Thank you so much for mentioning the original peoples who lived in this area. All too often, the Indians are completely ignored when discussing North American history.
@@TBird89Is this for international audience (outside English-speaking North America) or for Canadians? I ask because I’m still uncertain how other English -speaking countries denote measurements even though they all supposedly use the metric system.
@@ttopero mate metric is metric it’s that simple. There are only 4 countries that use imperial. Besides America who know that there are over 200+ other countries on this planet right !
Unfortunately the real history is a little more boring, simply being that the miners were getting silver from lead deposits. The lead deposits were discovered during gold mining in the original town just east/uphill from here. And in the late 1800s Leadville was the 2nd largest city in Colorado behind Denver!
I'm Australian. My wife & I drove 5,400km of the US element of the Rockies from Montana to Colorado in Sep & Oct of 2013. Loved the sights we saw and the people we met. Thanks for your footage; it brought back some great memories.
We were very lucky, encountering snow on only one day. Having crossed the Mojave from Palm Springs, after staying in Sedona a couple of nights, we started up the west side of the Rockies after a week in the Grand Canyon. We did so by heading through Monument Valley to Moab. From there, we went through Salt Lake City, using the I70 for about 25 miles. We followed I15 to Idaho Falls, then headed up Idaho State 20 to West Yellowstone. We stayed so many nights in truly wonderful small communities. During our time in Yellowstone, at Old Faithful, we ventured outside the park to Gardiner in Montana, later using Wyoming State 191 to get to the Grand Tetons and Jackson. We explored west Wyoming too, going back and forth on State 26, to places like Fort Washakie and Dubois. We followed the Snake via State 89 to Alpine in Utah (you have to do that drive; it's stunning), then turned south and went to Kemmerer, Granger and eventually Vernal, a complete contrast to the Snake River run. In Colorado, we worked our way east to Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, eyeing the highest part of the Rockies the entire time. We then stayed a few days with Australian friends in Steamboat Springs. We popped down via Winter Park and Empire to take up the I70 once more to Denver. From there we flew to Vancouver, which we had explored two months previously. Can't tell you how many wonderful folk we met, in all sorts of places. Loved the very small communities especially. What we saw is some of the finest ground on Planet Earth ... and I have been lucky enough to be sent to six of the seven continents in my 61 years. North America is one of my favourite spots to travel.
Another really good drive here is the 101 in California. If you ever come back, you should totally give that one a drive. It goes up through the redwoods. So beautiful. State route 12 in Utah is really good too.
@antoniomontano4219 Not only does it do that it continues under water from Chile down to Antarctica and in Alaska curves back south undersea into the Aleutian Islands.
I have watched a video here on RUclips by Myron Cook, a Geologist, who said that the Rockies were formed without the upsurge of tectonic plates and that makes the Rockies unique. I was born in Whitefish, Montana and lived north of there for many years. Three of my four siblings were also born in Whitefish. We loved the Rockies.
The Rockies were mostly formed by the flat slab subduction of the Farallon Plate. The Alaska Range (Denali and company) seems to also be experiencing the same sort of forces right now with a section of the Pacific plate. Mountain Building in the Rockies ended when the Farallon Plate rolled back in the Tertiary period. Geologically, the Rocky Mountains are erosive at this point and there is no more mountain building going on. Basin and Range uplift has encroached on the Rockies, hence the Tetons, which are geographically in the Rockies, but Geologically not Rockies. There is also some uplift in the south due to the Rio Grande Rift, but it is not really enough to be called mountain building, and crustal rebound in the north. But overall, the Rockies are generally considered to be a dead Mountain Range. Not as dead as the Appalachians, but they are also younger.
@ryandvernychuk7033 whitefish is seemingly dominated by us Albertans lol, we provide the cash flow. I'm down there for skiing and summer stuff quite often.
almost the entire canadian history is omitted here, and I would have liked to see more mention of the mountain range's impact on climate and weather of the surrounding regions, such as the west coast rain forest, Alberta gets more hail than anywhere else in the world, and funneling of polar vortexes contributing to unique storm formations in the great plains. Part of the resource wealth is tremendous opportunities for hydro-electric power all the way from BC to Hoover Dam. Other than that this is a great overview
@@user-dh6yv9uo4k How can they "ruin" something they themselves created? The town didn't even exist until 1966, and arose in response to people moving there to enjoy or work at the ski area. In other words, the town *wouldn't even exist* were it not for well-heeled vacationers with lots of money to spend.
As a guy from the Appalachian region, it still blows my mind that once upon a time, I used to live and work for several seasons deep in the southern Rockies of New Mexico. Later on, I got to participate in the great Lewis and Clark bicentennial expedition and got to explore the northwest US Rocky Mountains. I sure do miss it!
I’m miffed, I got into 17 minutes into your program on the Rockies, you didn’t mention my home state of Idaho. We’re on the western side of the Rockies which has the Lemhi, Sawtooth, and the Whitecloud Ranges. We are also home to the Snake and Salmon Rivers. Our mountain ranges are not part of the Cascades nor are they in Washington or Oregon. Our Native American tribes are the Nez Pierce, Lemhi, Shoshone, and Blackfoot. Idaho has a narrow strip of the Yellowstone National Park on its border and the western side of the Tetons on its border. Idaho is not in Iowa nor is Des Moines’s a suburb of Boise. Thank you for your attention and I accept the slight that all Idaho Hans must feel from your video. Have a great day. God bless you.
@@JayzeVo17 yes I agree with you on the Bitterroot’s and a whole lot more. The Rockies have two sides and when someone only recognizes the Eastern side is a disservice to the whole majesty of the great Rocky Mountains.
Hello, Californian here! Thank you for sharing about Idaho. I love videos like these because of the wonderful comments filling in the gaps and talking about their home states. Honestly, the United States is a real wonder, and I hope to visit all its marvels :)
Why would Des Moines be a suburb of Boise? There almost exactly the same size on population and Des Moines area is bigger. I live near Des Moines. And by the way he did mention Boise. So he did basically bring up Idaho.@@JayzeVo17
I was thinking the same thing; especially considering that of all the states and provinces on the map, Idaho is the one state is that is most dominated by the Rockies by land area, whereas for every other state the range only makes up a portion of their most interesting territory.
Nice to see Kelowna get a shout-out as the smallest major metro area in the "Rockies"...but it's pronounced Kel-OH-nuh, not kel-OW-nuh. :) In BC we generally don't associate the Okanagan Valley as part of the Rockies, but once you get to Revelstoke, we do.
@@TheDrew2022 I concurr...but the Columbia Range is basically a part of the Rockies. The primary range of the Rockies to me is everything between Golden and Canmore
Although Kelowna may not feel close to the Rockies, this is more due to where the roads are built than geographic proximity. In reality there are some pretty sizable mountains just to the east of Kelowna, but because there are no real highways through there and access is pretty limited people don't realize how close they are. That being said, I'd be reluctant to classify the Okanagan as apart of the Rockie Mountain region.
Cringed at the pronunciation haha, but I agree. Never thought of Kelowna as being part of the Rockies, Golden and Revelstoke was kind of what I associated with the entrance to the Rockies. I do miss growing up in Kelowna though!
A lot of people tend to call the US one of the most geographically beautiful countries on Earth, but we all have to credit the Rocky Mountains and the North American Cordillera in general as being the poster child for most of America’s natural beauty.
That honestly just sounds like you are unaware of any of the other natural wonders of our nation. In my home state of Wisconsin, we have the Driftless Area & the Lake Superior Coastline. Mountains are impressive, to be sure, but there are other natural wonders to behold. Bigger isn't always better. The Smoky Mountains have their own allure too. Although they are much older and more weathered than the Rockies.
