![]() Within Yellowstone is Electric Peak, at 10,992 feet, the range’s stunning high point. North of Yellowstone, the Gallatins continue to the edge of Bozeman, Montana, forming a spectacular roadless area of more than 500,000 acres. Much of the Gallatin Range in Yellowstone is set aside for the spring, summer and fall as a Bear Management Unit, where human travel is restricted to the few trails that traverse the range to protect grizzly bear habitat. Albert Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury serving under President Thomas Jefferson, and his name became part of the landscape in 1804 when Lewis and Clark named one of the Three Forks of the Missouri River for him. On Yellowstone’s northwestern side are the ten thousand foot peaks of the Gallatin Range. Look for the Red Mountains as you drive south along Yellowstone Lake. A backpack trip to Heart Lake combined with a hike up the trail to the summit of Mount Sheridan is one of Yellowstone’s finest backcountry outings. The Red Mountains are thought to have once been connected to the Washburn Range before an eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera obliterated thirty miles of the range. This remote range reaches its high point at Mount Sheridan, 10,308 feet, also the site of a now little-used fire lookout tower. Less well known are the Red Mountains, south of Yellowstone Lake. Washburn’s summit also provides one of the finest vantage points in the whole park. Old roads lead to the summit from two different trailheads, allowing hikers to reach the fire lookout tower on the summit via a six-mile round trip hike. Mount Washburn, at 10,243 feet is the range’s high point and one of the most popular hiking destinations in Yellowstone. Dunraven Pass road crosses the range, reaching nearly 9,000 feet. In the north central part of the park, between Tower Junction and Canyon Village, is the Washburn Range, named for Henry Dana Washburn, leader of the 1870 Washburn Expedition. Only two mountain ranges lie entirely within Yellowstone’s borders. These great high ridges collect immense quantities of snow which melts and feeds many of our most important rivers such as the Missouri, Yellowstone and Snake. ![]() The Continental Divide snakes its way across southern Yellowstone, where waters part between the Atlantic and Pacific on the Two Ocean Plateau, Flat Mountain, Overlook Mountain and the Madison Plateau. Yellowstone Features Several Mountain Ranges Peregrine falcons shriek from cliffs where they lay their eggs right on mountain ledges, and mountain lions prowl the edges of the canyons and cliffs. Rare and elusive wolverines prowl the remotest corners of the mountains, seeking carrion and raising their kits. Below treeline, bears may be found in the late summer eating the nuts of the Whitebark pine tree, while Clark’s nutcrackers gather and stash these same nuts. Pikas (alpine rabbits) and yellow-bellied marmots munch on flowers and grasses during the brief summer. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep scamper along the crumbly rock ridges and cliffs and golden eagles ride the ridges of air created by mountain winds. Above treeline (9,000 to 10,000 feet), wide meadows of dwarf plants flower in the summer, creating “alpine gardens” of incredible color and variety. Yellowstone’s abundant and cold mountain terrain sustains a surprising diversity of life. While the park’s interior is mostly a vast forested volcanic plateau, much of its perimeter rises in high mountain peaks, all part of the Rocky Mountain chain. ![]() Born of fire and ice, the mountains of Yellowstone are rugged, remote and wild. ![]()
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