Babcock Peak is a mountain
summit in
La Plata County,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
.
Description
Babcock Peak is located northwest of the community of
Durango on land managed by
San Juan National Forest
The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezu ...
. It ranks as the fourth-highest summit of the
La Plata Mountains
The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of Colorado, United States. They are located on the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties, about northwest of Durango. Their name is Spani ...
which are 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 ...
.
Precipitation
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...
from the mountain's west slope drains to the
Mancos River and the southeast slope drains to the
La Plata River.
Topographic relief
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...
is significant as the summit rises over above the river in . Neighbors include
Mount Moss to the north and
Spiller Peak to the west.
The mountain's toponym has been officially adopted by the
United States Board on Geographic Names,
[ and was recorded in publications in 1900. On February 25, 1962, a US Air Force T-29A plane struck the side of Babcock Peak in a snowstorm, killing the three crew.]
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
system, Babcock Peak has an alpine climate
Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate.
Definition
There are multiple definitions o ...
with cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers.
Gallery
File:La Plata Peaks, San Juan Mountains CO.jpg, South aspects of Spiller Peak (left) and Babcock Peak(s)
File:La Plata Mountains.jpg, La Plata Mountains from NNE. Left to rightː Babcock Peak, Mt. Moss, Lavender Peak, Centennial Peak, Hesperus Mountain
See also
*
*Thirteener
In mountaineering in the United States, a thirteener (abbreviated 13er) is a mountain that exceeds above mean sea level, similar to the more familiar "fourteeners," which exceed . In most instances, "thirteeners" refers only to those peaks betwee ...
References
External links
* Weather forecast
Babcock Peak
* Babcock Peak rock climbing
Mountainproject.com
{{Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Mountains of La Plata County, Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
San Juan National Forest