The US geographically surely are a nature wonder of the world. But the US are, more than a "nation", a kind of "continent", such as are Canada, China, Russia (of course), Australia, Brazil... the huge extention of the surface of these states of course makes them "natural beauties". You have hundreds of thousands of square km (or miles, if you prefer the imperial system) there: of course you cna find beauty on such a big area! I'm from Italy, which is smaller than California alone, but we're blessed by a wonderful nature and diversity in such a small area that it's hard to find elsewhere in the world. In a terrioty of approx. 300.000 square km (approx 116.000 suqare miles) you have a wonderful sea (much diverse across the country and islands), beautiful mountains (Alps, Appenines), plains, hills, etc... I've never seen such a diverse nature and buaty in such a small area in my life.
I have to point out that the Tetons are NOT Rocky Mountains. Their uplift is due to Basin and Range extension, not the Sevier and Laramide Orogenies, which formed the Rocky Mountains. They are geologically very different even if they are near actual Rockies ranges such as the Wind River Range. The Tetons formed about 30 million years ago and are still growing, the Rockies are a dead range that ended mountain building about 55-60 million years ago.
@@keithpalmer4547 The Canadian Rockies are experiencing some uplift due to crustal rebound caused by the absence of the ice sheets, but they are not experiencing mountain building like the Alps, Himalayas, Alaska Range, etc. Uplift and Mountain building are not the same thing. The Tetons, and the rest of the Basin and range are experiencing Mountain Building uplift, the geological Rockies are in the erosive stage of a Mountain range's life.
@@deltabluesdavidraye Uplift and Mountain Building are not the same thing. There. Much of the Canadian Rockies are affected by Crustal Rebound due to the retreat of the ice sheets in North America. While there are small sections of uplift in the American Rockies, this is largely outweighed by erosion. There are some Laramide and Sevier Ranges (true Rockies) also being affected by Basin and Range uplift as well, such as the Wasatch in Utah. In general the flat slab subduction of the Farallon Plate, which caused the formation of the Rockies during the Sevier and Laramide Orogenies ended in the early Tertiary when Slab roll back occurred. The Farallon plate no longer exists, except in smaller remnants such as the Nazca and Juan De Fuca Plates, so the forces that caused the mountain building of the Rockies are no longer present, and have not been for a long time.
I was a Jammer (drove one of the antique red buses) in Glacier National Park in Montana for 6 months in 1993. Best job I've ever had! I lived for a while in various places in Alberta, Lethbridge, Calgary, Cardston and it was so amazing in the 90s! I spent three years going to college in Rexburg Idaho and that too was so amazing to me who's from the Finger Lakes Region of New York State (think very green and lots of cows, apples, and corn). I loved the mountains out there, I was able to get to Salt Lake, Denver, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton.
My question, however, is that you include both Utah and Idaho on the map of the Rocky Mountains, and also include both Salt Lake City and Boise as being population centers in the Rocky Mountains, yet in your description of where the Rocky Mountains are you left out both Idaho and Utah as the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. You only described the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, as being Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, yet you leave out the western edge states.
what's interesting as well when talking about where the western edge of the Rocky Mountains is and then the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains is the difference in the two mountain building events of the Sevier and Larimide orogens. I agree that it's very difficult to distinguish where one mountain range begins and another mountain range ends, however, one of the key distinctions that divides the larger Rocky Mountains into two separate and unique divisions are those two orogens, the Sevier Orogen and the Laramide Orogen. The Sevier is much longer, north to south, extending from Canada down through Idaho and Montana, and into Utah, the northern and western section of the Rockies. The Laramide is a broader, bulkier section to the east, in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
@@tayloraverett1841 Also Basin and Range Extension is encroaching on the Rockies, and caused the uplift of the Tetons, and also might be causing some in the Wasatch, as that would make sense, but unsure on that...
Left out Arizona. Half the eastern and northern part of the state is part of the Rocky Mountain chain! It's the "back side" "front range" or "Intermountain west" which includes the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau.
I really have to point out something tangential: A VPN doesn't create a private connection between you and "the internet." There is no "the internet." What a VPN does is create a private connection between you and the VPN provider. Which means you are simply moving the problem from "I don't trust my ISP" to "I trust my VPN provider." And the question you have to ask is, *why* do you trust your VPN provider, to which you are providing complete access tethered directly to your name and bank details?
The Wasatch Front and the greater Salt Lake metro area is actually 2.7 million. The largest open pit mine on earth is on the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley, Kennecott copper.
Dividing the Wasatch Front into three metro areas really obscures how populated the area around Salt Lake is. It made sense when Ogden, SLC, and Provo-Orem were all separated, but the merging over the last two decades has really changed that. Combined statistical areas shed a lot of light on this.
I think the Gila Mountain range in Southern New Mexico is part of the Rockies. There is a small gap between these and the mountains in northern New Mexico but Wyoming has a similar and even larger gap in the Great Divide Basin near Rawlins. These mountains are rocky and rugged and quite high as well.
In Canada it would be second to the Canadian shield. The Canadian Shield is a vast igneous intrusion from southern Ontario and Quebec that reaches to the arctic in the Northwest territories and the far north of Quebec. It why Canada is one of the top mining countries in the world.
I've been watching your channel for at least the last year or so, and I have to say that lately I've noticed not only a visible improvement in your lighting/choice of background, but also your on-camera presence and exposition. Keep up the amazing work, and good luck continuing forward! 👍
@@Plantbliss Beautiful, but the long, dark winters are not for the faint of heart. I own a place out there and it's breathtaking, but staying for more than a month or so outside of the summer really gets to me.
@AUniqueHandleName444 what you talking about it don't get that dark in the winter. This ain't alaska. Oh wait it is long dark cold and it rains everyday, no one should move here. Ain't no jobs either stay where you are.
@@AUniqueHandleName444 Hard to sympathize with a person who states when I live in one of my houses for a month, I get the blues. Somewhat like complaining how much more you have to pay to have the oil in your Lamborghini changed. Also used to live in Poulsbo, love the Nordic aesthetic. Unfortunately had work in Seattle so commute time could be 90+ minutes each way.
Saw the re enactment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 2004 on the River in Illinois near St Louis, MO, and a dinner near Bethalto, MO, where the characters dressed as Lewis and Clark and others were present. The Father of the husband we were visiting in Dorsey, IL, was a re enactor on one of the Keel Boats, and the next day we visited a Lewis and Clark museum in the area, with exhibits such as the Keelboat used for their supplies.😊
That's a serious oversight in this video, yeah. In Colorado alone, the area around Grand Junction, up into the North Fork of the Gunnison River, has started to specialize in high-end agriculture that requires no subsidies to be profitable. Vineyards, orchards, hops fields, farm-to-table areas that use legacy seed-stock with no GMOs -- just all sorts of lucrative agriculture.
We crossed the Canadian Rockies, Banff, and Lake Louise, stopped at Kamloops onto Expo 86 in Vancouver, from a suburb of NYC in mid Sept 1986, 3 weeks and 7000 miles After Seattle.we went to Custer,s Balltlefield, Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park, where there was some snow in early October. I was 42 then, now 80 😊
I'm going to protest Albuquerque being part of the Rocky ecosystem. The Rockies end near Santa Fe, and it's around a 50-60 mile drive from Abq. to Santa Fe with a lot of open space. Yet, Santa Fe and Las Vegas NM are considered part of the Abq. greater metro area. They're not.
You skipped over the Idaho Rockies. The Colorado Rockies may be the tallest but the Idaho Rockies are much more rugged (more difficult to visit or travel through). It was the Idaho Rockies that nearly ended the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They made their way across Montana until they reached Idaho where they had to stop until they got help.
