Stony Mountain is a mountain summit located in

Ouray County Ouray County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 4,874. The county seat is Ouray. Because of its rugged mountain topography, Ouray County is also known as the "Switzerland of America" ...

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 southwest 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 situated 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 ...

, 1.3 miles southwest of

Potosi Peak Potosi Peak is a mountain summit located in Ouray County of Colorado, United States. It is situated five miles southwest of the community of Ouray, on land managed by Uncompahgre National Forest. It is part of the Sneffels Range which is a sub ...

, and 1.15 miles northeast of parent Mount Emma.

Yankee Boy Basin Yankee Boy Basin is an alpine basin in Ouray County, southwestern Colorado. It is in the San Juan Mountains, protected within Uncompahgre National Forest. The basin−valley is well renowned for its display of wildflowers during the spring bloo ...

is surrounded by Stony Mountain, Gilpin Peak,

Mount Sneffels Mount Sneffels is the highest summit of the Sneffels Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of Uncompahgre National Forest, west by south ( bearing 256°) of the City of O ...

, Cirque Mountain, and

Teakettle Mountain Teakettle Mountain, elevation , is a summit in the Sneffels Range of southwest Colorado. The peak is west of Ouray in the Uncompahgre National Forest. See also *List of Colorado mountain ranges * List of Colorado mountain summits **List of Co ...

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 east aspect rises above Sneffels Creek in less than one mile. The mountain's name, which 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 ...

, was in use before 1899 when

Henry Gannett Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an American geographer who is described as the "father of mapmaking in America."Evans, Richard Tranter; Frye, Helen M. (2009).History of the Topographic Branch (Division) (PDF). ''U.S. Geo ...

published it in ''A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States''.Henry Gannett, ''A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States'', 1899, US Government Printing Office, page 97.

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, Stony Mountain 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 cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers. Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer, with a dry period in late spring. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into tributaries of the

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 ...

References

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
{{Mountains of Colorado Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Three-thousanders of the United States Uncompahgre National Forest