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The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short), is a mountain range
Mountain range

A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by mountain pass or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or Fold mountains...
 of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
 in western Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The range runs roughly NW-SE for approximately 100 miles (161 km).






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Greenlakeswy
Titcomblakeswy
The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short), is a mountain range
Mountain range

A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by mountain pass or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or Fold mountains...
 of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
 in western Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The range runs roughly NW-SE for approximately 100 miles (161 km). The Continental Divide
Continental Divide

The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Divide or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the drainage basin that drain into the Pacific Ocean from, 1) those river systems which drain into the Atlantic Ocean , and 2)...
 follows the crest of the range and includes Gannett Peak
Gannett Peak

Gannett Peak is the highest peak in the U.S. state of Wyoming and straddles the boundary between Fremont County, Wyoming and Sublette County, Wyoming Counties along the Continental Divide....
, which at 13,804 feet (4,207 m), is the highest peak in Wyoming. There are more than 40 other named peaks in excess of 13,000 feet (3,962 m). Two large National Forests including three wilderness
Wilderness

Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet - those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial i...
 areas encompass most of the mountain range. Shoshone National Forest
Shoshone National Forest

Shoshone National Forest is the first Federal government of the United States protected United States National Forest in the United States and covers nearly 2.5 million acres in the U.S....
 is on the eastern side of the continental divide while Bridger-Teton National Forest
Bridger-Teton National Forest

Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, United States. The forest consists of 3.4 million acres , making it the second largest National Forest outside of Alaska....
 is on the west. Both National Forests and the entire mountain range are an integral part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Greater Yellowstone is the last remaining large, nearly intact ecosystem in the northern temperate zone of the Earth and is partly located in Yellowstone National Park....
. Portions of the range are also inside the Wind River Indian Reservation
Wind River Indian Reservation

Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the United States in the central western portion of the U.S....
.

Geology

The Winds are composed primarily of a granitic batholith
Batholith

A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous Intrusion rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's Crust . Batholiths are almost always made mostly of felsic or intermediate rock-types, such as granite, quartz monzonite, or diorite ....
 which is granite
Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of Intrusion , felsic, igneous rock rock . Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as Porphyry ....
 rock formed deep under the surface of the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
, over one billion years ago. Over hundreds of millions of years, rocks that were once covering this batholith eroded away. As the land continued to rise during the Laramide orogeny
Laramide orogeny

The Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago....
, further erosion occurred until all that remained were the granitic rocks. The ice age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
s beginning 500,000 years ago began carving the rocks into their present shapes. Within the Winds, numerous lakes were formed by the glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
s and numerous cirques
Cirque (landform)

A cirque is an amphitheatre-like valley, or valley head, formed at the head of a glacier by erosion. A cirque is also known as a coombe or coomb in England, a combe or comb in United States, a corrie in Scotland and Ireland, and a cwm in Wales, although these terms apply to a specific feature of which s...
, or circular valleys, were carved out of the rocks, the most well known being the Cirque of the Towers
Cirque of the Towers

The Cirque of the Towers is located in the Wind River Range Wyoming, U.S. part which is in the Bridger Wilderness in Bridger-Teton National Forest, while the remainder is in the Popo Agie Wilderness in Shoshone National Forest....
, in the southern section of the range. Shoshone National Forest claims that there are 16 named and 140 unnamed glaciers just on the east side of the range for a total of 156, with another 27 reported by Bridger-Teton National Forest for the western slopes of the range. Several of these are the largest glaciers in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. Gannett Glacier
Gannett Glacier

Gannett Glacier is the largest glacier in the Rocky Mountains within the United States. The glacier is located on the east and north slopes of Gannett Peak, the highest mountain in Wyoming on the east side of the Continental Divide in the Wind River Range....
 which flows down the north slope of Gannett Peak, is the largest single glacier in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S., and is located in the Fitzpatrick Wilderness
Fitzpatrick Wilderness

The Fitzpatrick Wilderness is located in Shoshone National Forest in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The wilderness was originally known as the Glacier Primitive Area, but was redesignated a wilderness in 1976....
 in Shoshone National Forest.

