Mt. Gannett is the highest peak in the Wind River Range and all of Wyoming at 13,804 ft.

ggeology of Titcomb Basin

polar sun

Seneca Lake

Mt. Freemont

Wyoming Lake

The Wind River Range

The wind river range is a range of the Rocky Mountains located in northwestern and northcentral Wyoming. The range covers over 100 miles in a northwest to southeast line and the continental divide runs along the ridge of the winds. The wind river range is remote, no roads cross the range and all trailheads are at least 20 miles from the crest of the range.

Geologic Processes

Enormous compressional forces in the earth thrust the the block of granite upward, to create the Wind River Range. The glaciation periods that followed eroded and carved the range into its present formation. These glacial actions lect cirques, kettles, U-shaped valleys, hanging troughs, and numerous lakes. The eastern side of the range is covered in basin fill from the Wind River Basin. The eastern uplifts are also rimed with Paleozoic sandstones over the underlying Archean basement. The range was covered in a glacier, at one point, that ran the whole length of the range and the western glaciers were outlets of this continuous ice cap. The Green River flows north from the northern Winds and then turns south west and was a major outlet for Pleistocene ice drainage. The Winds are the headwaters of the Snake and Yellowstone Rivers as well as the Green.

Products of the Geologic Process

The Winds are an asymetrical anticline with a Precambrian core composed mostly of high-grade metamorphic and igneous rock. Along the eastern flank of the winds Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata dip eastward, and along the northern and northeastern flanks the strata is faulted and folded. To the south and west dipping faults bound the range and overthrust the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks above the basin. The core of the range is composed primarialy of migmatite felsicorthonesis intruded by quartz diorite and granite plutons. The Winds contain seven of the ten largest glaciers in the lower 48 states. Due to the high elevation of the Winds snow squalls are always possible and winter snows don't leave the high passes until mid-July. During the summer tempreatures can reach over 80 degrees and be below freezing at night and often cold showers during the mid day.

Impacts

The Wind River Range is a protected remote wildreness area protected by the Bridger Wilderness. Humans visit most often for backpacking excrusions on the park's 600 miles worth of trails. Also the tall granite peaks attract rock climbers and mountaineers. The Winds have 48 summits higher than 12,500 ft. ranging from class III to challenging class V climbs.

Literature Cited

www.granitic.net/hiker/windr79.htm

www.pinedale.com/misc/windriver.shtml

www.homepage.montana.edu/~ueswl/winds.html

www.gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/US_National_Forest/WY_SHOSH

areas.wildernet.com/pages/areas.cfm?areaID=WYBRIDGW&CU_ID=156

www.pacocreations.com/webmaster_pictures/Wind_Rivers_Trail_Pass2.JPG

http://classic.mountainzone.com/climbing199/misc/wolfhead/

http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/wri/wri984269/geology.html

www.geology.wisc.edu/~maher/air/air07.htm

Hiking Wyoming's Wind River Range, Ron Adkison

Wyomimg's Wind River Range (Wyoming Geographic Series, No. 2), Joseph Kelsey

Northern Wind River Range Hiking Map and Guide, Earthwalk Press

Copyright © 2004 Earlham College. Revised April 19, 2004 . Send corrections or comments to parkero@earlham.edu