temple is part of

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 Cra ...

, set within the

Alpine Lakes Wilderness The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large National Wilderness Preservation System, wilderness area spanning the Central Cascades of Washington (state), Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National F ...

. The Temple belongs to the

Stuart Range The Stuart Range is a mountain range in central Washington (state), Washington, United States. The range lies within the eastern extent of the Cascade Range immediately southwest of Leavenworth, Washington, Leavenworth and runs east–west. The ...

which is a subset 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, ...

. The nearest higher peak is

Enchantment Peak Enchantment Peak is an granite summit located in Chelan County of Washington state. Enchantment Peak is part of The Enchantments within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Enchantment Peak belongs to the Stuart Range which is subset of the Cascade R ...

, to the west, and the nearest town is Leavenworth, to the northeast. The mountain hosts many granite spires with names like The High Priest, The Boxtop, Flake Tower, Comet Spire, Razorback Spire, The Meteor, The Professor, Lighthouse Tower, Black Pyramid, and the most recognizable

Prusik Peak Prusik Peak is an 8000+ ft granite summit located at the west end of The Temple in Chelan County of Washington state. Prusik Peak is part of The Enchantments within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and is often the iconic photographic image of ...

. The highest point of the mountain is called Mt. Temple.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

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 market ...

from the mountain drains into Snow Creek which is a tributary of

Icicle Creek Icicle Creek is a nonNavigable stream in the U.S. state of Washington. It originates at Josephine Lake near the crest of the Cascade Range and flows generally east to join the Wenatchee River near Leavenworth. Icicle Creek's drainage basin is mo ...

Climate

Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and travel east toward the

Cascade Mountains 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, ...

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

onto the Cascades (

Orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). As a result, the Cascades experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.Beckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Climbing and High Routes. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2008.

Geology

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness features some of the most rugged topography in the

with craggy peaks and ridges, deep

glacial valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

s, and

walls spotted with over 700 mountain lakes. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences. The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Epoch. With 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 Pacific ...

overriding the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted. In addition, small fragments of the

oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

and

continental lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years o ...

called

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its own ...

s created the

North Cascades The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Cascad ...

about 50 million years ago. During the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating repeatedly scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris. The last glacial retreat in the Alpine Lakes area began about 14,000 years ago and was north of the Canada–US border by 10,000 years ago. The “U”-shaped cross section of the river valleys are a result of that recent glaciation.

Uplift Uplift may refer to: Science * Geologic uplift, a geological process ** Tectonic uplift, a geological process * Stellar uplift, the theoretical prospect of moving a stellar mass * Uplift mountains * Llano Uplift * Nemaha Uplift Business * Uplif ...

and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.

Gallery

File:DERBY CANYON AND MOUNTAINS-OKANOGAN WENATCHEE (24858166753).jpg, McClellan Peak (left) and The Temple from NE File:The Temple and Prusik Peak in autumn.jpg, Prusik Peak and The Temple in autumn File:The Temple, Enchantments.jpg

References

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External links

* Weather
Mountain Forecast
* PBase aerial photo
The Temple
Mountains of Washington (state) Mountains of Chelan County, Washington Cascade Range Climbing areas of the United States North American 2000 m summits

Climate

Geology

See also

Gallery

References

External links