Transcript The West - Gallatin Gateway School

“The Land of the West”
Lesson 1: A Land of Mountains
 Main Idea: The land of the West includes many
mountains.
 Places: Rocky Mountains, Continental Divide, and
Yellowstone National Park
 Vocabulary: timberline, geyser, magma, volcano, lava
The Rocky Mountains
 Largest mountain system in North America.
 “The Rockies”
 Made of smaller ranges- Salish, Beartooth-Absaroka, Big
Horn, Wasatch, Bitteroot, Cascades
 Landmarks- Pikes Peak in CO
 Extends 3,000 miles from New Mexico to Alaska
 Runs through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and
Montana
The Rocky Mountains
 Continental Divide: imaginary line that runs along the
crest of the Rockies.
 Rivers on the east run to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf
of Mexico
 Rivers on the west flow to the Pacific Ocean
The Rocky Mountains
 High elevation
 Trees would not grow above the timberline
 High peaks are mostly covered in snow year-round
 Animals in the Rocky Mountains include:
 Forest: grizzly bear, mountain lions, elk, mink
 Valleys: chipmunks, coyotes, moose
 Rivers: fish
 Above Timberline: mountain goats, bighorn sheep
The Rocky Mountains
 Economy: production, distribution, and consumption
of goods and services
 Use natural resources
 Minerals
 Ranch land
 Timber
 Use Tourism
 Hiking, skiing, mountain climbing, and scenery
 What is Continental Divide?
 Name some activities vistors to the Rocky Mountains
would enjoy.
Yellowstone National Park
 YNP: Oldest national park in the world
 Established in 1872
 Covers over 2.2 million acres
 Includes parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana
 Natural attractions:
 Mountains, canyons, waterfalls, lakes, forests, and
wildlife
 Geysers: hot spring that erupts, shooting hot water into
the air

10,000 hot springs and geysers in Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park
 Old Faithful is the most popular geyser
 Erupts every 45-110 minutes
 Shoots more than 100 feet into the air
 Park located over a “hot spot” in Earth’s crust
 Where magma (molten rock) lies close to Earth’s surface
rather than deep underground
 Heats groundwater that rises causing geysers and hot
springs
Yellowstone National Park
 Wildlife roam free
 Elk, moose, grizzly and black bears, wolves, bison
 No hunting animals within park boundaries
 Fishing is allowed in limited access
 Wildfire: 1988 many acres of forest burned
 By following year, new growth had begun
 Provided chance to study fires and forests’ recovery
 What heats the geysers and hot springs?
 Name six types of wildlife that attract tourists to
Yellowstone.
 How are forests able to recover after wildfires?
Western Mountain Ranges
 Sierra Nevada: through eastern California and western
Nevada
 High & rugged
 Some peaks rise higher than 14,000 feet above sea level
 Cascade Range: in Washington and California
 Has volcanoes
 Aleutian Range: in Alaska
 Has volcanoes
Western Mountain Ranges
 Volcano: mountain with an opening through which
gas, ash, and lava are forced through.
 Lava: molten rock (magma) that flows on Earth’s surface
 Hawaii: all ranges are volcanoes
 Mountains that rose from the ocean floor
 Mount Kilauea
 Summarize what you have learned today
 Name four mountain ranges in the western region.