| Mount Sneffels | |
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View of Mount Sneffels from the north |
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| Elevation | 14,158 ft (4,315 m) NAVD 88[1] |
| Prominence | 3,030 ft (924 m) [2] |
| Listing | Colorado Fourteener |
| Location | |
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Mount Sneffels
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| Location | Ouray County, Colorado, USA |
| Range | San Juan Mountains |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Sneffels |
Mount Sneffels is a fourteen thousand foot mountain peak in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of the northern San Juan Mountains, in Ouray County approximately 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Ouray. The summit of Mount Sneffels is the highest point in Ouray County. Mount Sneffels is notable for its great vertical relief, as it rises 7,100 feet above the town of Ridgway, Colorado to the northeast.
The primary route to the summit follows a creek bed up from Yankee Boy Basin. A secondary route follows a ridge line to the summit from the saddle of Blue Lakes Pass.
Mount Sneffels was named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. An area on the western flank of Mount Sneffels gives the appearance of volcanic crater.
Seen from the Dallas Divide on State Highway 62, Mount Sneffels is one of the most photographed mountains in Colorado.