Ranney Hill (pronounced, 'Ran-ee") is a rock outcrop approximately 10 kilometers north of

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

, the capital city of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

of Canada. At 682 ft / 208 m. high, it is one of three visible outcrops that can be seen north of the city. It is an anomaly rising from the relatively flat

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...

History of the name

Ranney Hill is named after Winslow C. Ranney, a

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

and

trapper Animal trapping, or simply trapping or ginning, is the use of a device to remotely catch and often kill an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including for meat, fur/feathers, sport hunting, pest control, and wildlife man ...

who first came into the Yellowknife region in 1934. Numerous claims were staked in this area between 1935 and 1937 by Mr. Ranney. Development was undertaken by a small crew under Ranney’s supervision during 1937 and 1938, and apparently Ranney utilized a small milling unit to recover some gold from a short mine tunnel around 1939. Further exploration was conducted at this site during the 1940s by Ranney Gold Mines Limited, but no further mining development was undertaken. Ranney's now abandoned cabin, claim, and tunnel are between David Lake and Rater Lake — lakes seen in the first illustrative panorama below. In 1998, claims were staked in the area and some shallow x-ray diamond drilling was conducted on Ranney's main claim. The results of this work are unknown. Presently, the Ranney Hill area is a favored hiking destination and is well-marked by ribbons from the Vee Lake Road.

Geology

The hill is a large mound of volcanic rock. It was able to resist breakdown by the powerful

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s that scraped the land in a roughly northwest to southeast direction because cracks in the original

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

were infused with silica-like minerals such as

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

. These

granodiorite Granodiorite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

(high content of

plagioclase feldspar Plagioclase ( ) is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more pr ...

) dykes and intrusions are pronounced especially along the south face. The hill rises out of a large field of pink

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

(pink from high

potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

). Beds of these small rounded boulders lie at the immediate base of the hill's southeast face providing evidence of their tumbling over the edge of the hill after a journey from the northwest under a glacier. Further north along the east face large chunks of the hill have been eroded off the face. Ranney Hill is beside the West Bay Fault Line where the land on the right of the fault is believed to have moved five kilometers north of its original position during the early shaping of the area.

Location

Ranney Hill is an easy drive from Yellowknife, NWT over two types of surfaces,

chip seal Chipseal (also chip seal or chip and seal or spray seal) is a pavement surface treatment that combines one or more layers of asphalt with one or more layers of fine aggregate. In the United States, chipseals are typically used on rural roads c ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

. The short journey begins on the new bypass road that forms the beginning of the

Ingraham Trail The Ingraham Trail, officially Northwest Territories Highway 4, extends from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to Tibbitt Lake, approximately east of Yellowknife. It was built in the mid-1960s as the first leg of a 'road to resources' with ...

(Highway 4) accessible between Old Airport Rd. and the end of Highway 3. After driving approximately five minutes, the entrance to Vee Lake Road will be seen on the left. After another 10 minutes, the entrance to Ranney Hill will be seen on the left at the last sharp turn of the road before the boat launch, a few hundred meters further. There is no formal parking space at the entrance; visitors park along the widen road edge. Using the new

what3words What3words (stylized as what3words) is a proprietary geocode system designed to identify any location on the surface of Earth with a resolution of approximately . It is owned by What3words Limited, based in London, England. The system encodes ge ...

geocoding Address geocoding, or simply geocoding, is the process of taking a text-based description of a location, such as an address or the name of a place, and returning geographic coordinates, frequently latitude/longitude pair, to identify a locati ...

location tool, the entrance to the trail is found at sunglasses.untaxed.beasts.

Present day

Ranney Hill is a popular hiking destination because of it close proximity to Yellowknife and its 360° view of the landscape. The area also offers

geocaching Geocaching (, ) is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called ''geocaches'' or ''caches'', at sp ...

possibilities. Hikers enroute to the hill should especially note the raised peat plateau at weary.redeye.achievement and a large area of ice-sculpted "whalebacks" at thundering.midnight.boater. Ranney Hill from David Lake

References

{{coord, 62.5464, -114.3887, format=dms, type:mountain_region:CA, display=title Mountains of the Northwest Territories Mountains of Canada under 1000 metres