Twin Sisters is a mountain summit located in
San Juan County,
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.
The lower west summit has an elevation of and 0.43 mile separates the pair.
Twin Sisters is part 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 ...
range which is a subset 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 ...
, and 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 ...
. It is situated 7.5 miles southwest of the community of
Silverton, on land managed by
San Juan National Forest
The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezum ...
. It is set 5.5 miles north of
Engineer Mountain, and 2.2 miles east of Rolling Mountain, the nearest higher neighbor.
Other neighbors include
Snowdon Peak
Snowdon Peak is a mountain summit located in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. It is situated seven miles south of the community of Silverton, in the Weminuche Wilderness, on land managed by San Juan National Forest. It is part of the ...
seven miles to the southeast, and
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn ( or ) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the ...
, 3.5 miles to the northwest.
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 north aspect rises above South Fork Mineral Creek in approximately 1.5 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 in 1906 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 Gazetteer of Colorado''.
[Henry Gannett, ''Gazetteer of Colorado'', 1906, US Government Printing Office, page 171.]
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, Twin Sisters 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.
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
Animas River
Animas River (''On-e-mas''; ) is a river in the western United States, a tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River System.
The river has experienced numerous catastrophes due to the mining nearby, the largest being the 201 ...
.
See also
*
References
External links
* Weather forecast
Twin Sisters{{Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of San Juan County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Four-thousanders of the United States
San Juan National Forest