Mountain Ranges
May 25 2025
The Grapevine Mountains rise along the California–Nevada border on the northeastern side of Death Valley National Park. Rugged canyons, heavily folded sedimentary rocks, high desert woodland, remote summits, and some of Death Valley’s most impressive backcountry scenery make this range one of the park’s most geologically fascinating mountain areas. The range forms the northern portion …
May 23 2025
The Santa Lucia Mountains, also known as the Santa Lucia Range, form one of California’s most dramatic coastal mountain landscapes. Rising immediately inland from the Pacific Ocean along the Central Coast, the range combines steep ridges, deep canyons, redwood forests, chaparral-covered slopes, remote wilderness, and some of the most striking mountain-to-ocean relief in the contiguous …
May 17 2025
🏔️ Overview The Panamint Range is a rugged desert mountain range in eastern California, rising dramatically between Death Valley to the east and Panamint Valley to the west. Extending roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) from north to south, the range forms much of the western wall of Death Valley and includes some of the highest …
May 14 2025
🏔️ Overview The Wasatch Range is one of the defining mountain landscapes of Utah and one of the most accessible sections of the Rocky Mountains. Rising abruptly east of Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, and other communities along the Wasatch Front, the range combines rugged limestone ridges, granite canyons, alpine basins, forests, wildflower meadows, steep …
May 14 2025
🏔️ Overview The White Mountains are a spectacular high-desert mountain range rising along the eastern side of California’s Owens Valley and extending northward toward the Nevada border. Although they stand less than 20 miles east of parts of the Sierra Nevada, the White Mountains have a dramatically different character. Instead of deeply glaciated granite valleys …
May 14 2025
🏔️ Overview The Wrangell Mountains are a spectacular group of high, heavily glaciated volcanic mountains in eastern Alaska. Rising above the Copper River Basin, the range contains enormous shield volcanoes, deeply eroded volcanic massifs, active geothermal features, and some of the highest summits in the United States. Most of the range lies within Wrangell–St. Elias …
May 13 2025
🏔️ Overview The Toiyabe Range is a long, rugged mountain range in central Nevada, extending through parts of Nye and Lander counties. Rising from the broad desert valleys of the Great Basin, the range forms one of Nevada’s most impressive north–south mountain barriers. The Toiyabe Range stretches for roughly 117 miles (188 kilometers) from north …
May 13 2025
Southern California is home to one of the most unusual mountain systems in the western United States: the Transverse Ranges. Unlike most of California’s major mountain chains, which generally follow a northwest-to-southeast alignment, the Transverse Ranges extend primarily from west to east. This unusual orientation is more than a geographic curiosity. It reflects millions of …
May 13 2025
🏔️ Overview The Teton Range, commonly called the Tetons, is one of the most recognizable mountain ranges in the American West. Rising abruptly above Jackson Hole in northwestern Wyoming, its jagged summits, deep glacial canyons, alpine lakes, and exposed rock faces form the dramatic centerpiece of Grand Teton National Park. The range is part of …
May 11 2025
The Tenmile Range is a compact but remarkably high mountain chain in central Colorado, rising immediately west of Breckenridge and extending south from the Frisco area toward some of the highest terrain in Summit County. Although considerably shorter than many of Colorado’s major mountain ranges, the Tenmile Range contains rugged thirteeners, a famous fourteener, glacial …
