The Uinta Mountains ( ) are an east-west trending chain of mountains in northeastern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

extending slightly into southern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. As 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 ...

, they are unusual for being the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west, and lie approximately east of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

. The range has peaks ranging from , with the highest point being Kings Peak, also the highest point in Utah. The

Mirror Lake Highway State Route 150, also known as the Mirror Lake Highway, is a state highway in the U.S. state of Utah. It is named for Mirror Lake, a picturesque lake that the highway passes along the way. It is also a USDA Forest Service Scenic Byway. Route des ...

crosses the western half of the Uintas on its way to Wyoming.

Etymology

The name "Uinta" derives from the Ute word ''Yoov-we-teuh'', meaning "pine forest" or "pine tree".

Geology

The Uinta Mountains are

Laramide The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of th ...

uplifted

metasediment In geology, metasedimentary rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and e ...

ary rocks deposited in an intracratonic basin in southwest

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, althoug ...

during the time of the breakup of the

supercontinent In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass. However, some geologists use a different definition, "a grouping of formerly dispersed continents", which leav ...

Rodinia. The marine and fluvial metasedimentary rocks in the core of the Uinta Mountains are of

Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago. It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is prec ...

agePaleomagnetic results from the Neoproterozoic Uinta Mountain Group
/ref> (between about 700 million and 760 million years old) and consist primarily of

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

, slate, and shale. These rocks comprise the

Uinta Mountain Group The Uinta Mountains ( ) are an east-west trending chain of mountains in northeastern Utah extending slightly into southern Wyoming in the United States. As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are unusual for being the highest range in the c ...

, and reach thicknesses of . Most of the high peaks are outcrops of the Uinta Mountain Group. Many of the peaks are ringed with bands of cliffs, rising to form broad or flat tops. The mountains are bounded to the north and south by

reverse fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectoni ...

s that meet below the range, on the north by the North Flank fault and on the south by the Uinta Basin boundary fault. The Uinta Mountain Group, from oldest to youngest, includes Uinta Mountain undivided

quartz arenite A quartz arenite or quartzarenite is a sandstone composed of greater than 90% detrital quartz. Quartz arenites are the most mature sedimentary rocks possible, and are often referred to as ultra- or super-mature, and are usually cemented by sili ...

, overlain by the Moosehorn Lake, Mount Watson, Hades Peak, and Red Shale formations. The flanks of the east-west trending Uinta Mountains contain a sequence of

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

strata ranging from the Cambrian

Lodore Formation ''Lodore'', also published under the title ''The Beautiful Widow'', is the penultimate novel by Romantic novelist Mary Shelley, completed in 1833 and published in 1835. Plot and themes In ''Lodore'', Shelley focused her theme of power and resp ...

to the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

Mancos Shale The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous (Upper Cretaceous) geologic formation of the Western United States. The Mancos Shale was first described by Cross and Purington in 1899 and was named for exposures near the town of Mancos, ...

, all of which have been tilted during the uplift of the mountain range. The uplift of the range dates to the

Laramide orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the ...

, about 70 to 50 million years ago, when compressive forces produced high-angle

s on both the north and south sides of the present mountain range. The east-west orientation of the Uintas is anomalous compared to most of the ranges of the

; it may relate to changing stress patterns and rotation of the Colorado Plateau. The Green River used to flow into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

, but changed to the Colorado River by going through the Uintas in ways not fully understood. The high Uintas were extensively glaciated during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

, and most of the large stream valleys on both the north and south sides of the range held long valley glaciers. However, despite reaching to over in elevation, the climate today is sufficiently dry that no glaciers survived even before the rapid current glacial retreat began in the middle nineteenth century. The Uintas are the most poleward mountain range in the world to reach over without modern glaciers, and are in fact the highest mountain range in the contiguous United States with no modern glaciers. Permafrost occurs at elevations above and at times forms large rock glaciers. Between the summits and ridgelines are wide, level basins with around 500 small lakes. One of the most popular lakes is Mirror Lake because of its good fishing, scenic views, and easy road access.