Just so you know, the footage you show of a highway snaking through beautiful mountain scenery, accompanied by the words "The Trans-Canada Highway, which runs through these parks [Banff and Jasper], offers some of the most scenic drives in the world", is misleading for two reasons. Firstly, it is NOT the Trans-Canada Highway in the footage. The footage is actually of the Icefields Parkway which runs from a junction with the Trans-Canada at Lake Louise up to the town of Jasper. The footage you show is from the Jasper area of that highway and is over a hundred miles north of the Trans Canada. Also, the Trans-Canada Highway does not run through Jasper National Park at all.
Moments later he says the continental divide separates rivers flowing to the Pacific and Atlantic. But the eastern drainage in Canada, save a small portion in southwestern Alberta, all flow to the Arctic.
The grand Tetons are actually not part of the Rocky Mountains. There are much younger mountain range. Also, you missed one of the most important parts of the Rocky Mountains, the most glaciated section of the Rocky Mountains, which is the Wind River Mountain range in Wyoming, which includes the highest mountain in Wyoming Gannett Peak. I’ve done a lot of backpacking in the Grand Tetons, as well as the Wind River Mountain Range and various other locations in the Yellowstone Eco system
You mean the most glaciated section of the US side of the Rockies because there are far more glaciers in the part of the Rockies that's in Alberta and BC between Yoho National park and Mount Columbia
And the Grand Tetons are part of the Rocky Mountains... "Grand Teton, at 13,775 feet (4,199 m), is the highest point of the 'Teton Range, a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from northern British Columbia to northern New Mexico." Then it follows with: "Between six and nine million years ago, stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust caused movement along the Teton fault. The west block along the fault line rose to form the Teton Range, creating the youngest mountain range in the Rocky Mountains."
@@PatG-xd8qn That sounds like Wikipedia. They are Geographically Rockies, but are NOT Geologically Rockies. Mountain Building in the Rockies ended about 55-60 million years ago in the Tertiary-Paleocene. The Tetons are geologically not a part of that uplift, but rather belong to the Basin And Range extension Mountain building which started about 30 million years ago and is still ongoing today. When people mean the Tetons are not Rockies, they are talking in scientific, geological terms and are 100% correct in that statement. Just as it is 100% correct to say they are geographically and culturally a range in the Rockies.
@@Atlasworkinprogress A mountain range is nothing but several mountains located in the same continuous geographical area. The Rockies is the name that was given to this mountain range, which includes the Tetons. Argumenting about this is as pointless as Europeans arguing about whether Turkey is part of Europe or Asia, as continents, like mountain ranges, are nothing but arbitrary areas named by people a very long time ago who had little knowledge of geology. Don't worry, I understand very well the processes of how mountains are formed. I don't even see what in my previous comment makes you think otherwise.
@@PatG-xd8qn There is a geological definition of a Mountain Range, which refers to mountains built in the same mountain building episodes. That is what I was referring to. The Rockies are, geologically (scientifically) the mountains formed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies. As in many fields, there is a difference in how scientists communicate and how the general population communicates. You see this often in Phylogenetics. Birds are Dinosaurs, and thus reptiles. Phylogenetically, you cannot make a clade that includes all fish without including Humans as well, and therefore humans are fish. Fish might have a set definition to the general population, but to Scientists, it is a worthless term because it encompasses basically everything with a bone or cartilaginous backbone.
Geoff, I offer a rather unimportant fact here at no charge: the mtn. range in AK is the Brooks, rather than Brookes. I assume it's a typo, rather than a lack of knowledge. Also, something brought out several years ago on another geography channel is that the Rockies, unlike the Alps, Himalayas, and Caucasus, run north and south. As a result of this, the Arctic winds of Canada are free to mingle with the warm Gulf air currents, making tornadoes prevalent in the USA.
The Selkirk mountains in NE Washington state are older than the rockies. They are worn down like the Adirondacks and Appalachians. They touch the Rockies but are not part of them.
Kelowna and area is far from the Rockies. It's the flat-ish plateau area between the coastal ranges and the interior. In Canada the Rockies are to east of the Rocky Mountain trench. To the west are the Cassiar, Omineca, Cariboo, Columbia (further divided into the Selkirks, Purcells, and Monashees) mountains.
Left out Arizona. Half the eastern and northern part of the state is part of the Rocky Mountain chain! It's the "back side" "front range" or "Intermountain West" which includes the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau.
Really? 1 minute and 49 seconds of ad time? The plug could have been done efficiently in under 10 seconds WHICH WOULD MAKE IT TOLERABLE AND EVEN MEMORABLE
I don't know if it's still the case, but in the 1980s, I heard that the Grand Tetons in Wyoming were the youngest mountains in the Rockies. They feature very sharp edges compared with older mountains in Colorado.
I know it’s more work, however it’d be really helpful to have labels on the pictures of places you share so we can get a sense of where these are taken. Even from different angles of the same mountains can have very different images and experiences: “Collegiate mountains from Buena Vista, CO”
In the northernmost part of BC theres the "Northern Rockies" of BC, around the Muskwa & Kechika rivers. Its a HUGE area of wildness, many millions of acres and finally, after years of court battles, was mostly protected. Its just south of the Alaska Hi-way around Muncho Lake and Liard Hot Springs. Really awesome chunk of Wilderness rivaling our Arctic Wildlife Refuge, the Coolest place on the planet. (Been there 5 times, solo)
I live in the Salt Lake City area, and it was my understanding that our mountains (The Wasatch) were separate from the Rockies. I understood The Rockies to be the mountains in Central Colorado.
Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region. This is from Wikipedia
14:40 You can say the same thing about the Appalachians. What separates the Taconic mountains from the Berkshires? Essentially, it's the NY-MA state border. How about the Smokey Mountains? Or the Blue Ridge Mountains? Sure, there's some geological features that are different, but the major difference is the cultures of the peoples that call those places home. Realistically, we should just have the Western Mountains (everything in this video + the Sierra Nevadas and others) and the Eastern Mountains, but people have tied their identity to the little stretch of land that they call home and need to somehow make that different than the other little stretch of land right next door.
I almost paid for your patreon when i saw your ad post, then im glad i just searched for the free video. Almost man good job great enticing ad...i wanted to hear about those sexy mountain defenses
Why I hate this video: The commercials right at the beginning, the annoying sponsor links...but worst of all this guy is just listing stuff with no coherent thesis. Complete and utter waste of time.
There is no hard evidence to back up your claim. The oldest "officially" recognized Park is Yellowstone. A national Park is open to the public. Any prior Park would have been limited only to the selected wealthy and those in power. Some even also argue that there are even older parks in the U.S. itself then both of these parks. The oldest by definition though and "officially recognized" is Yellowstone.
Hi Geoff. I love your videos. One suggestion: bear in mind that most of the world uses metric measurements. I would appreciate if you could also include them. Thank you
@GeographyByGeoff I think it might be interesting to do a video on the Andes and how they contrast to the Rockies. For example how did the United States thrive while Simon Bolivar's Gran Colombia fail?
Fun fact: prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, it was faster to ship goods to San Francisco from Guangzhou than from New York City.
Mississippi is absolutely broken as well. North America is all about its water. The Rockies contribute greatly to that. Water distribution with ice pack and runoff, weather control, etc - why do you think the Pacific coast is so productive?
There's no debate that the St. Lawrence River is fundamental for North America, but the Rocky Mountains are critical for western United States, as they collect snow and rain water, without it there would be just desert wasteland, but due to climate change and water mismanagement, is not far off from being a reality.
I kind of had that thought, as well. The presence of the river, that it's navigable for *so much* of its length, and the fact that it drains the *single largest* contiguous area of fertile prairie converted into farmland *in the world* and has a world-class seaport at the end of it (New Orleans), is just amazing.
I find it interesting people tend to focus on the beauty of national parks, as in my experience, most of my favorite most beautiful places to see in the Rockies aren't a part of a national park. Maybe do a video on that someday? I can provide suggestions.
