Coast Ranges

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

The Pacific Coast Ranges (in Canada)^[1] or Pacific Mountain System (United States)^[2] are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the west coast of North America from Alaska south to northern and central Mexico. They are part of the Western Cordillera (sometimes known in Canada as the Pacific Cordillera and also as the Canadian Cordillera), which includes the Rocky, Columbia Mountains, Interior Mountains, the Interior Plateau, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin and other ranges and various plateaus and basins. The Pacific Coast Ranges designation, however, only applies to the Western System of the Western Cordillera,^[3] which comprises the Saint Elias Mountains, Coast Mountains, Insular Mountains, Olympic Mountains, Cascade Range, Oregon Coast Range, California Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. The term "Coast Range" is used by the United States Geological Survey to refer only to the ranges south from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Mexican border west of Puget Sound and the Williamette and Sacramento River valleys, thereby excluding the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range,^[4] i.e. the Pacific Border province. The same term is used informally in Canada to refer to the Coast Mountains and adjoining inland ranges such as the Hazelton Mountains, and sometimes also the Saint Elias Mountains.

The character of the ranges varies considerably, from the record-setting tidewater glaciers in the ranges of Alaska, to the low but rugged and scrub-covered hills of southern California, but the entire coast is consistent in dropping steeply into the sea, often resulting in photogenic views. Along the British Columbia and Alaska coast, the mountains intermix with the sea in a complex maze of fjords, with thousands of islands.

There is a handful of small coastal plains at the mouths of rivers that have punched through the mountains, most notably at the Copper River in Alaska, the Fraser River in British Columbia, the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in California, which create San Francisco Bay.

From the vicinity of San Francisco Bay north, it is common in winter for cool unstable air masses from the Gulf of Alaska to make landfall in one of the Coast Ranges, resulting in heavy precipitation, both as rain and snow, especially on their western slopes.

Omitted from the list below, but often included is the Sierra Nevada, a major mountain range of eastern California that is separated by the Central Valley over much of its length from the California Coast Ranges and the Transverse Ranges.^[5]

Major ranges

These are the members of the Pacific Coast Ranges, from north to south:

• Kenai Mountains, southern Alaska
• Chugach Mountains, southern Alaska
• Talkeetna Mountains, southern Alaska
• Yukon Ranges, Alaska, Yukon
  • Wrangell Mountains, southern Alaska
• Saint Elias Mountains, southern Alaska, southwestern Yukon, far northwestern British Columbia
  • Alsek Ranges
    • Fairweather Range
    • Takshanuk Mountains, Haines, Alaska-area. Between Chilkat and Chilkoot watersheds
• Coast Mountains
  • Boundary Ranges, southeastern Alaska, northwestern British Columbia
    • Cheja Range (southeast of Taku/Whiting Rivers)
    • Chechidla Range
    • Chutine Icefield
    • Adam Mountains
    • Ashington Range
    • Burniston Range
    • Dezadeash Range
    • Florence Range
    • Halleck Range
    • Juneau Icefield
    • Kakuhan Range
    • Lincoln Mountains
    • Longview Range
    • Peabody Mountains
    • Rousseau Range
    • Seward Mountains
    • Snowslide Range
    • Spectrum Range
    • Stikine Icecap
  • Kitimat Ranges BC North Coast
  • Pacific Ranges BC South & Central Coast
    • Rainbow Range northwest Chilcotin, also classifiable as part of the Interior Plateau
    • Pantheon Range Homathko area
    • Niut Range Homathko area
    • Waddington Range Homathko area
    • Whitemantle Range Homathko area
    • Bendor Range
    • Garibaldi Ranges
    • Clendinning Range
    • Tantalus Range
    • Chilcotin Ranges
      • Dickson Range
      • Shulaps Range
      • Camelsfoot Range
    • Lillooet Ranges, Fraser Canyon west bank
      • Cantilever Range
      • Cayoosh Range
    • Douglas Ranges
    • Front Ranges (North Shore Mountains)
• Insular Mountains, British Columbia
  • Vancouver Island Ranges, British Columbia
  • Queen Charlotte Mountains, British Columbia
• Olympic Mountains, Washington
• Cascade Range, British Columbia (Fraser Canyon west bank), Washington, Oregon and California
• Oregon Coast Range, Oregon
  • Northern Oregon Coast Range
  • Central Oregon Coast Range
  • Southern Oregon Coast Range
• Calapooya Mountains, Oregon
• Klamath-Siskiyou
  • Klamath Mountains, Oregon, northern California
  • Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon, northern California
  • Trinity Alps and Salmon Mountains, California
  • Yolla Bolly Mountains, Northern California
• Northern Coast Ranges, California
  • King Range, northern California
  • Mendocino Range, northern California
  • Mayacamas Mountains, California
  • Marin Hills, California, including Mount Tamalpais
• Southern Coast Ranges, central California
  • Diablo Range, California
  • Santa Cruz Mountains, California
  • Santa Lucia Range, California
  • Temblor Range, California
  • Caliente Range, California
• Transverse Ranges, California
  • Sierra Madre Mountains
  • Sierra Pelona Mountains
  • San Emigdio Mountains
  • San Rafael Mountains
  • Santa Ynez Mountains
  • Santa Susana Mountains
  • Topatopa Mountains
  • Simi Hills
  • Santa Monica Mountains
  • Tehachapi Mountains
  • San Gabriel Mountains
  • San Bernardino Mountains
• Peninsular Ranges
  • Santa Ana Mountains, California
  • San Jacinto Mountains, California
  • Palomar Mountain Range, California
  • Sierra Juarez, Baja California
  • Sierra San Pedro Martir, Baja California
  • Sierra de la Laguna, Baja California Sur
• Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico

Major icefields

These are not named as ranges, but amount to the same thing. The Pacific Coast Ranges are home to the largest temperate-latitude icefields in the world.

• Harding Icefield
• Sargent Icefield
• Bagley Icefield
• Kluane Icefields
• Juneau Icefield
• Stikine Icecap
• Ha-Iltzuk Icefield (Silverthrone Glacier)
• Monarch Icefield
• Waddington Icefield
• Homathko Icefield
• Lillooet Icecap (Lillooet Crown)
• Pemberton Icecap

Only the largest icefields are listed above; smaller icefields may be listed on the various range pages. Formally unnamed icefields are not listed

See also

• Coast Range (ecoregion)

References