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40-607: The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short) is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States . The range runs roughly NW–SE for approximately 100 mi (160 km). The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and includes Gannett Peak , which at 13,802 ft (4,207 m), is the highest peak in Wyoming; and also Fremont Peak at 13,750 ft (4,191 m),

80-529: A local explorer named Finis Mitchell and his wife during the Great Depression. The forests are dominated by lodgepole pine , whitebark pine , subalpine fir , and Engelmann spruce . The range sits alongside many of the animal migration routes in the United States and contains several important passes, notably South Pass , 7,549 ft (2,301 m), at the south end of the range, which

120-588: A pattern of compressive uplifts and basins, with most of the deformation confined to block edges. Twelve kilometers of structural relief between basins and adjacent uplifts is not uncommon. The basins contain several thousand meters of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that predate the Laramide orogeny. As much as 5,000 meters (16,000 ft) of Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments filled these orogenically-defined basins. Deformed Paleocene and Eocene deposits record continuing orogenic activity. During

160-546: A popular recreation destination and the vast wilderness areas attract hikers, climbers and skiers. The Winds have many back country areas that see heavy use despite the relative remoteness of many of the trail-heads and the long approaches from those trail-heads to reach routes. Two of the more popular backpacking destinations are the Titcomb Basin (commonly accessed via the Elkhart Park Trailhead) and

200-535: A seriously injured backpacker being airlifted near SquareTop Mountain in 2005, and a fatal hiker incident (from an apparent accidental fall ) in 2006 that involved state search and rescue . The U.S. Forest Service does not offer updated aggregated records on the official number of fatalities in the Wind River Range. Mountain range Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys . Individual mountains within

240-474: A small grizzly bear population, primarily in the northernmost areas. Other mammals include the black bear , elk , moose , mule deer , pronghorn , bighorn sheep , mountain lion and wolverine . Bald eagles , falcons and hawks are just a few of the 300 species of birds known to inhabit the region. The streams and lakes are home to Yellowstone cutthroat , rainbow , brook , brown , lake , and golden trout —about 2.5 million of which were stocked by

280-480: Is a concern in the Wind River Range. There are other concerns as well, including bugs , wildfires , adverse snow conditions and nighttime cold temperatures . Importantly, there have been notable incidents, including accidental deaths , due to falls from steep cliffs (a misstep could be fatal in this class 4/5 terrain ) and due to falling rocks , over the years, including 1993, 2007 (involving an experienced NOLS leader ), 2015 and 2018. Other incidents include

320-474: Is at work while the mountains are being uplifted until the mountains are reduced to low hills and plains. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example. As the uplift was occurring some 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of mostly Mesozoic sedimentary strata were removed by erosion over the core of the mountain range and spread as sand and clays across the Great Plains to

360-548: Is now largely protected by three federal wilderness areas . These include the Bridger Wilderness on the western slope, designated in 1964, and the Fitzpatrick Wilderness and Popo Agie Wilderness on the eastern slope, designated in 1976 and 1984 respectively. Together these wilderness areas protect 728,020 acres (294,620 ha), making the Wind River Range one of the largest road-free areas in

400-748: Is the largest single glacier in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S., and is located in the Fitzpatrick Wilderness in Shoshone National Forest. Several major rivers have headwaters on either side of the range. The Green and Big Sandy rivers drain southward from the west side of the range, while the Wind River drains eastward through the Shoshone Basin . The Green is the largest fork of the Colorado River while

440-865: The Alpide belt . The Pacific Ring of Fire includes the Andes of South America, extends through the North American Cordillera , the Aleutian Range , on through Kamchatka Peninsula , Japan , Taiwan , the Philippines , Papua New Guinea , to New Zealand . The Andes is 7,000 kilometres (4,350 mi) long and is often considered the world's longest mountain system. The Alpide belt stretches 15,000 km across southern Eurasia , from Java in Maritime Southeast Asia to

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480-551: The Annamite Range . If the definition of a mountain range is stretched to include underwater mountains, then the Ocean Ridge forms the longest continuous mountain system on Earth, with a length of 65,000 kilometres (40,400 mi). The position of mountain ranges influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools, producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As

520-461: The Bighorn , Powder River , and Wind River being the largest. Topographically, the basin floors resemble the surface of the western Great Plains, except for vistas of surrounding mountains. At most boundaries, Paleozoic through Paleogene units dip steeply into the basins off uplifted blocks cored by Precambrian rocks. The eroded steeply dipping units form hogbacks and flatirons . Many of

560-740: The Cirque of the Towers (commonly accessed via the Big Sandy Trailhead). The exposed granite in the higher elevations of the range is particularly attractive to climbers and areas such as Cirque of the Towers in the southern portion of the range are facing overuse issues as a result. According to the White Pine Ski Resort website, the Winds are home to one ski area, White Pine, the only lift-accessible skiing and snowboarding in