I have always wondered about NE Washington, where it is obviously "connected" but never seemed to count in publications. People here in this state (never been to that part) assumed it wasn't either as you said. Interesting to mention, it partly plays a role in why the lower elevation desert region in central Washington can get so hot with normal highs in the mid 90s to around 100 during summer. Heatwaves always hit 108-112. Record high of 120 for the state was set at Hanford just 3 years ago. It helps form part of the bowl shaped region that central Washington is in. where a lot of the heat goes to the lowest elevations around Tri Cities to Hanford up to Omak. There is nowhere hotter during spring/summer at this latitude than central Washington. Astrakhan in Russia comes close.
I grew up in Albuquerque, NM, and was taught that Sandia Peak was the southernmost tip of the Rocky Mountain chain. Now, after watching your explanation at the end of the video, I'm not sure if it really is or isn't, but that being said, I still think of myself as having grown up in the shadow of the Rockies. 😀
your stat about Salt Lake City is off a bit. Taken from a newspaper article " The Greater Salt Lake region is home to 2.8 million people, making up 86.7% of the Beehive State's population" It's more than double the 1.3 million claimed in the video.
I'll grant that the Rockies are important, anything that size has to be. But "most important" to American history? I would say no. Historically I would say either the Mississippi river valley is more important or the Eastern seaboard region, particularly the ports of New York City and Boston and even the Chesapeake Bay region. That's where most of American history began and developed.
The Canadian Pacific Railway established grand railway hotels along the rail route, and a fleet of passenger ships on both the Atlantic & Pacific oceans, so you could travel from Western Europe to China in style, with one transportation corporation.
I never fully realized how many mountain ranges connect seamlessly with The Rockies. I feel like the whole shabang should have an overarching name, no matter how many other names are applied to it, just because a continuous thing should have some kind of single name. If a hardcore mountain record setter wanted to hike the entire connected mountain area for some cause, they should be able to say "I'm hiking the great mountain strip" or some such thing.
Q: If the Mountains' rain shadow effect blocks rain clouds going east, how do you get snow on the eastern slopes to feed the east-going rivers mentioned?
@@hadiisaboss5307 I'm not sure if you understood the question. I get that mountains cause condensation. My question is how is that condensation able to land both on the eastern and western sides of the mountains. Vapor moves west -> east, hits a mountain, gets pushed up. At this point it reaches a point where it can't cross the mountains and it comes down as snow/rain. But if it can't cross the mountain, we'd expect all that snow to land on the western side of the mountain. That snow lands on the eastern side of the mountain suggests that vapor can in fact cross the highest mountain peak. But if it can cross the mountains , why is there a rain shadow effect? Is my question clearer?
@@hadiisaboss5307 ok but why then do gases diffuse exactly far enough to get to the western slope of the mountain (where they come down as snow on the mountain) but not far enough to snow/rain on the area of the rain shadow i.e. several km west of the mountain.
@stephanejanson it's not exactly far enough. None of it is exact. If there's a high amount of moisture in the surrounding atmosphere with strong enough winds the snow, water vapour, rain, all gets blown around. It can then be blown anywhere
I thought the Rockies orogeny was thought to be from hot spots, though unique if so. Plate tectonics might be a newer theory. From Spokane the rocks of the Selkirk, Cabinets and Purcell look like the core Rockies. But then the cascades which we will all think off over here, look similar but definitely different and decidedly tectonic. So it’s hard to tell. Culturally eastern Washington is framed by cascades and Rockies and really this goes from Kelowna to Tucson, and I think one huge Sonoran dessert in middle. Not a geologist here, but we have prominent basalt flows. We also have what appear to be older buttes, more ancient than the Basalt flows.
3 ads through a 17 min video.. the first 2:34 is 80% advertising. Then 2 others. And strong comment guidelines. Ruined the video. And now unsubscribed.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Go to piavpn.com/Geography to get 83% off Private Internet Access with 4 months free!
How about the Andes ?
Thank you so much for mentioning the original peoples who lived in this area. All too often, the Indians are completely ignored when discussing North American history.
Mate please use metric as well.
@@TBird89Is this for international audience (outside English-speaking North America) or for Canadians? I ask because I’m still uncertain how other English -speaking countries denote measurements even though they all supposedly use the metric system.
@@ttopero mate metric is metric it’s that simple. There are only 4 countries that use imperial. Besides America who know that there are over 200+ other countries on this planet right !
"Leadville" is exactly what I would call a town if I found gold and silver there but didn't want others to come for a gold rush
Unfortunately the real history is a little more boring, simply being that the miners were getting silver from lead deposits. The lead deposits were discovered during gold mining in the original town just east/uphill from here. And in the late 1800s Leadville was the 2nd largest city in Colorado behind Denver!
That and all the sausquatch, cryptids and serial killers running loose in them thar hills.....mind the marajuana patch.
Thanks 2miletony; I figured the real history of that Leadville name was a combination of both comments.
I'm Australian. My wife & I drove 5,400km of the US element of the Rockies from Montana to Colorado in Sep & Oct of 2013. Loved the sights we saw and the people we met. Thanks for your footage; it brought back some great memories.
im betting you took 70 across..lol dont know what an element of usa is
We were very lucky, encountering snow on only one day. Having crossed the Mojave from Palm Springs, after staying in Sedona a couple of nights, we started up the west side of the Rockies after a week in the Grand Canyon. We did so by heading through Monument Valley to Moab. From there, we went through Salt Lake City, using the I70 for about 25 miles. We followed I15 to Idaho Falls, then headed up Idaho State 20 to West Yellowstone. We stayed so many nights in truly wonderful small communities. During our time in Yellowstone, at Old Faithful, we ventured outside the park to Gardiner in Montana, later using Wyoming State 191 to get to the Grand Tetons and Jackson. We explored west Wyoming too, going back and forth on State 26, to places like Fort Washakie and Dubois. We followed the Snake via State 89 to Alpine in Utah (you have to do that drive; it's stunning), then turned south and went to Kemmerer, Granger and eventually Vernal, a complete contrast to the Snake River run. In Colorado, we worked our way east to Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, eyeing the highest part of the Rockies the entire time. We then stayed a few days with Australian friends in Steamboat Springs. We popped down via Winter Park and Empire to take up the I70 once more to Denver. From there we flew to Vancouver, which we had explored two months previously. Can't tell you how many wonderful folk we met, in all sorts of places. Loved the very small communities especially. What we saw is some of the finest ground on Planet Earth ... and I have been lucky enough to be sent to six of the seven continents in my 61 years. North America is one of my favourite spots to travel.
Another really good drive here is the 101 in California. If you ever come back, you should totally give that one a drive. It goes up through the redwoods. So beautiful. State route 12 in Utah is really good too.
@@Dizarama, both your recommendations are superb drives. We just ran out of time and could not get to them. Next time, I hope.
The real Rockies are in Canada. Better looking than the American Rockies.
The mountain chain actually stretches from Chile all the way up to Alaska. Only the names change.
No
@antoniomontano4219 Not only does it do that it continues under water from Chile down to Antarctica and in Alaska curves back south undersea into the Aleutian Islands.
@@StevenHughes-hr5hp no
I have watched a video here on RUclips by Myron Cook, a Geologist, who said that the Rockies were formed without the upsurge of tectonic plates and that makes the Rockies unique.
I was born in Whitefish, Montana and lived north of there for many years. Three of my four siblings were also born in Whitefish. We loved the Rockies.
I love Myron's videos.
The Rockies were mostly formed by the flat slab subduction of the Farallon Plate. The Alaska Range (Denali and company) seems to also be experiencing the same sort of forces right now with a section of the Pacific plate. Mountain Building in the Rockies ended when the Farallon Plate rolled back in the Tertiary period.
