Needle Rock
Needle Rock rises to 2,400 m in Colorado. West Elk Peak stands 3,975 m to the east, 19 miles off. Grand Mesa passes 24 miles off.
The story
Needle Rock Natural Area is located at the western edge of the West Elk Mountains of Colorado. The surrounding terrain is characterized by laccolithic mountains flanked by precipitous cliffs, extensive talus aprons, forested mesas, canyons, and spacious, well-watered intermontane basins. Needle Rock is an intrusive plug of monzonite porphyry cropping out 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east-northeast (bearing 68°) of the Town of Crawford in Delta County, Colorado, United States. With an elevation of 7,797 feet (2,377 m), the towering rock spire stands 800 feet (240 m) tall above the floor of the Smith Fork of the Gunnison River valley. The massive rock feature originated in the Oligocene geological epoch when magma intruded between existing sedimentary rocks as the crown of a buried laccolith or possibly the underlying conduit of a laccolith. Subsequent erosion has exposed the prominent rock formation seen in the natural area today. The Needle Rock Natural Area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wikidata Q8536136, referenced by the OpenStreetMap record.
What the record says
- Elevation
- 2400 m
How to reach it
- 23.7 mi off the Grand Mesa, National
Overlooks nearby
- Cedaredge Overlook · 30 mi
Named places within 25 miles
- North Saddle Peak: 1.6 mi
- South Saddle Peak: 2.3 mi
- Youngs Peak: 3.2 mi
- Landsend Peak: 3.2 mi
- Little Sand Mountain: 3.8 mi
- Crawford Town Park: 3.5 mi
- Crawford Recreation Area: 4.0 mi
- Poulos Park: 10.2 mi
- Northfork Miners Memorial: 10.3 mi
- Paonia Park: 10.4 mi
- Wiley Springs: 2.8 mi
- Clark Spring No 2: 4.9 mi
- Clark Spring No 1: 5.1 mi
- Bell Creek Springs: 5.2 mi
- Mays Spring: 5.2 mi
- Hotchkiss-Crawford Historical Museum: 10.5 mi
- Paonia Museum: 10.6 mi
- Bowie Schoolhouse Museum: 10.6 mi
- Museum of the Mountain West: 21.7 mi
- Museum of the Mountain West: 21.7 mi
- Painted Wall: 13.8 mi
- Red Rocks: 17.2 mi
- Windy Point: 17.7 mi
- Iron Point: 18.0 mi
- Lombard Slides: 20.6 mi
- Gunnison Forks Picnic Area: 16.0 mi
- East Cimarron: 20.1 mi
- McIntyre Gulch: 21.3 mi
- Erickson Springs Picnic Site: 22.0 mi
- Benjamin C. Heilman Grave: 13.0 mi
- Bibliotheca Publica: 22.8 mi
- LTV A-7D Corsair II: 24.5 mi
- Needle Rock: 0.0 mi
- Dillon Pinnacles: 22.5 mi
- Chipeta Falls: 20.6 mi
- all saints comunity garden: 24.8 mi
Other summits around it
The highest named summits within 19.7 miles of Needle Rock. Elevation from each summit’s own record; bearing measured between the two coordinates.
| Summit | Bearing | Elevation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Elk Peak | E 91° | 3,975 m | 18.9 mi |
| North Baldy Mountain | E 95° | 3,917 m | 19.6 mi |
| Middle Baldy | E 97° | 3,872 m | 19.3 mi |
| Mount Gunnison | NE 56° | 3,860 m | 10.8 mi |
| Middle Baldy Mountain | E 99° | 3,838 m | 19.6 mi |
| South Baldy Mountain | ESE 102° | 3,775 m | 19.5 mi |
| East Beckwith Mountain | ENE 64° | 3,772 m | 19.5 mi |
| Mount Guero | E 92° | 3,674 m | 8.8 mi |
When to go
Light through the year
| Date | Sunrise | Golden hour | Sunset |
|---|---|---|---|
| March equinox | 07:15 | 18:47 | 19:22 |
| June solstice | 05:46 | 19:59 | 20:39 |
| September equinox | 06:59 | 18:34 | 19:09 |
| December solstice | 07:26 | 16:11 | 16:53 |
Local time (America/Denver).
Climate normals
Months averaging 50–80 °F: May–Oct.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg °F | 27 | 33 | 42 | 49 | 58 | 68 | 74 | 72 | 64 | 52 | 40 | 28 |
| Precip in | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 1.2 |
1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals, NOAA NCEI — Paonia 1SW, 10 mi away.
Where this comes from
Location and category confirmed against OpenStreetMap.
OpenStreetMapWikidata- USGS Geographic Names Information System feature 186724 — Needle Rock, Delta County, Colorado.
OpenStreetMap element node/3778920159
Day trips start here
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