Laramie Mountains

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The Laramie Mountains ( in violet ) with the Oregon Trail

Sherman Granite at Vedauwoo in winter

The Laramie Mountains (Eng. " Laramie Mountains " ) are a mountain range on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. states of Wyoming and Colorado. They were named after the River Laramie River, which cuts through the mountains from southwest to northeast and two shares.

Geography

The Laramie Mountains are the northernmost branch of the city on the eastern edge of the southern Rocky Mountains chains and provide the immediate continuation of the subsequent further south and much higher FrontRange; they achieve in their higher elevations average values ​​only 2400-2900 meters above sea level and are therefore lower than the rest of the Rockies. An exception is the Laramie Peak with an altitude of 3131 meters.

Starting from southeastern Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie, the Laramie Mountains extend in a north - northwesterly direction about 200 miles to go to Casper. Here end the Laramie Mountains, the ridge is interrupted by a plane and continues down to the more northerly Bighorn Mountains. This gap between the two mountain ranges used pioneers and settlers on their way west, so umfuhren eg the Wagenzugsrouten of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express all the northern edge of the Laramie Mountains.

On its west side the Laramie Mountains ( north to south ) the Shirley, Hanna and Laramie basins are accompanied by three intermontane basins. The amount of these basins is rarely below 2135 meters. The northern Shirley Basin - a vast, semi-desert plateau - increases southwestward of 2100 meters gradually to the edge of the Shirley Mountains ( 2400 meters ) on. The Laramie Basin separates the Laramie Mountains of the Medicine Bow Mountains to the south and west; it is - apart from occasional depression, such as the Cooper Lake at 2130 meters above sea level, or the wind blew out wells - only fairly rarely lower than 2135 meters.

Geology

After the Laramie Mountains Lara mixer orogeny was named. This was decisive for the raising of the North American plate in the period before 72-40 million years ago and thus a major portion of the development process of today's Rocky Mountains.

Like the other mountain ranges of the central Rocky Mountains are also the Laramie Mountains, a prominent steeply related disorders basement block which is laterally surrounded by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary overburden. The bedrock consists north of Laramie River from the Wyoming craton - gneisses and migmatites intruded by archaic granites ( at Laramie Peak) and granodiorites and sometimes overlaid by a supracrustal metamorphic volcano- sedimentary sequence ( at Elmers rock ). Southward follows the top to north thrust of approximately 1.75 billion years old and northeast trending Cheyenne belt, which belongs Orogen to the Paleoproterozoic Colorado and its part of many around 1,400 million years old igneous intrusions ( granites, anorthosites, syenites and monzonite ) is penetrated from the Mesoproterozoikum. Representing this may be cited the Sherman Granite. The granite is weathered inselberg -like and rises in several peaks over a broad surface erosion ( quilted treeless plateau ), which lies at about 2135 meters height. The granitic soils are not more than 30 centimeters thick here.

Ecology

In the Laramie Mountains three ecological altitude levels are substantially represented (in the sense of Carpenter):

• Canadian stage
• Transition stage
• Upper Sonoran - stage

On the Laramie Peak nor the Hudsonian level should be present, but flora and fauna are on this granite peaks practically non-existent and thus prohibit a judgment. To altitudinal see also Porter and Cary. The transition from prairie to mountain stage is very gradual on the eastern and north-eastern slopes of the southern Laramie Mountains ( between Cheyenne and Laramie ), in the northern part it is, however, much more abrupt and broken part - the heights vary here between 1370 meters at the North Platte River and 3131 meters at Laramie peak. On the western slopes of the height difference is much lower ( 2135-3131 m).

On his way through the Laramie Mountains of the Laramie River has carved a canyon west of Wheatland through the mountains to the east at Fort Laramie he then flows into the North Platte River. This Canyon is an important ecological boundary that bisects the mountain range. Here namely forming the closed coniferous forests of the northern part. The southern part is a much drier, more open, knows virtually no forests - one exception is the Pole Mountain ( and vicinity) with his friends among rock climbers and picnic so popular granite of Vedauwoo.

The motorway route Interstate 25 between Casper and Cheyenne allows beautiful views of the mountain range.