| Wet Mountains Sierra Mojadas |
|
| Mountain Range | |
|
View of Wet Mountain Valley, west of mountain range
|
|
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Colorado |
| County | Custer, Pueblo |
| Part of | Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Rocky Mountains |
| Coordinates | |
| Highest point | Greenhorn Mountain[1] |
| Length | 20 mi (32 km), Nw-SE |
|
Wet Mountains in Colorado
|
|
The Wet Mountains are a small range of mountains in southern Colorado named for the amount of snow they receive in the winter. There are three variant names of this range: Cuerno Verde, Greenhorn Mountains, and Sierra Mojadas[2]. Most of the range is contained in Custer County, and run approximately from Highway 50 to Walsenburg.
The tallest mountain is known as the Greenhorn, which has multiple peaks, the highest of which reaches 12,346 feet. Greenhorn Peak, St Charles Peak and North Peak all go above tree line. Though the mountains do not have high elevations as do many in the state (Colorado has many peaks over 13,000 and 14,000 feet). The range provides the eastern boundary of the Wet Mountain Valley, bordered on the west by the Sangre de Cristos.
The valley contains the small towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff. Within the mountains, Highway 96 weaves its way down to Wetmore by way of Hardscrabble Canyon and is one of only three main exits from the valley. The only other highway in the range is Highway 165, which travels through the range to Rye and Colorado City and can also be noted for Lake Isabel and Bishop's Castle.
Bishop's Castle is a stone castle made to resemble those of the Middle Ages. Parts are completed and open to the public, and it is also being expanded. Both the lake and the castle can be accessed directly from the highway, which also connects to the access route for climbing the Greenhorn. Other towns/communities in the small range include Beulah and Rosita, which is now a ghost town after a period of gold and silver mining over the past two centuries.
Contents |
The Wet mountains are the east flank of an uplifted faulted anticline. The core of the range consists of Precambrian granitic rocks with Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata in fault contact around the southern end and in the northwest.[3] The range lies on the southeast end of the Central Colorado volcanic field and contains Eocene to Oligocene (38–29 Ma) volcanic rocks.[4]