600-804: The Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe , including the ranges of the Himalayas , Karakoram , Hindu Kush , Alborz , Caucasus , and the Alps . The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest , which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) high. Mountain ranges outside these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera , Appalachians , Great Dividing Range , East Siberians , Altais , Scandinavians , Qinling , Western Ghats , Vindhyas , Byrrangas , and

640-575: The Mithrim Montes and Doom Mons on Titan, and Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes on Pluto. Some terrestrial planets other than Earth also exhibit rocky mountain ranges, such as Maxwell Montes on Venus taller than any on Earth and Tartarus Montes on Mars . Jupiter's moon Io has mountain ranges formed from tectonic processes including the Boösaule , Dorian, Hi'iaka and Euboea Montes . Laramide orogeny The Laramide orogeny

680-528: The North American Plate . Most hypotheses propose that oceanic crust was undergoing flat-slab subduction , that is, subduction at a shallow angle. As a consequence, no magmatism occurred in the central west of the continent, and the underlying oceanic lithosphere actually caused drag on the root of the overlying continental lithosphere. One cause for shallow subduction may have been an increased rate of plate convergence. Another proposed cause

720-608: The Sheepeater band of Shoshone during pine nut harvesting season. One, dubbed "High Rise", has 60 lodges over a space of 26 acres and was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places . One of the men from the Lewis and Clark expedition, John Colter , is thought to be the first European American person to view the range when he visited the area around 1807, though little is known about his travels through

760-856: The Wind River , after changing its name to the Bighorn River , is the largest fork of the Yellowstone River . The range includes several canyons on either side, including Silas Canyon and Sinks Canyon both on the eastern side. The canyons are carved by rivers such as the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie which feeds the Wind River. The Bridger Wilderness contains over 1,300 lakes. These lakes range in size from less than 3 acres (1 ha) to over 200 acres (81 ha), with an average size of about 10 acres (4 ha). Historically,

800-491: The 1920s. Gannett Peak , the range and Wyoming's tallest, was first climbed by Arthur Tate and Floyd Stahlnaker in 1922. Most of the early climbing in the region focused around the Titcomb Basin, slowly radiating outwards. Today, the Titcomb Basin remains one of the area's busiest recreation attractions along with the Cirque of the Towers to the south. Much of the Wind River Range received federal protection as National Forest primitive areas during 1931–32. The Wind River Range

840-601: The Laramide orogeny, basin floors and mountain summits were much closer to sea level than today. After the seas retreated from the Rocky Mountain region, floodplains , swamps , and vast lakes developed in the basins. Drainage systems imposed at that time persist today. Since the Oligocene , episodic epeirogenic uplift gradually raised the entire region, including the Great Plains, to present elevations. Most of

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880-420: The Towers , in the southern section of the range. Shoshone National Forest claims that there are 16 named and 140 unnamed glaciers just on the east side of the range for a total of 156, with another 27 reported by Bridger-Teton National Forest for the western slopes of the range. Several of these are the largest glaciers in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. Gannett Glacier which flows down the north slope of Gannett Peak,

920-627: The air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (following the adiabatic lapse rate ) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. As a consequence, large mountain ranges, such as the Andes, compartmentalize continents into distinct climate regions . Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to erosional forces which work to tear them down. The basins adjacent to an eroding mountain range are then filled with sediments that are buried and turned into sedimentary rock . Erosion

960-514: The area. In 1812, a party led by Wilson Price Hunt were the first to cross South Pass , at the southern end of the range, the pass which marked the continental divide and crest of the Rocky Mountains and became an important portion of the Oregon Trail . Climbing was pursued in the mid to late 1800s by men such as John C. Fremont , typically for the purpose of surveying the region. Early climbers to come purely for recreation began arriving in

1000-610: The boundaries are thrust or reverse faults . Although other boundaries appear to be monoclinal flexures , faulting is suspected at depth. Most bounding faults show evidence of at least two episodes of Laramide ( Late Cretaceous and Eocene ) movement, suggesting both thrust and strike-slip types of displacement. According to paleontologist Thomas M. Lehman, the Laramide orogeny triggered "the most dramatic event that affected Late Cretaceous dinosaur communities in North America prior to their extinction." This turnover event saw

1040-539: The continental United States. Part of the eastern slope of the Wind River Range is also under the protection of the Wind River Indian Reservation . The Winds are composed primarily of a granitic batholith which is granite rock formed deep under the surface of the Earth , over one billion years ago. Over hundreds of millions of years, rocks that were once covering this batholith eroded away. As

1080-807: The continental divide while Bridger-Teton National Forest is on the west. Both national forests and the entire mountain range are an integral part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem . Portions of the east side of the range are inside the Wind River Indian Reservation . Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin , such as the Shoshones and Absarokas (Crow) Native Americans, lived in the range beginning 7000 and 9000 years ago. Villages as high as 10,000 ft (3,000 m) in elevation, dating from 700 to 2000 BC, have recently been studied by archaeologists. These villages were established by