Geologically, the Rocky Mountains are erosive at this point and there is no more mountain building going on. Basin and Range uplift has encroached on the Rockies, hence the Tetons, which are geographically in the Rockies, but Geologically not Rockies. There is also some uplift in the south due to the Rio Grande Rift, but it is not really enough to be called mountain building, and crustal rebound in the north. But overall, the Rockies are generally considered to be a dead Mountain Range. Not as dead as the Appalachians, but they are also younger.
Whitefish is awesome
I’m in Canmore Alberta we go down there for a drunken hockey tournament every march
Fun town
@@ryandvernychuk7033 And I hope beer by the pitcher!
@ryandvernychuk7033 whitefish is seemingly dominated by us Albertans lol, we provide the cash flow. I'm down there for skiing and summer stuff quite often.
almost the entire canadian history is omitted here, and I would have liked to see more mention of the mountain range's impact on climate and weather of the surrounding regions, such as the west coast rain forest, Alberta gets more hail than anywhere else in the world, and funneling of polar vortexes contributing to unique storm formations in the great plains. Part of the resource wealth is tremendous opportunities for hydro-electric power all the way from BC to Hoover Dam. Other than that this is a great overview
That's the one thing I miss the most when I travel out of state
Those beautiful mountains
I drove from Oregon to Denver a couple months ago. Driving through Vail, Colorado put me in awe. Those peaks blew my mind ten ways from Sunday.
Too bad the rich yt ppl ruined it
@@user-dh6yv9uo4k How can they "ruin" something they themselves created?
The town didn't even exist until 1966, and arose in response to people moving there to enjoy or work at the ski area.
In other words, the town *wouldn't even exist* were it not for well-heeled vacationers with lots of money to spend.
As a guy from the Appalachian region, it still blows my mind that once upon a time, I used to live and work for several seasons deep in the southern Rockies of New Mexico. Later on, I got to participate in the great Lewis and Clark bicentennial expedition and got to explore the northwest US Rocky Mountains. I sure do miss it!
I’m miffed, I got into 17 minutes into your program on the Rockies, you didn’t mention my home state of Idaho. We’re on the western side of the Rockies which has the Lemhi, Sawtooth, and the Whitecloud Ranges. We are also home to the Snake and Salmon Rivers. Our mountain ranges are not part of the Cascades nor are they in Washington or Oregon.
Our Native American tribes are the Nez Pierce, Lemhi, Shoshone, and Blackfoot.
Idaho has a narrow strip of the Yellowstone National Park on its border and the western side of the Tetons on its border. Idaho is not in Iowa nor is Des Moines’s a suburb of Boise. Thank you for your attention and I accept the slight that all Idaho Hans must feel from your video. Have a great day. God bless you.
And the Bitterroots.
@@JayzeVo17 yes I agree with you on the Bitterroot’s and a whole lot more. The Rockies have two sides and when someone only recognizes the Eastern side is a disservice to the whole majesty of the great Rocky Mountains.
Hello, Californian here! Thank you for sharing about Idaho. I love videos like these because of the wonderful comments filling in the gaps and talking about their home states. Honestly, the United States is a real wonder, and I hope to visit all its marvels :)
Why would Des Moines be a suburb of Boise? There almost exactly the same size on population and Des Moines area is bigger. I live near Des Moines. And by the way he did mention Boise. So he did basically bring up Idaho.@@JayzeVo17
I was thinking the same thing; especially considering that of all the states and provinces on the map, Idaho is the one state is that is most dominated by the Rockies by land area, whereas for every other state the range only makes up a portion of their most interesting territory.
Nice to see Kelowna get a shout-out as the smallest major metro area in the "Rockies"...but it's pronounced Kel-OH-nuh, not kel-OW-nuh. :)
In BC we generally don't associate the Okanagan Valley as part of the Rockies, but once you get to Revelstoke, we do.
@timtwoface Rockies begin east of Golden, west of that is the Columbia Range (Purcell, Selkirk, Monashee & Cariboo mountains).
@@TheDrew2022 I concurr...but the Columbia Range is basically a part of the Rockies. The primary range of the Rockies to me is everything between Golden and Canmore
No Kelowna is pronounced Nor-th Aus-tral-ia
Although Kelowna may not feel close to the Rockies, this is more due to where the roads are built than geographic proximity. In reality there are some pretty sizable mountains just to the east of Kelowna, but because there are no real highways through there and access is pretty limited people don't realize how close they are. That being said, I'd be reluctant to classify the Okanagan as apart of the Rockie Mountain region.
Cringed at the pronunciation haha, but I agree. Never thought of Kelowna as being part of the Rockies, Golden and Revelstoke was kind of what I associated with the entrance to the Rockies. I do miss growing up in Kelowna though!
A lot of people tend to call the US one of the most geographically beautiful countries on Earth, but we all have to credit the Rocky Mountains and the North American Cordillera in general as being the poster child for most of America’s natural beauty.
Purple mountain majesties, as the song goes
I mean the great lakes the florida keys niagra falls. There is a dozen or so things that could all claim that
That honestly just sounds like you are unaware of any of the other natural wonders of our nation.
In my home state of Wisconsin, we have the Driftless Area & the Lake Superior Coastline.
Mountains are impressive, to be sure, but there are other natural wonders to behold. Bigger isn't always better.
The Smoky Mountains have their own allure too. Although they are much older and more weathered than the Rockies.
I would disagree on the fact that the great lakes has the most variety. Mountains,lakes,rivers, and sand dunes we have them all. All except desert
The US geographically surely are a nature wonder of the world. But the US are, more than a "nation", a kind of "continent", such as are Canada, China, Russia (of course), Australia, Brazil... the huge extention of the surface of these states of course makes them "natural beauties". You have hundreds of thousands of square km (or miles, if you prefer the imperial system) there: of course you cna find beauty on such a big area!
I'm from Italy, which is smaller than California alone, but we're blessed by a wonderful nature and diversity in such a small area that it's hard to find elsewhere in the world. In a terrioty of approx. 300.000 square km (approx 116.000 suqare miles) you have a wonderful sea (much diverse across the country and islands), beautiful mountains (Alps, Appenines), plains, hills, etc... I've never seen such a diverse nature and buaty in such a small area in my life.
I have to point out that the Tetons are NOT Rocky Mountains. Their uplift is due to Basin and Range extension, not the Sevier and Laramide Orogenies, which formed the Rocky Mountains. They are geologically very different even if they are near actual Rockies ranges such as the Wind River Range.
The Tetons formed about 30 million years ago and are still growing, the Rockies are a dead range that ended mountain building about 55-60 million years ago.
Wow, I had no idea about this until now
Canadian Rockies are still uplifting.
The Rockies are still uplifting
@@keithpalmer4547 The Canadian Rockies are experiencing some uplift due to crustal rebound caused by the absence of the ice sheets, but they are not experiencing mountain building like the Alps, Himalayas, Alaska Range, etc. Uplift and Mountain building are not the same thing. The Tetons, and the rest of the Basin and range are experiencing Mountain Building uplift, the geological Rockies are in the erosive stage of a Mountain range's life.
@@deltabluesdavidraye Uplift and Mountain Building are not the same thing. There. Much of the Canadian Rockies are affected by Crustal Rebound due to the retreat of the ice sheets in North America. While there are small sections of uplift in the American Rockies, this is largely outweighed by erosion. There are some Laramide and Sevier Ranges (true Rockies) also being affected by Basin and Range uplift as well, such as the Wasatch in Utah.
In general the flat slab subduction of the Farallon Plate, which caused the formation of the Rockies during the Sevier and Laramide Orogenies ended in the early Tertiary when Slab roll back occurred. The Farallon plate no longer exists, except in smaller remnants such as the Nazca and Juan De Fuca Plates, so the forces that caused the mountain building of the Rockies are no longer present, and have not been for a long time.