Hydrology

Several major rivers have headwaters on either side of the range. The Green
Green River (Utah)

The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The Green River itself is 730 mi long. The Green River Basin covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado....
 and Big Sandy
Big Sandy River (Wyoming)

The Big Sandy River is a tributary of the Green River in Wyoming in the United States.It rises in eastern Sublette County, Wyoming, on the west side of the continental divide in the southern Wind River Range, in the Bridger Wilderness....
 rivers drain southward from the west side of the range, while the Wind River
Wind River (Wyoming)

The Wind River is the name applied to the upper reaches of the Bighorn River in Wyoming in the United States. The two rivers are sometimes referred to as the Wind/Bighorn....
 drains eastward through the Shoshone Basin
Shoshone Basin

The Shoshone Basin is a semi-arid basin area in western Wyoming in the United States, rimmed by the Wind River Range on the west, the Owl Creek Mountains on the north, and the Granite Mountains on the south....
. The Green is the largest fork of the Colorado River
Colorado River

The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains....
 while the Wind River
Wind River (Wyoming)

The Wind River is the name applied to the upper reaches of the Bighorn River in Wyoming in the United States. The two rivers are sometimes referred to as the Wind/Bighorn....
, after changing its name to the Bighorn River
Bighorn River

The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 461 mi long, in the western United States in the states of Wyoming and Montana....
, is the largest fork of the Yellowstone River
Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately , in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park across the mountains and Great Plains of southe...


Ecology

The Winds are known to have a small Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear ', also known as the silvertip bear, is a subspecies of brown bear ' that lives in the uplands of western North America....
 population, primarily in the northernmost areas. Other mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s include the black bear
American black bear

The American Black Bear is the most common bear species native to North America. It lives throughout much of the continent, from northern Alaska south into Mexico and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean....
, elk
Elk

Elk may refer to:* Various species of deer:** European Elk , also known as Moose** North American Elk , also known as Wapiti** Indian Elk , also known as sambar ...
, moose
Moose

File:Alces alces NA.svgThe moose or elk , , is the largest Extant taxon species in the deer family . Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a "twig-like" configuration....
, mule deer
Mule Deer

The mule deer is a deer whose habitat is in the western half of North America. It gets its name from its large mule-like ears. Adult male mule deer are called bucks, adult females are called does, and young of both sexes are called fawns....
, pronghorn
Pronghorn

The pronghorn , also pronghorn antelope or prong buck, is a species of ungulate mammal native to interior western and central North America....
, bighorn sheep
Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America and Siberia with large horns which can weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae....
, and wolverine
Wolverine

The wolverine is the largest land-dwelling species of the Mustelidae or weasel family in the genus Gulo . It is also called the Glutton or Carcajou....
. Bald eagle
Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the List of national birds and national symbol of the United States....
s, falcon
Falcon

A falcon is any species of bird of prey in the genus Falco. The word comes from their Latin name falco, related to Latin falx because of the shape of these birds' wings....
s and hawk
Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Europe and Asia, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genus Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis....
s are just a few of the 300 species of bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s known to inhabit the region. The streams and lakes are home to cutthroat trout
Cutthroat trout

The cutthroat trout is a species of freshwater fish in the Salmonidae family of order Salmoniformes. It is one of the many fish species colloquially known as trout....
, brown trout
Brown trout

The brown trout and the sea trout are fish of the same species.They are distinguished chiefly by the fact that the brown trout is largely a fresh water fish, while the sea trout shows anadromous reproduction, migrating to the oceans for much of its life and returning to freshwater only to Spawn ....
, Mackinaw Trout (Lake Trout), and Golden Trout — about 2.5 million of which were stocked by a local explorer named Finis Mitchell
Finis Mitchell

Finis Mitchell was an American mountaineering and forester based in Wyoming. During the Great Depression, he and his wife stocked lakes in the Wind River Range with over 2.5 million trout....
 and his wife during the Great Depression. The forests are dominated by lodgepole pine
Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.There are three subspecies, one of them with two Variety ....
, whitebark pine
Whitebark Pine

The Whitebark Pine occurs in the mountains of the Western United States and Canada, specifically the subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada , the Cascade Range, the Pacific Coast Ranges, and the northern Rocky Mountains ....
, fir
Fir

Firs are a genus of between 45-55 species of evergreen Pinophyta in the family Pinaceae. All are trees, reaching heights of 10-80 m tall and trunk diameters of 0.5-4 m when mature....
 and spruce
Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea, a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth....
.

The range sits alongside many of the animal migration routes in the United States and contains several important passes, notably South Pass
South Pass

South Pass is a mountain pass on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. The pass is located in a broad valley between the Wind River Range to the north and the Antelope Hills to the south, in southwestern Fremont County, Wyoming, approximately 35 miles SSW of Lander, Wyoming....
, (7,412 ft / 2,301 m), at the south end of the range, which was one of the more important passes on the Oregon Trail as it passed through the Rockies. Aside from South Pass, which is at the southernmost tip of the range, no roads cross the mountains until Union Pass, (9,210 ft / 2,807 m) at the northern terminus of the range.

Cited references


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