After a long, treacherous drive down Phantom Canyon yesterday, I was relieved to reach the broad Arkansas River Valley and was rewarded with a pleasing view of the Wet Mountains to the southwest. This relatively small range stretches from the lower reaches of the Arkansas River Canyon to the north side of Highway 69, northwest of Walsenburg.
Like most ranges in Colorado, the Wet Mountains are a faulted anticline with a core of Precambrian granite; younger Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks adorn the lower slopes. This range parallels the higher Sangre de Cristos (a younger fault-block range) to its west, angling NNW to SSE. The highest summit in the Wet Mountains, Greenhorn Mountain (12,347 feet) is at the southern end of the range.
Mountains are always beautiful and welcoming from a distance. If forced to cross them by foot, on horseback or via rugged canyon roads, however, we gain a special respect for their grandeur.
