Popo Agie Wilderness in the Wind River Range

The Wind River Range is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States

The Wind River Range (or "Winds" for short), is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW-SE for approximately 140 miles (210 km), with the central ridge forming a section of the continental divide. The range contains Gannett Peak which at 13,804 feet (4,207 m) is the highest peak in Wyoming. There are more than 20 other peaks in excess of 13,000 feet (3,962 m). Two large National Forests encompass the greater part of the mountain range. Shoshone National Forest extends from Montana to the southern tip of the Winds, along the eastern side of the continental divide and oversees 4 million acres (16,000 km²). Bridger-Teton National Forest is found west of the divide and has approximately 3.4 million acres (14,000 km²). Both National Forests are also within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Image File history File links Popo_Agie_Wilderness_Wind_River_Range. ... Image File history File links Popo_Agie_Wilderness_Wind_River_Range. ... The Wind River Range in Wyoming ©2004 Matthew Trump File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Wind River Range in Wyoming ©2004 Matthew Trump File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The most general definition of a mountain range is a group of mountains bordered by lowlands. ... White Goat Wilderness Area, Alberta, Canada The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a broad mountain range in western North America. ... State nickname: Equality State Official languages English Capital Cheyenne Largest city Cheyenne Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) Senators Craig Thomas (R) Mike Enzi (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 10th 253,554 km² 0. ... This article is about continental divides in general terms. ... Gannett Peak is the highest peak in the U.S. state of Wyoming and straddles the boundary between Fremont and Sublette Counties along the continental divide. ... This article is on national forests in the United States. ... Shoshone National Forest covers 2. ... State nickname: Treasure State Official languages English Capital Helena Largest city Billings Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) Senators Max Baucus (D) Conrad Burns (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 4th 381,156 km² 1 Population  - Total (2000)  - Density Ranked 44th 902,195 2. ... Bridger-Teton National Forest is located in western Wyoming, United States. ... Greater Yellowstone is the last large, nearly intact ecosystem in the northern temperate zone of the Earth and is partly located in Yellowstone National Park. ...

The Winds are composed primarily of a granitic batholith which is granite rock formed deep under the surface of the Earth, over 1 billion years ago. Over hundreds of millions of years, rocks that were once covering this batholith eroded away. As the land continued to rise during the Laramide orogeny, further erosion occurred until all that remained were the granitic rocks. The ice ages beginning 500,000 years ago began carving the rocks into their present shapes. Within the Winds, numerous lakes were formed by the glaciers and numerous cirques, or circular valleys, were carved out of the rocks, the most well known being the Cirque of the Towers, in the southern section of the range. Shoshone National Forest claims that there are 16 named and 140 unnamed glaciers just on the east side of the range for a total of 156, with another 27 reported by Bridger-Teton National Forest for the western slopes of the range. Several of these are the largest glaciers in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. Gannett Glacier which flows down the north slope of Gannett Peak, is the largest single glacier in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S., and is located in the Fitzpatrick Wilderness in Shoshone National Forest. Half Dome A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive (also called plutonic) rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earths crust. ... Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... Earth, also known as Terra, and Tellus mostly in the 19th century, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ... The Laramide orogeny was a 30 million year period of mountain building in western North America that started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 million years ago, and ended in the Late Paleogene 40 million years ago. ... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. ... A cirque is an amphitheatre-like valley of glacial origin, formed by glacial erosion at the head of the glacier. ... Cirque of the Towers The Cirque of the Towers is located in the Wind River Range Wyoming, U.S. part which is in the Bridger Wilderness in Bridger-Teton National Forest, while the remainder is in the Popo-Agie Wilderness in Shoshone National Forest. ... Gannett Glacier Gannett Glacier is the largest glacier in the Rocky Mountains within the United States. ... The Fitzpatrick Wilderness is located in Shoshone National Forest in the U.S. state of Wyoming. ...

