Raft River Mountains

Raft River Mountains
Range
Road along snowbank in the Raft River Mountains
Country United States
State Utah
Coordinates
Highest point
 - elevation 9,500 ft (2,896 m) [1]
Area 600 sq mi (1,554 km2) [1]
Geology Precambrian to Cambrian metamorphic rocks[2]
The Raft River Mountains are the southeast edge of the Columbia Basin (green) in the small northwest Utah portion of the Great Basin Divide. The Great Basin side (tan) of the range is in the Northern Great Salt Lake Desert Watershed (formerly of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville).

The Raft River Mountains are a mountain range in northern Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The ghost town of Yost is on the north central slopes. Tributaries of the Raft River drain the northern slopes of the range.

Contents

Geography

Located in the Sawtooth National Forest,[3] the range's montane forest ecoregion is "surrounded by montane steppes and desert".[1] The range is oriented in an east-west orientation, and is a portion of the Great Basin Divide between the Bonneville Basin of the Great Basin (south).[1]

Geology

The central mass of the range consists of Precambrian metamorphic rocks.[2] The Elba Quartzite with interlayered schist outcrops along the southern slopes of the range and in the Grouse Creek Mountains to the southwest. Cambrian quartzite outcrops in the west part of the range and in the Grouse Creek range and the Goose Creek Mountains to the west. The thinly bedded quartzites have been quarried for building stone in the area.[4]

Flora and fauna

The range's plants and animals include pines and rodents of the Northern Basin & Range ecoregion of the Columbia Plateau.[1]

Camping and activities

The range's Bull Flat trail leads to Bull Flat, Bull Lake, and Bull Mountain and passes former mines (the trailhead is near a campground).[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Houseman, R; Baumann, R (1997). "Zoogeographic affinities of the stoneflies (Plecoptera) of the Raft River Mountains, Utah" (abstract). Western North American Naturalist, North America, 5731 07. https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/wnan/index.php/wnan/article/viewArticle/797. 
  2. ^ a b 2448, RAFT RIVER MOUNTAINS FAULT, Utah Geological Survey
  3. ^ Mohlenbrock, Robert (2006). This land: a guide to western national forests. Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 196. ISBN 0-520-23967-9. 
  4. ^ Bryce T. Tripp, The Quartzite Building Stone Industry of the Raft River and Grouse Creek, Special Study 84, Utah Geological Survey, 1994
  5. ^ Steadman, Jeffery (2007). The Best in Tent Camping: Utah. Birmingham, AL: Menasha Ridge Press. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-0-89732-647-6.