East Beckwith Mountain


East Beckwith Mountain is a prominent mountain summit in the West Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is located in the West Elk Wilderness of Gunnison National Forest, west by south of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States.

Geology

East Beckwith Mountain is a laccolith, formed when magma intruded into Mancos Shale approximately 30 million years ago. Subsequently the softer, overlying sedimentary rock has eroded away, exposing the more resistant igneous rock. East Beckwith Mountain is one of over a dozen laccoliths in the West Elk and adjacent Elk Mountains. Of these laccoliths, East Beckwith Mountain is noted for its distinctive glacial landforms. On the north side of this elongated, east-west oriented mountain, there are five glacially carved cirques with intervening arêtes, and moraines fan out from the mountain's base.

Historical names