Never Summer Peak

Never Summer Peak
East aspect, from Kawuneeche Valley
Highest point
Elevation	12,452 ft (3,795 m) [1]
Prominence	278 ft (85 m) [1]
Parent peak	Bowen Mountain (12,524 ft) [1]
Isolation	0.82 mi (1.32 km) [1]
Coordinates	40°22′19″N105°56′14″W / 40.37203°N 105.93732°W / 40.37203; -105.93732 [2]
Geography
Never Summer Peak Location in Colorado Show map of Colorado Never Summer Peak Never Summer Peak (the United States) Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Colorado
County	Grand / Jackson
Protected area	Never Summer Wilderness [2]
Parent range	Rocky Mountains Never Summer Mountains
Topo map	USGS Bowen Mountain
Geology
Age of rock	Paleoproterozoic [3]
Mountain type	Fault block
Type of rock	Hornblende Gneiss, Amphibolite [3]
Climbing
Easiest route	hiking class 2 [1]

Never Summer Peak is a 12,452-foot-elevation (3,795-meter) mountain summit in Colorado, United States.

Description

Never Summer Peak is situated on the Continental Divide along the boundary shared by Grand County and Jackson County. ^[1] The west side of the peak is in the Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest and the east side is in the Never Summer Wilderness. Precipitation runoff from the mountain's west slope drains into headwaters of the Illinois River, with the east slope draining to the Colorado River via Baker Gulch. The counterintuitive direction of water flow is because the Continental Divide forms a loop in this area, whereby the peak's west slope runoff flows to the Atlantic Ocean and the east slope to the Pacific. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 2,050 feet (625 meters) above Baker Gulch in one mile (1.6 km) and 1,050 feet (320 meters) above Parika Lake in 0.6 miles (0.97 km). The mountain's toponym has not been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names. ^[4]

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Never Summer Peak is located in an alpine subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers. ^[5] Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer, with a dry period in late spring.

See also

• Mountains of Grand County, Colorado
• Mountains of Jackson County, Colorado
• Mountainsportal

References

1. "Never Summer Peak - 12,452' CO". listsofjohn.com. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
2. "Never Summer Peak, Colorado". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
3. Preliminary Geologic Map of the Bowen Mountain 7.5 Minute Quadrangle, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado, James C. Cole, U.S. Geological Survey, 2011.
4. Lisa Foster, Rocky Mountain National Park: The Complete Hiking Guide, Big Earth Publishing, 2005, ISBN   9781565795501.
5. Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11. ISSN   1027-5606.