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Many of the most spectacular landscapes in the American West owe their rugged profiles not only to glaciation but also to their comparative youth. The Tetons, for example, are believed to be only 9 million years old (Geology of the Grand Teton area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and the current uplift of the Cascades began ca. 8 million years ago. The major volcanic peaks in the Cascades are even younger, having begun to rise within the last 1.6 million years (Geology of the Pacific Northwest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). By contrast, the Laramide Orogeny, which was the catalyst to formation of the Rockies, began in the Late Cretaceous, some 70 million years ago (Laramide orogeny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).
Thats true when the uwharries stood at twenty thousand feet there were no rocky mountain range(uwharries are supposed to be the oldest mountain range in the world now only stand at 1,000ft
I do feel amongst all of the Rocky Mountain states, that Idaho has some of the finest mountain scenery and has the most lush and green mountains of all of the USA Rocky states which makes sense because Idaho is the most forested of the USA Rocky States. The spine that forms the state line of Idaho and Montana is amazing. The Idaho side is more moist while the Montana side is dryer.
The first time I camped in Idaho was along the Lochsa river, probably about 20 miles west of the Montana Border in the Bitterroot mountains (northern Idaho.) Very humid. We woke up in the morning and although the outside temperature was about 55 degrees we still saw our breath on the air, something that doesn't happen at all in Colorado if the temperature is above the 30s. Another thing that grabbed my attention was the noticeably different set of vegetation compared to the drier Rockies of the southwest. Up in the Bitterroot there are lots of ferns and moss, and the pine needles are large, flat and waxy ... kind of "rubbery." I was impressed with the number of raging streams and rivers. We were there in July after a record snowfall year, and these creeks were everywhere, all pouring into the Lochsa, which is a huge river (by Colorado standards) and which, it turned out, is but a tributary of the Clearwater river.
Later in that same trip, we backpacked in the Sawtooth mountains. Those were drier and reminded me more of Colorado in terms of their landscape and vegetation.
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Originally Posted by skihikeclimb
LOL the Canadian rockies are far superior
I prefer to hike any day in mosquito-free bug-free Colorado.
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Originally Posted by jbear182
The only mts. in Colorado worth a s*** are the San Juans. The rest are just rounded/flat tops and not much to look at.
Be fair. Yeah the San Juans are great, but so is the Holy Cross Wilderness near Aspen and I'm partial to north-central Colorado. There's plenty of places in Colorado where you can have a hiking experience where you'll run into at most three or four other pairs of hikers.
That picture in post #3 is of Sierra Blanca in the Sacramento Mts. of southern New Mexico, a range which is part of the Rio Grande Rift, not the Rockies.
As far as a lot of people generalizing all western U.S. mountains as the Rockies just means a lot of people are wrong.
That picture in post #3 is of Sierra Blanca in the Sacramento Mts. of southern New Mexico, a range which is part of the Rio Grande Rift, not the Rockies.
As far as a lot of people generalizing all western U.S. mountains as the Rockies just means a lot of people are wrong.
and the other pic at the top right corner is Denali in Alaska (Brooks Range).
Alaska Range. Brooks Range is quite a bit further north.
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