1120-598: The drag that it caused was a broad belt of mountains, some of which were the progenitors of the Rocky Mountains . Part of the proto-Rocky Mountains would be later modified by extension to become the Basin and Range Province . The Laramide orogeny produced intermontane structural basins and adjacent mountain blocks by means of deformation. This style of deformation is typical of continental plates adjacent to convergent margins of long duration that have not sustained continent/continent collisions. This tectonic setting produces

1160-485: The east. This mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift. The removal of such a mass from the core of the range most likely caused further uplift as the region adjusted isostatically in response to the removed weight. Rivers are traditionally believed to be the principal cause of mountain range erosion, by cutting into bedrock and transporting sediment. Computer simulation has shown that as mountain belts change from tectonically active to inactive,

1200-660: The easternmost extent of the mountain-building represented by the Black Hills of South Dakota . The phenomenon is named for the Laramie Mountains of eastern Wyoming . The Laramide orogeny is sometimes confused with the Sevier orogeny , which partially overlapped in time and space. The orogeny is commonly attributed to events off the west coast of North America, where the Kula and Farallon Plates were sliding under

1240-513: The lakes and streams of the Bridger Wilderness were devoid of fish, as were most alpine lakes throughout the Rocky Mountains . The first known transplant of fish into the area took place in 1907 when Colorado River cutthroat trout were introduced into North Fork Lake. Considerable fish stocking by individuals, the U.S. Forest Service , and the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, occurred between 1924 and 1935. The Winds are known to have

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1280-460: The land continued to rise during the Laramide orogeny , further erosion occurred until all that remained were the granitic rocks. The ice ages beginning 500,000 years ago began carving the rocks into their present shapes. Within the Winds, numerous lakes were formed by the glaciers and numerous cirques , or circular valleys, were carved out of the rocks, the most well known being the Cirque of

1320-492: The modern topography is the result of Pliocene and Pleistocene events, including additional uplift, glaciation of the high country, and denudation and dissection of older Cenozoic surfaces in the basin by fluvial processes. In the United States, these distinctive intermontane basins occur principally in the central Rocky Mountains from Colorado and Utah ( Uinta Basin ) to Montana and are best developed in Wyoming , with

1360-449: The range. Located near Pinedale, it is the oldest ski area in Wyoming. The Wind River Range has a number of trailheads for backpackers to explore, including: A longtime popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, the Wind River Range has also played host to a number of wilderness and outdoor education programs. The number of trailheads and terrain variety have made it an ideal stage for learning and exploration. Encountering bears

1400-627: The rate of erosion drops because there are fewer abrasive particles in the water and fewer landslides. Mountains on other planets and natural satellites of the Solar System, including the Moon , are often isolated and formed mainly by processes such as impacts, though there are examples of mountain ranges (or "Montes") somewhat similar to those on Earth. Saturn 's moon Titan and Pluto , in particular, exhibit large mountain ranges in chains composed mainly of ices rather than rock. Examples include

1440-531: The same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology . They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes , for example thrust sheets , uplifted blocks , fold mountains, and volcanic landforms resulting in a variety of rock types . Most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earth's land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or

1480-530: The third highest peak in Wyoming. There are more than 40 other named peaks in excess of 12,999 ft (3,962 m). With the exception of the Grand Teton in the Teton Range , the next 19 highest peaks in Wyoming after Gannett are also in the Winds. Two large national forests including three wilderness areas encompass most of the mountain range. Shoshone National Forest is on the eastern side of

1520-582: Was a time period of mountain building in western North America , which started in the Late Cretaceous , 80 to 70 million years ago, and ended 55 to 35 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the orogeny are in dispute. The Laramide orogeny occurred in a series of pulses, with quiescent phases intervening. The major feature that was created by this orogeny was deep-seated, thick-skinned deformation , with evidence of this orogeny found from Canada to northern Mexico , with

1560-459: Was one of the more important passes on the Oregon Trail as it passed through the Rockies. Aside from South Pass, which is at the southernmost tip of the range, no roads cross the mountains until Union Pass , 9,209 ft (2,807 m) at the northern terminus of the range. There are many passes between tall peaks across the continental divide, which runs through the entire range. The Winds are

1600-593: Was subduction of thickened oceanic crust. Magmatism associated with subduction occurred not near the plate edges (as in the volcanic arc of the Andes , for example), but far to the east, along the Colorado Mineral Belt . Geologists call such a lack of volcanic activity near a subduction zone a magmatic gap . This particular gap may have occurred because the subducted slab was in contact with relatively cool continental lithosphere, not hotter asthenosphere . One result of shallow angle of subduction and

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