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Front Range, Colorado
This Landsat image covers a large portion of the Front Range of Colorado and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains.The large grayish area to the southeast is Denver. Boulder appears just above the center of the image. The Colorado Front Range is the most densely populated area of Colorado, and is the gateway to the Rocky Mountains.
With an average elevation of 6,800 feet, Colorado is the nation's highest state. Colorado boasts more than a thousand peaks over 10,000 feet with 54 that rise more than 14,000 feet. Explorers during the 19th century named the "Rockies" because of the rugged topography they encountered. Long a barrier to transportation, settlements and cities string along the Front Range. But with the discovery of gold in 1859 near Boulder, and later other minerals, such as silver, lead, and molybdenum, economic development spread across the state.
Geologically, Colorado's mountains are relatively young. The mountains we see today -- shaped by wind, water and glaciers -- started forming around 100 million years ago as the North American Plate collided with the Pacific Plate. The Rocky Mountains were little more than growing foothills when the dinosaurs died out during the Cretaceous period.
The Front Range runs north-south through the center of this image. (the area in the lower right corner contains no information) The white patches to the west of the Front Range are clouds that are forming as the air rises and cools passing over the Continental Divide. At no other point in the United States does the Divide run closer to the plains than in the Denver/Boulder area. To the east, the high plains dominate the landscape. To the west lies the Colorado Basin stretching into Utah. Six major headwaters rise out of the mountainous region. To the west, the Colorado River flows southwest toward the Gulf of California. To the east, the Arkansas, North Platte, South Platte, Republican and Rio Grande rivers originate in mountains or plains and make their way toward either the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico.