Raft River Mountains | |
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![]() Raft River Mountains from the southeast
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Highest point | |
Peak | Bull Mountain |
Elevation | 9,925 ft (3,025 m) |
Coordinates | 41°54′42″N 113°21′55″W / 41.9117°N 113.3654°WCoordinates: 41°54′42″N 113°21′55″W / 41.9117°N 113.3654°W |
Dimensions | |
Length | 40 mi (64 km) E/W |
Width | 35 mi (56 km) N/S |
Area | 765 sq mi (1,980 km2) |
Geography | |
Country | United States |
State | Utah |
Parent range | Basin and Range Province |
The Raft River Mountains are a mountain range in northern Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The mountains are located in Raft River Division of the Minidoka Ranger District of Sawtooth National Forest. The highest point is Bull Mountain near the Dunn Benchmark at 9,925 ft (3,025 m), and the ghost town of Yost is on the north central slopes. Tributaries of the Raft River drain the northern slopes of the range to the Snake River then Columbia River and Pacific Ocean, while the southern slopes drain to the Great Salt Lake.
Located in the Sawtooth National Forest, the range's montane forest ecoregion is "surrounded by montane steppes and desert". The range is oriented in an east-west orientation, and is a portion of the Great Basin Divide and the Basin and Range Province between the Bonneville Basin of the Great Basin (south).
The central mass of the range consists of Precambrian metamorphic rocks. The Elba Quartzite with interlayered schist outcrops along the southern slopes of the range and in the Grouse Creek Mountains to the southwest. Cambrian quartzite outcrops in the west part of the range and in the Grouse Creek range and the Goose Creek Mountains to the west. The thinly bedded quartzites have been quarried for building stone in the area.