Several major rivers have headwaters on either side of the range. The Green and Big Sandy rivers drain southward from the west side of the range, while the Wind River drains eastward through the Shoshone Basin. The Green is the largest fork of the Colorado River while the Wind River, after changing its name to the Bighorn River, is the largest fork of the Yellowstone River The Green River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States The Green River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 730 mi (1,175 km) long, in the western United States. ... The Big Sandy River, a tributary of the Green River, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States The Big Sandy River (also called Big Sandy Creek) is a tributary of the Green River in Wyoming in the United States. ... The Wind-Bighorn rivers The Wind River is the name applied to the upper reaches of the Bighorn River in Wyoming in the United States. ... Categories: US geography stubs ... Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. ... The Wind-Bighorn rivers The Wind River is the name applied to the upper reaches of the Bighorn River in Wyoming in the United States. ... The Wind-Bighorn rivers The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately 461 mi (742 km) long, in the western United States in the states of Wyoming and Montana. ... The Yellowstone River, shown highlighted The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri, approximately 671 mi (1,080 km long), in the western United States. ...

The Winds are known to have a small Grizzly bear population, primarily in the northernmost areas near Yellowstone. Other mammals include the black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, pronghorn and wolverine. Bald eagles, falcons and hawk are just a few of the 300 species of birds known to inhabit the region. The streams and lakes are home to cutthroat trout, brown trout and northern pike. The forests are dominated by lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, fir and spruce. Grizzly may refer to: The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), a subspecies of the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos). ... Orders Subclass Monotremata Monotremata Subclass Marsupialia Didelphimorphia Paucituberculata Microbiotheria Dasyuromorphia Peramelemorphia Notoryctemorphia Diprotodontia Subclass Placentalia Xenarthra Dermoptera Desmostylia Scandentia Primates Rodentia Lagomorpha Insectivora Chiroptera Pholidota Carnivora Perissodactyla Artiodactyla Cetacea Afrosoricida Macroscelidea Tubulidentata Hyracoidea Proboscidea Sirenia The mammals are the class of vertebrate animals primarily characterized by the presence of mammary... Binomial name Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780 The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus), also known as simply the black bear or cinnamon bear, is the most common bear in North America. ... Elk may mean: Quarter-ton/tonne and larger deer: Elk in its European sense, i. ... Binomial name Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758) Alces alces, called the moose in North America and the elk in Europe (see also elk for other animals called elk) is the largest of all the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from other members of Cervidae by the form of the antlers of its... Binomial name Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817) The Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) is a deer whose habitat is in the western half of North America. ... Binomial name Antilocapra americana Ord, 1815 Subspecies The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae, and the fastest land animal in North America running at speeds of 54 mph (90 km/h). ... Binomial name Gulo gulo (Linnaeus, 1758) The Wolverine (Gulo gulo) is the largest species of the Mustelidae or weasel family, and is also called the Glutton or Carcajou. ... Binomial name Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a raptor that is indigenous to North America, and is the national symbol of the United States of America. ... For other uses of the word falcon, see falcon (disambiguation). ... The term hawk refers to birds of prey in any of three senses: Strictly, to mean any of the species in the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis, and Megatriorchis. ... For other meanings of bird, see bird (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Oncorhynchus clarki (Richardson, 1836) Subspecies See text. ... Binomial name Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Salmo trutta fario Salmo trutta trutta The Brown Trout (Salmo trutta fario) and the Sea Trout (Salmo trutta trutta) are fish distinguished chiefly by the fact that the Brown Trout is largely a freshwater fish, while the Sea Trout shows anadromous reproduction, spawning... Binomial name Esox lucius Linnaeus, 1758 The Northern Pike (Esox lucius) is a carnivorous fish of brackish and freshwaters of the northern hemisphere. ... Binomial name Pinus contorta Douglas Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) is a common tree in western North America. ... Binomial name Pinus albicaulis Engelm. ... FIR may stand for: finite impulse response (a property of some digital filters) far infrared, i. ... Species About 35; see text. ...

The range sits alongside many of the animal migration routes in the United States and contains several important passes, notably South Pass, (7,412 ft/2,301 m), at the south end of the range, which was one of the more important passes on the Oregon Trail as it passed through the Rockies. Aside from South Pass, which is at the southernmost tip of the range, no roads cross the mountains until Union Pass, (9,210 ft/2,807 m) at the northern terminus of the range. South Pass near the south end of the Wind River Range in central Wyoming USA, is a wide, low pass through the Rocky Mountains used by many of the western trails. ... The route of the Oregon Trail is shown in red in the western United States Map from The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail 1852-1906 by Ezra Meeker. ...

External links

• Shoshone National Forest Federal website
• Bridger-Teton National Forest Federal website
• Sublette County information
• Wyoming Tourism information
• Continental Divide Trail, map and information page
• Article discussing glacial retreat in the Wind River Range
• Glaciers shrinking