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Ute Mountain

Ute Mountain from the north.
Elevation 9,978 feet (3,041 metres)
Location Colorado, USA
Range Ute Mountains
Prominence 4,038 ft (1,231 m)[1]
Coordinates 37°17′03″N, 108°46′41″W
Topo map USGS Battle Rock

Ute Mountain (or Ute Peak or Sleeping Ute Mountain), is a peak within the Ute Mountains, a small mountain range in the southwestern corner of Colorado. In topography a summit is a point on a surface which is higher in Elevation than all points immediately adjacent to The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A mountain range is a chain of Mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. A topographic map is a type of Map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using Contour lines in modern The United States Geological Survey ( USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government. The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It is on the northern edge of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. The Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah, The Reservation forms the southwestern corner of the state and of Montezuma County. Montezuma County is the southwesternmost of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States.

Nomenclature for this peak and its range varies. The highest peak is sometimes known as Sleeping Ute Mountain; the entire range is also identified as one large mountain, called Sleeping Ute Mountain, on some maps[2]; and the range is sometimes called the Sleeping Ute Mountains. All of these forms of the mountain's name and of the range's name can be found on various USGS maps, databases and reports. The United States Geological Survey ( USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government.

The Ute Mountains, with a collective profile commonly known as “The Sleeping Ute”, are a dense cluster of peaks approximately 5 miles by 12 miles in extent and stand in isolation from other mountains. Despite being much lower than Colorado's highest peaks, Ute Mountain is the eighth most topographically prominent peak in the state, due to this isolation. Qualification criteria Not all summits over 14000 feet qualify as fourteeners It is also notable for its large local relief in all directions, especially its rise of roughly 4,250 ft (1,295 m) over the Montezuma Valley to the southeast.

The Sleeping Ute is said to resemble a Ute Chief lying on his back with arms folded across his chest. The mountains were valued as a sacred place by the Weeminuche Ute band. It is still a sacred place to their descendants, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and still plays a role in their ceremonies as indicated by the “Sundance Ground” on some topographical maps nestled between The Knees and Horse Peak (ribcage). Also see Ute Tribe. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is one of three federally-recognized tribes of the Ute Nation mostly of the Weeminuche Band

Originally, the northern part of the mountains were outside of the reservation boundaries as reduced following a series of treaties in the late 1800s, but a trade of land now in Mesa Verde National Park, approximately 15 miles east, for federal land on the mountain, allowed the reservation boundary to be extended north to McElmo Creek and encompass the entire mountain range. Mesa Verde National Park is a US National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United In particular, this means that recreational access to the range by outsiders is severely restricted. Few roads or trails are found in the mountains, although radio towers and water tanks have been built, and a road along Cottonwood Wash from Towaoc nearly reaches the summit of Ute Peak.

Contents

Legend

A Ute Indian legend[3] describes the Sleeping Ute as the sleeping form of a “Great Warrior God” who fell asleep while recovering from wounds received in a great battle with “the Evil Ones”. Various other forms of the legend can be found.

Visual Profile

The Sleeping Ute Mountains viewed from ~20 miles east northeast.
The Sleeping Ute Mountains viewed from ~20 miles east northeast.

Readily recognized from many spots up to 50 miles east or west, the profile is best seen from 15-25 miles somewhat north of east of the mountains as in the accompanying photograph.

Easily identified features of the profile include the following (north to south):

Head - the profile of Marble Mountain provides readily recognized facial features while a feathered headdress can be seen tapering north from Black Mountain and Marble Mountain. .

Crossed Arms – Ute Peak (9,978 ft, 3,041 m) is the highest, the most prominent and eastern-most peak in the Ute Mountains

Ribcage – Horse Mountain to the east and the twin peaks Black Mountain/Ute Mountain to the west form a recognizable ribcage.

Knees – Hermano Mountain or “The Knees” are obviously the knees of the figure.

Toes – East Toe is a relatively small, sharp and prominent igneous protrusion at the south-eastern end of the Ute Mountains proportioned and perfectly placed to complete the figure from the east. Astonishingly, West Toe, a second protrusion, has a very similar profile and is perfectly placed to complete the figure from the west.

The illusion of a reclining figure is further reinforced by its symmetry. The figure is nearly as complete seen from the west as from the east.

Region

Ute Mountain (U), just west of Cortez, Colorado (red dot) and Mesa Verde National Park (MV), and separated from Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CA) to the north by McElmo Creek.
Ute Mountain (U), just west of Cortez, Colorado (red dot) and Mesa Verde National Park (MV), and separated from Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CA) to the north by McElmo Creek.

