The Rocky Mountain Region: Problems of Delimitation and Nomenclature

Abstract

This paper presents a new delimitation of the Rocky Mountain Region and examines some of the major diffferences between it and several well-known delimitations. The author has delimited the Rocky Mountains as a landscape region, that is, a region based on what the landscape looks like. Within the new boundary are the Columbia Mountains of Canada, the Okanogan Highlands of Washington, the Blue Mountains of Oregon, the Spanish Peaks of Colorado, the so-called High Plateaus of Utah, and some other areas that long have been excluded from the Rockies in traditional physiographic delimitations.