The Ruby Range is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

and

Beaverhead Beaverhead County is the largest county by area in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,371. Its county seat is Dillon. The county was founded in 1865. Much of the perimeter of the county is the Continental Di ...

counties

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

. The range lies east of

Dillon Dillon may refer to: People *Dillon (surname) * Dillon (given name) *Dillon (singer) (born 1988), Brazilian singer *Viscount Dillon, a title in the Peerage of Ireland Places Canada *Dillon, Saskatchewan United States *Dillon Beach, California ...

and southwest of

Sheridan Sheridan may refer to: People Surname *Sheridan (surname) *Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), U.S. Army general after whom the Sheridan tank is named *Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright (''The Rivals''), poet and politician ...

.''Dillon, Montana,'' 30x60 Minute Quadrangle, USGS, 1983 The highest point, Ruby Peak with an elevation of , lies in the northeast portion of the range. Gordon Peak with an elevation of lies in the southwest part of the range to the southeast of Dillon. The range is oriented NE–SW with a length of about . The

Beaverhead River The Beaverhead River is an approximately tributary of the Jefferson River in southwest Montana (east of the Continental Divide). It drains an area of roughly . The river's original headwaters, formed by the confluence of the Red Rock River and ...

lies to the northwest of the range.

Ruby River The Ruby River is a tributary of the Beaverhead River, approximately 76 mi (122 km) long, in southwestern Montana in the United States. It rises in the Beaverhead National Forest in southwestern Madison County between the Snowcrest ...

runs along the southeast and east flanks of the range with

Ruby Reservoir A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...

on the southeast flank.

Blacktail Deer Creek Blacktail Deer Creek is a tributary of the Beaverhead River, approximately long, in southwest Montana, United States. It rises in the Beaverhead National Forest in the Snowcrest Range in southern Beaverhead County. It flows northwest, joining ...

drains the southwest portion of the range and the

Blacktail Mountains Blacktail may refer to a location in the United States: * Blacktail, North Dakota * Blacktail, South Dakota *Blacktail Butte Blacktail Butte () is a butte mountain landform rising from Jackson Hole valley in Grand Teton National Park in the U.S. ...

lie to the southwest. The

Tobacco Root Mountains The Tobacco Root Mountains lie in the northern Rocky Mountains, between the Jefferson and Madison Rivers in southwest Montana. The highest peak is Hollowtop at . The range contains 43 peaks rising to elevations greater than 10,000 feet (3048&nb ...

and the

Greenhorn Range The Greenhorn Range, el. , is a small mountain range south of Virginia City, Montana in Madison County, Montana. See also * List of mountain ranges in Montana Notes {{Montana Mountain ranges of Montana Landforms of Madison County, Mont ...

lie to the northeast and east respectively. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owns most of the range, and 26,611 acres of BLM land are protected as a Wilderness Study Area. The Rubies are dry mountains, so springs are few. The terrain is steep, especially in the northern end, with more than half the land above 8,000'. This causes trees to be stunted in the shallow soils. Despite this, forest cover is extensive, with

Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three ...

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalp ...

, and spruce common, while the highest slopes are home to vast stands of pure

limber pine ''Pinus flexilis'', the limber pine, is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine. A limber pine in Eagle Cap Wildernes ...

intermixed with small parks, a habitat type found more commonly far to the south. Other features of the Rubies include free-standing rock walls, caves, cliffs, and talus. Wildlife includes a few

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The com ...

, a large

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

herd and excellent

blue grouse The genus ''Dendragapus'' contains two closely related species of grouse that have often been treated as a single variable taxon (blue grouse). The two species are the dusky grouse (''Dendragapus obscurus'') and the sooty grouse (''Dendragapus ...

habitat.

Notes

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Montana Landforms of Madison County, Montana