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.
[Illustration: 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.