I was a Jammer (drove one of the antique red buses) in Glacier National Park in Montana for 6 months in 1993. Best job I've ever had! I lived for a while in various places in Alberta, Lethbridge, Calgary, Cardston and it was so amazing in the 90s! I spent three years going to college in Rexburg Idaho and that too was so amazing to me who's from the Finger Lakes Region of New York State (think very green and lots of cows, apples, and corn). I loved the mountains out there, I was able to get to Salt Lake, Denver, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton.
Thanks!
I appreciate the tip! 🤠
My question, however, is that you include both Utah and Idaho on the map of the Rocky Mountains, and also include both Salt Lake City and Boise as being population centers in the Rocky Mountains, yet in your description of where the Rocky Mountains are you left out both Idaho and Utah as the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. You only described the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, as being Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, yet you leave out the western edge states.
what's interesting as well when talking about where the western edge of the Rocky Mountains is and then the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains is the difference in the two mountain building events of the Sevier and Larimide orogens. I agree that it's very difficult to distinguish where one mountain range begins and another mountain range ends, however, one of the key distinctions that divides the larger Rocky Mountains into two separate and unique divisions are those two orogens, the Sevier Orogen and the Laramide Orogen. The Sevier is much longer, north to south, extending from Canada down through Idaho and Montana, and into Utah, the northern and western section of the Rockies. The Laramide is a broader, bulkier section to the east, in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
Exactly, and furthermore, what’s with talking about the Teton range in Wyoming. For a geographic channel you would think he would know more geography.
@@tayloraverett1841 Also Basin and Range Extension is encroaching on the Rockies, and caused the uplift of the Tetons, and also might be causing some in the Wasatch, as that would make sense, but unsure on that...
Left out Arizona. Half the eastern and northern part of the state is part of the Rocky Mountain chain! It's the "back side" "front range" or "Intermountain west" which includes the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau.
Ya this dudes videos are always full of inaccuracies or parts missing.
I really have to point out something tangential: A VPN doesn't create a private connection between you and "the internet." There is no "the internet." What a VPN does is create a private connection between you and the VPN provider. Which means you are simply moving the problem from "I don't trust my ISP" to "I trust my VPN provider." And the question you have to ask is, *why* do you trust your VPN provider, to which you are providing complete access tethered directly to your name and bank details?
The Wasatch Front and the greater Salt Lake metro area is actually 2.7 million. The largest open pit mine on earth is on the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley, Kennecott copper.
Dividing the Wasatch Front into three metro areas really obscures how populated the area around Salt Lake is. It made sense when Ogden, SLC, and Provo-Orem were all separated, but the merging over the last two decades has really changed that. Combined statistical areas shed a lot of light on this.
I live within sight of the Rockies in southern Alberta. It is a sight to behold.
I think the Gila Mountain range in Southern New Mexico is part of the Rockies. There is a small gap between these and the mountains in northern New Mexico but Wyoming has a similar and even larger gap in the Great Divide Basin near Rawlins. These mountains are rocky and rugged and quite high as well.
In Canada it would be second to the Canadian shield. The Canadian Shield is a vast igneous intrusion from southern Ontario and Quebec that reaches to the arctic in the Northwest territories and the far north of Quebec. It why Canada is one of the top mining countries in the world.
I've been watching your channel for at least the last year or so, and I have to say that lately I've noticed not only a visible improvement in your lighting/choice of background, but also your on-camera presence and exposition. Keep up the amazing work, and good luck continuing forward! 👍
Next: the Cascades, Wa & BC. Poulsbo, Washington
I swear some day I’ll live on the Kitsap. Poulsbo and that area is some of the most beautiful land I’ve seen
The entire Olympic peninsula makes me so proud to be an American 🇺🇸
@@Plantbliss Beautiful, but the long, dark winters are not for the faint of heart. I own a place out there and it's breathtaking, but staying for more than a month or so outside of the summer really gets to me.
@AUniqueHandleName444 what you talking about it don't get that dark in the winter. This ain't alaska. Oh wait it is long dark cold and it rains everyday, no one should move here. Ain't no jobs either stay where you are.
@@AUniqueHandleName444 Hard to sympathize with a person who states when I live in one of my houses for a month, I get the blues. Somewhat like complaining how much more you have to pay to have the oil in your Lamborghini changed.
Also used to live in Poulsbo, love the Nordic aesthetic. Unfortunately had work in Seattle so commute time could be 90+ minutes each way.
I live in northwest Washington and I have always thought at best that we lived on the lower edge of the Okanogan highlands.
Saw the re enactment of the Lewis
and Clark Expedition in 2004 on the
River in Illinois near St Louis, MO,
and a dinner near Bethalto, MO, where
the characters dressed as Lewis and
Clark and others were present. The
Father of the husband we were visiting
in Dorsey, IL, was a re enactor on one
of the Keel Boats, and the next day
we visited a Lewis and Clark museum
in the area, with exhibits such as
the Keelboat used for their supplies.😊
Only one man died on the Lewis and Clark expedition and it was of natural causes.
Unbelievable.
@@macbeavers6938 YES, Thanks 😊
What happened to the west side of the range? Idaho, Utah and Arizona?
That's a serious oversight in this video, yeah.
In Colorado alone, the area around Grand Junction, up into the North Fork of the Gunnison River, has started to specialize in high-end agriculture that requires no subsidies to be profitable.
Vineyards, orchards, hops fields, farm-to-table areas that use legacy seed-stock with no GMOs -- just all sorts of lucrative agriculture.
We crossed the Canadian Rockies,
Banff, and Lake Louise, stopped at
Kamloops onto Expo 86 in Vancouver,
from a suburb of NYC in mid Sept
1986, 3 weeks and 7000 miles
After Seattle.we went to Custer,s
Balltlefield, Devils Tower, Mt Rushmore,
and Yellowstone National Park,
where there was some snow in
early October. I was 42 then, now 80 😊
I have fond memories of the trips my parents took us on across the American and Canadian Rockies, a half century ago.
@@bearcubdaycare Thanks 😊
I'm in the rocky mountains in Idaho now, visiting my brother. It's pretty striking scenery for someone from Florida.
I'm going to protest Albuquerque being part of the Rocky ecosystem. The Rockies end near Santa Fe, and it's around a 50-60 mile drive from Abq. to Santa Fe with a lot of open space. Yet, Santa Fe and Las Vegas NM are considered part of the Abq. greater metro area. They're not.
Kelowna is surrounded by rolling hills and low rounded mountains, it's an extreme stretch to consider that a rocky mountain city
The Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo metro region is the second largest in the Rockies at 2.8 million.
You skipped over the Idaho Rockies. The Colorado Rockies may be the tallest but the Idaho Rockies are much more rugged (more difficult to visit or travel through). It was the Idaho Rockies that nearly ended the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They made their way across Montana until they reached Idaho where they had to stop until they got help.
We don't talk about the Idaho Rockies...
Frank Church Wilderness of No Return
British Columbia also has a glacier national park, and you can drive between them in a day
Been blessed to live near this range in two states over my life so far. Didn't appreciate it as a kid but now I'm just in awe
I spent the day in RMNP the day before you published this video! How serendipitous.
I visited the Alberta Rockies back in spring break 1998. It was breathtaking.🏔️🗻⛰️
Just so you know, the footage you show of a highway snaking through beautiful mountain scenery, accompanied by the words "The Trans-Canada Highway, which runs through these parks [Banff and Jasper], offers some of the most scenic drives in the world", is misleading for two reasons. Firstly, it is NOT the Trans-Canada Highway in the footage. The footage is actually of the Icefields Parkway which runs from a junction with the Trans-Canada at Lake Louise up to the town of Jasper. The footage you show is from the Jasper area of that highway and is over a hundred miles north of the Trans Canada. Also, the Trans-Canada Highway does not run through Jasper National Park at all.
