Gore Range
The Gore Range lies south of Gore Pass, along the Park Range trend. The ridge of this range is low for about 15 miles south of Kremmling, but the southern part of the range forms a spectacular high cluster of peaks with many relatively inaccessible and rugged summits. Many of the peaks in this remote country are as yet unnamed; the area has been set aside as the Gore Range-Eagle’s Nest Wilderness Area. The Colorado River cuts directly across the northern part of the Gore Range just west of Kremmling, in a steep-walled canyon that is one of the wild scenic spots of Colorado.
The southern part of the Gore Range, viewed from the east, shows Precambrian [granite] and metamorphic rocks rising above Cretaceous shale hills. The nearly horizontal crest of the range probably represents the Precambrian erosion surface. (Jack Rathbone photo)
The Gore Range is, like the Front Range, a faulted [anticline] with Precambrian rocks at its core. The red [sedimentary rocks] on the west flank of the range, visible at Vail Pass and Vail ski area, are of the same age as those in Red Rocks Park near Denver and the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs. Paleozoic rocks are absent on the east flank of the range, having been eroded from that area before Mesozoic deposition. South of the Colorado River and north of the Wilderness Area, Mesozoic rocks extend over the crest of the range.
The south end of the Gore Range is marked by Tenmile Gorge (U. S. highway 6 between Frisco and Vail Pass). This gorge is a glacial valley, carved during the Ice Age by a [glacier] more than 1,000 feet thick, along a weak faulted zone in the range. A [fault] surface can be seen on the east side of the valley.
From Vail Pass, or from the top of the Vail ski lift, other evidences of [glaciation] can be seen—[cirques] and U-shaped valleys—testifying to the former presence here of many large valley [glaciers].