Cimarron Ridge is a ridge in the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

in southwestern

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 ...

. The ridge runs north-south and occupies parts of Gunnison, Montrose, Ouray, and Hinsdale counties. The ridge parallels U.S. Highway 550, and parts of the ridge can be seen from points along the highway.

Prominent peaks

Peaks along the ridge include

Courthouse Mountain Courthouse Mountain is a mountain summit located on the shared boundary of Hinsdale County with Ouray County, in southwest Colorado, United States. It is situated 10.5 miles east of the community of Ridgway, and south of Owl Creek Pass, ...

, elevation , and Chimney Rock, elevation . Chimney Rock is known for appearing in the 1969 western motion picture ''

True Grit True Grit may refer to: Fiction * ''True Grit'' (novel), a 1968 novel by Charles Portis ** ''True Grit'' (1969 film), a film adaptation by Henry Hathaway, starring John Wayne ** ''True Grit'' (2010 film), a film adaptation by the Coen Brothers, ...

'' and is considered among the most difficult peaks to climb in Colorado.

Geology

The ridge is made up of green and gray tuff

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

and is the "erosional remains of a larger volcanic pile that surrounded several volcanoes." The Cimarron Ridge Formation takes its name from the ridge.

References

{{Mountains of Colorado, state=collapsed San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Ridges of Colorado Mountains of Gunnison County, Colorado Mountains of Montrose County, Colorado Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado Mountains of Hinsdale County, Colorado