Rocky Mountains

For many Americans and Canadians, the Rockies are synonymous with the very word "mountains" - high, majestic, craggy and snowy mountain walls that stretch from the Arctic to Mexico. Currently, much of the Rockies are protected by public parks and forest lands, and is a popular tourist destination, especially for hiking, mountaineering, rock and ice climbing as well as back country skiing.

The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain system in the western North America. The most impressive part of the Rockies is the Canadian Rockies - a huge glacier-clad rampart that makes most of the U.S. Rockies seem like foothills. U.S. Rockies are not a very snowy range - there are a few small glaciers in Montana and Wyoming, and snowfields can be found on all the higher peaks at any time, but from July to September virtually any peak can be climbed without having to deal with any snow. The height above sea level of these mountains are comparable to the Zagros, the Atlas Mountains and even the Alps, but the fact they are located in desert with elevation about 4000 feet, considerably lowering the local relief. From a distance, especially from the flatlands of the Great Plains, the Rockies look very impressive, but only twenty major summits in the entire range require any technical mountaineering skills or gear whatsoever. The U. S. Rockies are not a single mountain wall - they are a collection of about a hundred separate ranges spread out over six states, often with wide gaps and plains between the ranges.

The Rocky Mountains stretch from the northernmost part of British Columbia in western Canada, to New Mexico state, in the southwestern United States. The eastern edge lies where the ranges rise from the Great Plains, generally following I-25 (an Interstate Highway in the western US, It is primarily a north–south highway). The northern edge is the Liard River, and the western edge in Canada is the great valley of the Rocky Mountain Trench. In the U.S. the western edge of the Rockies is indistinct, where the high ranges of the Rockies merge into the deserts of the Great Basin. The southern limit is where the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Ranges peter out in central New Mexico.

The term "The Rockies" is so broad that in any local context it is virtually meaningless. The United States definition of "The Rockies", for example, includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and Montana, whereas their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate mountain system in Canada.

 

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