Parkview Mountain

Description

Parkview Mountain is located on the Continental Divide in Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado, about 20 miles northwest of Granby and 30 miles south of Walden. It is the highest and most massive peak in the east-west-trending Rabbit Ears Range which separates North and Middle Parks.

Geologic mapping of Parkview Mountain shows the highest parts of the mountain to be a stock of quartz latite porphyry intruding the Middle Park Formation of Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary age. Two dike systems, composed of quartz latite porphyry dikes of pre-stock and post-stock ages are also present on the mountain. The post-stock dikes show a roughly radial pattern about the stock. A quartz monzonite intrusive not exposed in outcrop, but intersected by drilling is present at depth under the mountain.

Minor copper, lead, zinc and silver mineralization occurs in brecciated and silicified contact zones and in veins in the area. In the late 1960's through the mid 1970's Parkview Mountain was studied for the potential of a molybdenum deposit.

A very detailed description of the geology can be found in an unpublished Masters Thesis entitled "The Geology, Alteration, and Mineralization of Parkview Mountain, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado" by Fredrick Allen Spicker, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, May 1973.

Thanks to Fred Spicker for this description.