Hydrology

The south and east sides of the range are largely within the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

watershed, including the Blacks Fork and the

Duchesne River The Duchesne River ( ), located in the Uintah Basin region of Utah in the western United States, is a tributary of the Green River. The watershed of the river covers the Northeastern corner of Utah. The Duchesne River is long,U.S. Geological S ...

, which are tributaries of the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

. The Green is the major tributary of the Colorado River and flows in a tight arc around the eastern side of the range. (Indeed, John Wesley Powell said the Green was the "master stream" where it and the Colorado River came together.) The Bear and Weber rivers, the two largest tributaries of Great Salt Lake, is born on the west slope of the range. The

Provo River The Provo River is located in Utah County and Wasatch County, Utah, in the United States. It rises in the Uinta Mountains at Wall Lake and flows about southwest to Utah Lake at the city of Provo, Utah. Course The two main branches of Provo Rive ...

, the largest tributary to

Utah Lake Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Salt ...

, begins on the southern side of the range and flows west to Utah Lake, which itself drains via the Jordan River into Great Salt Lake. Large portions of the mountain range receive over of precipitation annually. The high Uintas are snowcapped most of the year except for late July through early September. The Uinta Mountains have more than of streams and 1,000 lakes and ponds.Probst, Jeffrey, and Probst, Brad, ''Hiking Utah's High Uintas'', pg. 3, Morris Book Publishing, LLC, 2006

Ecology

The Uinta Mountains are part of the Wasatch and Uinta montane forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

. Nearly the entire range lies within Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (on the north and west) and

Ashley National Forest Ashley National Forest is a National Forest located in northeastern Utah and southwestern Wyoming. Within the Forest's bounds are (with in Utah and in Wyoming) of vast forests, lakes, and mountains, with elevations ranging from . The fores ...

(on the south and east). The range's highest peaks are protected as part of the

High Uintas Wilderness The High Uintas Wilderness is a wilderness area located in northeastern Utah, United States. The wilderness covers the Uinta Mountains, encompassing parts of Duchesne and Summit counties. Designated as a wilderness in 1984, the area is located wi ...

. The forests contain many species of trees, including

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

subalpine fir ''Abies lasiocarpa'', the subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain fir, is a western North American fir tree. Description ''Abies lasiocarpa'' is a medium-sized evergreen conifer with a very narrow conic crown, growing to tall, exceptionally , with a t ...

Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...

Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

, and

quaking aspen ''Populus tremuloides'' is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name aspen. It is commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, mountain or golden aspen, tr ...

. There are also many species of grasses, shrubs, and

forb A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

s growing in the Uinta Mountains. Fauna is typical of the central Rocky Mountains. Large grazing and browsing animals include Rocky Mountain Elk, Mule Deer, Moose, Pronghorn Antelope, mountain goats, and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. Mammalian predators include Black Bear, Mountain Lion, Coyotes, Red Fox, Badger, Wolverine, Marten, and Long-tailed Weasel. A Gray Wolf pack has been observed at the eastern end of the range, in Moffat County, Colorado. Raptors include Bald And Golden Eagles, Turkey Vulture, various hawks and harriers, and owls including Great Horned, Great Grey and Barn Owls. Other notable large birds include Sage Grouse and White-tailed Ptarmigan.

Points of interest

The Uintas is home to Camp Steiner, the highest Boy Scout camp in the United States at . The camp is near mile marker 33 of the Mirror Lake Highway. The Uinta Highline Trail traverses the entire range and is a popular backpacking trail. Dinosaur National Monument is located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah.

References

External links

Uinta Mountain Lakes Map/Info
- an interactive map for exploring the high Uinta lakes {{Authority control 01 Ranges of the Rocky Mountains Mountain ranges of Utah Mountain ranges of Wyoming Colorado Plateau Mountain ranges of Duchesne County, Utah Mountain ranges of Summit County, Utah Mountain ranges of Wasatch County, Utah Ashley National Forest Wasatch-Cache National Forest Mountain ranges of Daggett County, Utah