Aspen Mountain is a long mountain located approximately south of

Rock Springs, Wyoming Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 23,036 at the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state of Wyoming, and the most populous city in Sweetwater County. Rock Springs is ...

and south of Arrowhead Springs, in Sweetwater County. The mountain gets its name from patches of

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 ...

trees located on the north and southern faces of the mountain. Various older

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

maps name the mountain "Quaking Aspen Mountain". Its primary use is for radio communications and it houses towers for various local and state companies.

Other uses

Aspen Mountain also houses repeaters used by local

highway patrol A highway patrol, or state patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is prima ...

and local police and fire services for Sweetwater County, which are also present on nearby Wilkins Peak. If the local emergency repeaters on Aspen Mountain fail, they are automatically switched to the Wilkins Peak repeaters, and vice versa. The mountain also houses amateur radio repeaters, and a long range radar station (operated by the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

) is the mountain's most visible feature.

Geology

Aspen Mountain lies to the north of the

Uinta Mountains 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 ...

in the center of the Greater Green River Basin. It is part of the

Rock Springs Uplift The Rock Springs Uplift is an area of uplifted Cretaceous to Eocene rocks in Wyoming surrounded and once covered by sediments of the Green River Formation which were deposited in the Eocene Lake Gosiute.Surdam, Ronald C. and K. O. Stanley, ''Lacustr ...

, and is composed of

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

deposits.

Access

Aspen Mountain can be accessed via a number of routes. From Rock Springs, access starts from Blairtown/Flaming Gorge Road, and begins on a road known as Little Bitter Creek Road. Aspen Mountain can also be accessed via county highway 4-27, which begins on

Wyoming Highway 430 Wyoming Highway 430 (WYO 430) is a State highway#United States, state highway in south-central Sweetwater County, Wyoming, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, that connects the Wyoming-Colorado State Line with Rock Springs, Wyoming, Roc ...

. From the south, the mountain can be accessed via

US 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for from the nort ...

. The roads are usually in good condition year round, weather permitting. Travel is still possible during winter months, but a four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended. The road on the mountain itself is known as "Radar Tower Road." Most of the mountain is not off limits, except for various radio towers with fences and the long range radar station, which features no trespassing signs and a fence around its perimeter. The radar site is also staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with up to two employees watching the site at a time. In the winter, their only means of travel is often via Snowcats.

Radio and television stations

* KZUW 88.5 FM - Licensed to Reliance. * KUWZ 90.5 FM - Licensed to Rock Springs. * KQSW 96.5 FM - Licensed to Rock Springs. * KSIT 99.7 FM - Also licensed to Rock Springs (Both FM stations are located on the eastern half of the mountain, near the radar site). * KMRZ-FM 106.7 FM - Licensed to

Superior, Wyoming Superior is a town in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 336 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land. Demographics 2010 census As of the ce ...

, is the only FM station with a tower on the western half of the mountain. * KGWR Channel 13 -

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

- Rock Springs (Far eastern side of the mountain, second tower from east). * K45IA Channel 45 -

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

- Rock Springs * KXI34 162.550

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Servi ...

- Operated by the Riverton

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

office.KXI34 Coverage map (NOAA)
K26DK (former translator for

KJZZ-TV KJZZ-TV (channel 14) is an independent television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CBS affiliate KUTV (channel 2) and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYU (channel 12) in St. George. The ...

and K45IA were shut down after the digital transition.

References

Gallery

Image:AMnoaaweatherradio.jpg, The All-Hazards NOAA weather station KXI34 radio tower is shared with KUWZ. Image:AMbadroad.jpg, The road in the winter is often impassable without a

four wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer cas ...

vehicle. Image:AMwestcentral.jpg, The west central radio towers, mostly used by local and state companies. Image:AMfarwest.jpg, The far western side of the mountain houses radio towers owned by telephone companies such as

Qwest Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...

. Image:AspenMountain ArrowheadSprings.jpg, Arrowhead Springs, Wyoming, with Aspen Mountain to the south.

External links

''Green River Basin. (Geological) by King, Clarence from 1876'', David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Radio Tower Locations and Info (RTLI). {{SLC TV Mountains of Wyoming Mountains of Sweetwater County, Wyoming