Though on the southwestern fringe of the original Rocky Mountain home of the Ute Tribe, the Sleeping Ute is the most prominent feature of the high-desert Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. The Utes (/juːts/ " yoots " are an ethnically related group of American Indians now living primarily in Utah and Colorado.

The only town on the Reservation, Towaoc, lies at the feet of the figure and is home to most of the Reservation's population. As the Reservation capital, Towaoc is the Ute Mountain Ute tribal headquarters.

Cortez, the largest town in the area at 8000+ population, lies outside the reservation 11. 5 miles east-northeast of Ute Peak. The altitude of Cortez is 6,200 ft (1,890 m) and can be considered the base altitude of the Ute Mountains.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park adjoins Mesa Verde National Park to the east of the mountains. The western boundary of Mesa Verde National Park is 12 miles east of Ute Peak. The Mesa and the Sleeping Ute share equal prominence as regional landmarks.

McElmo Creek and Canyon Of The Ancients National Monument form the northern terminus of the Ute Mountains and the Reservation. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is located in the southwestern region of the U

Geology

The Ute Mountains were formed by doming and subsequent erosion about Late Cretaceous igneous rocks, intruded at about 72 million years. The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of Igneous rocks (etymology from Latin ignis, fire are rocks formed by solidification of cooled Magma (molten rock The most common type of igneous rock is porphyritic hornblende diorite, but rock types present range from gabbro to granite. Porphyry is a variety of Igneous rock consisting of large-grained Crystals such as Feldspar or Quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of Minerals Hornblende is not a recognized mineral in its own right but the name is used as a general or field term to Diorite (ˈdaɪəraɪt is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive Igneous rock composed principally of Plagioclase Feldspar (typically Gabbro (ˈɡæbrəʊ is a dark coarse-grained intrusive Igneous rock chemically equivalent to Basalt. Granite (ˈɡrænɪt is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, Felsic, igneous rock. Forms of intrusions include laccoliths, stocks, dikes, and sills. A laccolith is an Igneous intrusion (or concordant Pluton) that has been injected between two layers of Sedimentary rock. A dike or dyke in Geology is a type of Sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts Discordantly ' across planar One dike extends north to McElmo Creek and can be examined at a roadside there. The igneous rocks intrude a sedimentary section of Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks: the youngest rocks intruded are in the Point Lookout Sandstone.

The intrusions are similar in form and rock type to those in other Colorado Plateau mountain ranges, such as the Henry Mountains and the La Sal Range and the Abajo Mountains, all nearby in Utah, but the intrusions at these three Utah occurrences are about 20 to 30 million years in age. The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateaus Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the The Henry Mountains are located in the southeastern portion of the U The La Sal Range (or La Sal Mountains) is located in Grand and San Juan counties near the eastern border of the state of Utah, and rising The Abajo Mountains, also called the Blue Mountains, are a small mountain range west of Monticello Utah, south of Canyonlands National Park and north The Ute Mountains and the similar Carrizo Mountains, nearby in Arizona, lie within a southwest extension of the Colorado Mineral Belt, but no ore deposits are known to be associated with these igneous rocks. The Carrizo Mountains (36°50' N 109°7'W are a small range 15 to 20 km (9 to 12 miles in diameter located on the Colorado Plateau in northeastern Arizona The Colorado Mineral Belt (CMB is an area with abundant ore deposits

Sedimentary units are listed below, from youngest to oldest:

Formations of Cretaceous age

Formations of Jurassic age

In some areas the soft lower unit of the Entrada weathers into characteristic rounded forms, commonly called hoodoos. The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of The Dakota Sandstone (also Cockrum Sandstone, Dakota Formation) is a general term for an ill-defined early Cretaceous Formation of the Rocky The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Ma (million years ago to  Ma that is from the end of the Triassic to the beginning The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic Sedimentary rock that is found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source The Entrada Sandstone is a formation in the San Rafael Group that is spread across the U Navajo Sandstone is a geologic formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the U Hoodoos are tall thin spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of Arid basins and Badlands They are composed of soft Sedimentary The underlying Navajo weathers into rough, rounded surfaces, commonly pitted, and usually forms cliffs.

See also

References and external links

  1. ^ Colorado high-prominence peaks on peaklist.org
  2. ^ Ute Mountain on Topozone
  3. ^ Ute Mountain Ute telling of the Legend of the Sleeping Ute


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