Note: this is unfortunately not optimized for phones (yet). Though turning it sideways helps!
A schematic of the Colorado Rockies
What’s your mental map of the Colorado Rockies? For most of us—residents and visitors alike—it’s something far simpler and more subjective than what we’d load up Google Maps or CalTopo. It usually won’t safely deliver us to some new trailhead or town. For that we need a real map. But it tells a fascinating story about the high-level landmarks we hold space for while navigating through the Centennial State.
This diagram was my attempt to level-up and clarify my mental map of the Colorado Rockies. The goal was not to create something to navigate with. Why bother with so many amazing tools at our disposal? Instead, it offers a more coherent, simplified view of Colorado’s major ranges and rivers. More Harry Beck than George Wheeler.
The exercise is subjective, but I tried to go about it in a consistent way where I could definitely make mistakes. The relative position of ranges, rivers and valleys is not subjective. If you find instances where they are placed incorrectly, in relation to one another, please let me know. For instance, early in development I placed the border of the Park and Gore Ranges at the Colorado River, in Gore Canyon. But later I discovered this was wrong and fixed it.
What is a mountain range, anyways?
Any reasonable human being would agree that the Appalachians and the Rockies are very different and distinct mountain ranges. But what about, say, the Elk Mountains vs the Sawatch Range? In Aspen, Colorado, both ranges are within walking distance of your doorstep. What about the Ten Mile Range vs the Mosquitos?
From everything I’ve seen and read, mountain ranges are named, grouped, and related to one another for a variety of reasons. Sometimes its motivated by science: geology and common origins. You’ll hear phrases like orogeny and anticline thrown around. But sometimes it’s more deferential to how various humans have typically referred to some big group of hills outside of town. Sometimes rivers and passes inform boundaries. Sometimes they don’t.
Fortunately for me, other people have thought very carefully about all this. An accessible and exhaustive resource I relied heavily on is the Peakbagger.com Mountain Range Classification System. It very helpfully slices up every inch of land on the planet into a six-tiered classification of mountain ranges. I treated this as a source of truth not because it’s some infallible and objective resource (the authors readily admit it’s not), but because it’s complete. Using PEMRACS, every mountain in the state—and every river and road—can be successfully mapped to a range or the boundary between ranges.
How much detail?
Where’s the Animas River? Or the Eagle or Roaring Fork? Where’s Aurora? Where are the Elkhead Mountains or Mesa Verde or the Rampart Range? Where is Interstate 76? A lot of subjectivity came into deciding what level of detail to include in this diagram. If you think I got it wrong, I’d love to hear feedback on how to improve things.
This is still a work in progress, and I have ideas for how more interactivity can provide multiple layers and views into the Colorado Rockies, at different levels of detail. If you have any cool ideas, please let me know!
Interested in more?
I’m looking forward to creating more visual and data-driven content related to both the Colorado Rockies and outdoor recreation more broadly. If you’d like to see more, consider subscribing below for very occasional emails when new interactive graphics or high-value content appears. I also have a handful of past projects that are similarly interactive, with more on the way!