Mount Ridgway is a mountain summit located in
Ouray County of southwest
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, United States.
It is situated five miles west of the community of
Ouray, on land managed by
Uncompahgre National Forest
Uncompahgre National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering 955,229 acres (1,492.55 sq mi, or 3,865.68 km2) in (in descending order of land area) parts of Montrose, Mesa, San Miguel, Ouray, Gunnison, Hinsdale, San Juan, and Delta ...
. It is part of the
Sneffels Range
The Sneffels Range, regionally conterminous with San Juan Mountains, San Juans, is a young, prominent, and rugged range of mountains in southwestern Colorado of the San Juan Mountains. The Sneffels range form the southern border of Ouray County an ...
which is a subset of 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 ...
, which in turn is part 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 great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
. It is west of the
Continental Divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
, 2.2 miles east-northeast of
Mount Sneffels, and 0.95 miles southwest of
Whitehouse Mountain, which is the nearest higher neighbor.
Topographic relief
Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...
is significant as the west aspect rises above Blaine Basin in one mile.
Etymology
This mountain, the nearby town of
Ridgway, the
Ridgway Dam
Ridgway Dam is an earthen dam on the Uncompahgre River which impounds Ridgway Reservoir, located about 6 miles (10 km) north of the town of Ridgway in Ouray County, Colorado. The dam is high and long, with a capacity of of water.
Ridgwa ...
, and
Ridgway State Park
Ridgway State Park is a state park located in Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The park is 21 miles southeast of Montrose, 14 miles northeast of Ouray, 4 miles north of the town of Ridgway and 312 miles southwest of Denver. The wildlif ...
trace their names to
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad superintendent Robert Matthew Ridgway (1834–1908), who established the town in 1891.
Liobrary of Congress
/ref> The mountain's name has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...
.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Mount Ridgway is located in an alpine subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...
zone with long, cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers.Uncompahgre River
The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison River, approximately long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. Lake Como at in northern San Juan County, in the Uncompahgre National Forest in the northwestern San Juan Mountain ...
.
Gallery
File:Whitehouse Mountain.jpg, Whitehouse Mountain centered with Mt. Ridgway to immediate right, seen from Highway 550 near the town of Ridgway
File:Mount Ridgway and Reconnoiter Peak.jpg, Mount Ridgway (left) and Reconnoiter Peak (right)
File:Ridgway - Sneffels Range.jpg, Sneffels Range with Mt. Ridgway to the left
See also
*
References
External links
* Weather forecast
Mount Ridgway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgway, Mount
Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Four-thousanders of the United States
Uncompahgre National Forest