Moments later he says the continental divide separates rivers flowing to the Pacific and Atlantic. But the eastern drainage in Canada, save a small portion in southwestern Alberta, all flow to the Arctic.
I live in the Colorado Front Range... To see the Rockies everyday is truly a 'spiritual experience'
I used to live in the Rocky Mountains.
IN the Rocky Mountains!?!?
@@WeaponOut That's right, in Evergreen, Colorado.
I used to live _under_ them.
I attended Univ of New Mexico for several years. The Sangre de Cristos start where the Sandías and Mansanos end.
5:32 this is a view towards Tatra mountains from Kościelisko village in Poland, Europe. Far from Rockies.
So Interesting!! Thanks, Geoff. Really enjoy the graphics! ;)
For Canada the Canadian shield is a much more important geographical feature, just less visible.
I’ve lived in New Mexico Wyoming and Montana just need to check Colorado and British Columbia off my list
What about Utah. Utah is great
Can't wait to see you cover the other ranges in the West, especially the Sierras or the Cascade regions.
Hopefully he actually includes the full mountain range this time……
Thanks for feeding my addiction to everything Geography. I have travelled the world through your channel. Much love and respect!!
Love your videos! Excellent narration.
The grand Tetons are actually not part of the Rocky Mountains. There are much younger mountain range. Also, you missed one of the most important parts of the Rocky Mountains, the most glaciated section of the Rocky Mountains, which is the Wind River Mountain range in Wyoming, which includes the highest mountain in Wyoming Gannett Peak. I’ve done a lot of backpacking in the Grand Tetons, as well as the Wind River Mountain Range and various other locations in the Yellowstone Eco system
You mean the most glaciated section of the US side of the Rockies because there are far more glaciers in the part of the Rockies that's in Alberta and BC between Yoho National park and Mount Columbia
And the Grand Tetons are part of the Rocky Mountains...
"Grand Teton, at 13,775 feet (4,199 m), is the highest point of the 'Teton Range, a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from northern British Columbia to northern New Mexico."
Then it follows with: "Between six and nine million years ago, stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust caused movement along the Teton fault. The west block along the fault line rose to form the Teton Range, creating the youngest mountain range in the Rocky Mountains."
@@PatG-xd8qn That sounds like Wikipedia. They are Geographically Rockies, but are NOT Geologically Rockies. Mountain Building in the Rockies ended about 55-60 million years ago in the Tertiary-Paleocene.
The Tetons are geologically not a part of that uplift, but rather belong to the Basin And Range extension Mountain building which started about 30 million years ago and is still ongoing today.
When people mean the Tetons are not Rockies, they are talking in scientific, geological terms and are 100% correct in that statement. Just as it is 100% correct to say they are geographically and culturally a range in the Rockies.
@@Atlasworkinprogress A mountain range is nothing but several mountains located in the same continuous geographical area. The Rockies is the name that was given to this mountain range, which includes the Tetons.
Argumenting about this is as pointless as Europeans arguing about whether Turkey is part of Europe or Asia, as continents, like mountain ranges, are nothing but arbitrary areas named by people a very long time ago who had little knowledge of geology.
Don't worry, I understand very well the processes of how mountains are formed. I don't even see what in my previous comment makes you think otherwise.
@@PatG-xd8qn There is a geological definition of a Mountain Range, which refers to mountains built in the same mountain building episodes. That is what I was referring to. The Rockies are, geologically (scientifically) the mountains formed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies.
As in many fields, there is a difference in how scientists communicate and how the general population communicates. You see this often in Phylogenetics. Birds are Dinosaurs, and thus reptiles. Phylogenetically, you cannot make a clade that includes all fish without including Humans as well, and therefore humans are fish. Fish might have a set definition to the general population, but to Scientists, it is a worthless term because it encompasses basically everything with a bone or cartilaginous backbone.
Geoff, I offer a rather unimportant fact here at no charge: the mtn. range in AK is the Brooks, rather than Brookes. I assume it's a typo, rather than a lack of knowledge.
Also, something brought out several years ago on another geography channel is that the Rockies, unlike the Alps, Himalayas, and Caucasus, run north and south. As a result of this, the Arctic winds of Canada are free to mingle with the warm Gulf air currents, making tornadoes prevalent in the USA.
The Selkirk mountains in NE Washington state are older than the rockies. They are worn down like the Adirondacks and Appalachians. They touch the Rockies but are not part of them.
Kelowna and area is far from the Rockies. It's the flat-ish plateau area between the coastal ranges and the interior.
In Canada the Rockies are to east of the Rocky Mountain trench. To the west are the Cassiar, Omineca, Cariboo, Columbia (further divided into the Selkirks, Purcells, and Monashees) mountains.
FYI: the Rocky Mountains are also in Arizona.
also Utah.
@@rebeccaorman1823 they are not in Arizona. Just Google a map of Rocky Mountains
No they’re not. There’s literally a map in the video. Confirmed by googling map of Rockies
Left out Arizona. Half the eastern and northern part of the state is part of the Rocky Mountain chain! It's the "back side" "front range" or "Intermountain West" which includes the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau.
8:13 what kind of painting is it? Does anyone know?
thank you for the video!
Can you please also give the dimensions in metric. Thanks.
Thanks Geoff 👍 😃
Really? 1 minute and 49 seconds of ad time? The plug could have been done efficiently in under 10 seconds WHICH WOULD MAKE IT TOLERABLE AND EVEN MEMORABLE
I was hoping you would touch on the colorado plaute as part of the rockies or minor extension..
So you’re just gonna skip the sawtooth range and the Wasatch range
My thoughts exactly. Idaho and Utah’s portion of the Rocky Mountains get skipped but New Mexico gets attention..
Majority of Idaho is Rocky Mountains. Dudes like oh well.
Part two.
Shhhhhh
I wanna see the Rockies one day. They sound amazing
You mentioned Jasper and Banff National Parks being in the Rockies in Alberta, but ignored Waterton Lakes National Park.
He mentioned Waterton.
I don't know if it's still the case, but in the 1980s, I heard that the Grand Tetons in Wyoming were the youngest mountains in the Rockies. They feature very sharp edges compared with older mountains in Colorado.
I know it’s more work, however it’d be really helpful to have labels on the pictures of places you share so we can get a sense of where these are taken. Even from different angles of the same mountains can have very different images and experiences: “Collegiate mountains from Buena Vista, CO”
In the northernmost part of BC theres the "Northern Rockies" of BC, around the Muskwa & Kechika rivers. Its a HUGE area of wildness, many millions of acres and finally, after years of court battles, was mostly protected. Its just south of the Alaska Hi-way around Muncho Lake and Liard Hot Springs. Really awesome chunk of Wilderness rivaling our Arctic Wildlife Refuge, the Coolest place on the planet. (Been there 5 times, solo)
2:30
I live in the Salt Lake City area, and it was my understanding that our mountains (The Wasatch) were separate from the Rockies. I understood The Rockies to be the mountains in Central Colorado.
Wasatch Mountains is a mountain range in the western United States that runs about 160 miles (260 km) from the Utah-Idaho border south to central Utah. It is the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region.
This is from Wikipedia
Thanks for this!
14:40 You can say the same thing about the Appalachians. What separates the Taconic mountains from the Berkshires? Essentially, it's the NY-MA state border. How about the Smokey Mountains? Or the Blue Ridge Mountains? Sure, there's some geological features that are different, but the major difference is the cultures of the peoples that call those places home. Realistically, we should just have the Western Mountains (everything in this video + the Sierra Nevadas and others) and the Eastern Mountains, but people have tied their identity to the little stretch of land that they call home and need to somehow make that different than the other little stretch of land right next door.
I almost paid for your patreon when i saw your ad post, then im glad i just searched for the free video. Almost man good job great enticing ad...i wanted to hear about those sexy mountain defenses
How would the Sandia/Manzano mountains or the Central mountains in Arizona near flagstaff be counted as separate or a part of the rockies?
Why I hate this video: The commercials right at the beginning, the annoying sponsor links...but worst of all this guy is just listing stuff with no coherent thesis. Complete and utter waste of time.
I read somewhere that Northern Arizona is an extension of the rockies. That area of Northern Arizona is known as the Colorado plateu.
Great video!
Also, Ke-LOW-na, pronounced low.
Unless I'm mistaken.
Great video! Love the Rockies!
Yellowstone is NOT the world’s first national park. Bogd Khan Uul National Park in Mongolia was established in 1778.
There is no hard evidence to back up your claim.
The oldest "officially" recognized Park is Yellowstone. A national Park is open to the public. Any prior Park would have been limited only to the selected wealthy and those in power.
Some even also argue that there are even older parks in the U.S. itself then both of these parks.
The oldest by definition though and "officially recognized" is Yellowstone.
Hi Geoff. I love your videos. One suggestion: bear in mind that most of the world uses metric measurements. I would appreciate if you could also include them. Thank you
@GeographyByGeoff I think it might be interesting to do a video on the Andes and how they contrast to the Rockies. For example how did the United States thrive while Simon Bolivar's Gran Colombia fail?
Fun fact: prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, it was faster to ship goods to San Francisco from Guangzhou than from New York City.
I love the Rockies, I have lived most my life in them, but the mighty Mississippi is far far more important to the success of the states.
Wouldn’t be nearly as mighty without the tributaries from the Rockies.
I’d argue the Saint Lawrence has been more influential. The Rockies are mostly national parks for tourism.
Mississippi is absolutely broken as well. North America is all about its water. The Rockies contribute greatly to that. Water distribution with ice pack and runoff, weather control, etc - why do you think the Pacific coast is so productive?
It’s called the Pacific Ocean. Compare that to the Great Lakes and Northeastern megaregions, which is where most Canadians and Americans live.
There's no debate that the St. Lawrence River is fundamental for North America, but the Rocky Mountains are critical for western United States, as they collect snow and rain water, without it there would be just desert wasteland, but due to climate change and water mismanagement, is not far off from being a reality.
@@murraytown4 plus you can ski and golf on the same day in certain parts.
The big rivers are obviously.
Good stuff. And, Brooks Range is north of Fairbanks from my experience but who knows.
I would argue the MS riiver is the most imortant geologic feature. It was virtually the vein of wealth that even allowed westward expansion
I kind of had that thought, as well.
The presence of the river, that it's navigable for *so much* of its length, and the fact that it drains the *single largest* contiguous area of fertile prairie converted into farmland *in the world* and has a world-class seaport at the end of it (New Orleans), is just amazing.
I find it interesting people tend to focus on the beauty of national parks, as in my experience, most of my favorite most beautiful places to see in the Rockies aren't a part of a national park. Maybe do a video on that someday? I can provide suggestions.
I have always wondered about NE Washington, where it is obviously "connected" but never seemed to count in publications. People here in this state (never been to that part) assumed it wasn't either as you said.
Interesting to mention, it partly plays a role in why the lower elevation desert region in central Washington can get so hot with normal highs in the mid 90s to around 100 during summer. Heatwaves always hit 108-112. Record high of 120 for the state was set at Hanford just 3 years ago.
It helps form part of the bowl shaped region that central Washington is in. where a lot of the heat goes to the lowest elevations around Tri Cities to Hanford up to Omak.
There is nowhere hotter during spring/summer at this latitude than central Washington. Astrakhan in Russia comes close.
I grew up in Albuquerque, NM, and was taught that Sandia Peak was the southernmost tip of the Rocky Mountain chain. Now, after watching your explanation at the end of the video, I'm not sure if it really is or isn't, but that being said, I still think of myself as having grown up in the shadow of the Rockies. 😀
“traced to cultural stories”
I’d love to hear more in this, or know where I might find these stories. Thank you. I’m intrigued by your work.
your stat about Salt Lake City is off a bit. Taken from a newspaper article " The Greater Salt Lake region is home to 2.8 million people, making up 86.7% of the Beehive State's population" It's more than double the 1.3 million claimed in the video.
I'd love to hear the answer to that question actually. In elementary school i learned the Rockies extended from Alaska to the tip of South America.
Great work!
I like it when the advertisements are on the video, I can just fast forward through it.
Fantastic video
I'll grant that the Rockies are important, anything that size has to be. But "most important" to American history? I would say no. Historically I would say either the Mississippi river valley is more important or the Eastern seaboard region, particularly the ports of New York City and Boston and even the Chesapeake Bay region. That's where most of American history began and developed.
The Canadian Pacific Railway established grand railway hotels along the rail route, and a fleet of passenger ships on both the Atlantic & Pacific oceans, so you could travel from Western Europe to China in style, with one transportation corporation.
I never fully realized how many mountain ranges connect seamlessly with The Rockies. I feel like the whole shabang should have an overarching name, no matter how many other names are applied to it, just because a continuous thing should have some kind of single name. If a hardcore mountain record setter wanted to hike the entire connected mountain area for some cause, they should be able to say "I'm hiking the great mountain strip" or some such thing.
Q: If the Mountains' rain shadow effect blocks rain clouds going east, how do you get snow on the eastern slopes to feed the east-going rivers mentioned?
Because the mountains rain shadow effect. Water vapour liquefied or solidifies on the mountain and isnt cloud gas anymore
@@hadiisaboss5307 I'm not sure if you understood the question. I get that mountains cause condensation. My question is how is that condensation able to land both on the eastern and western sides of the mountains. Vapor moves west -> east, hits a mountain, gets pushed up. At this point it reaches a point where it can't cross the mountains and it comes down as snow/rain. But if it can't cross the mountain, we'd expect all that snow to land on the western side of the mountain. That snow lands on the eastern side of the mountain suggests that vapor can in fact cross the highest mountain peak. But if it can cross the mountains , why is there a rain shadow effect? Is my question clearer?
@@stephanejanson gases diffuse to ensure even spread. Its called entropy
@@hadiisaboss5307 ok but why then do gases diffuse exactly far enough to get to the western slope of the mountain (where they come down as snow on the mountain) but not far enough to snow/rain on the area of the rain shadow i.e. several km west of the mountain.
@stephanejanson it's not exactly far enough. None of it is exact. If there's a high amount of moisture in the surrounding atmosphere with strong enough winds the snow, water vapour, rain, all gets blown around. It can then be blown anywhere
I thought the Rockies orogeny was thought to be from hot spots, though unique if so. Plate tectonics might be a newer theory. From Spokane the rocks of the Selkirk, Cabinets and Purcell look like the core Rockies. But then the cascades which we will all think off over here, look similar but definitely different and decidedly tectonic. So it’s hard to tell. Culturally eastern Washington is framed by cascades and Rockies and really this goes from Kelowna to Tucson, and I think one huge Sonoran dessert in middle. Not a geologist here, but we have prominent basalt flows. We also have what appear to be older buttes, more ancient than the Basalt flows.
3 ads through a 17 min video.. the first 2:34 is 80% advertising. Then 2 others. And strong comment guidelines.
Ruined the video. And now unsubscribed.
love seeing people debate about the rock mountains knowing that waterton lake/glacier national park is prolly the best part of the mountains
I wonder which place in the rockies invented the rocky road ice cream flavor.
I'm going with the Mississippi River basin as No. 1. There's really nothing like it in the world.