page_title: Wind River Range
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Wind River Range / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr. Dennis Bogdan - Backpacking in the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA, 1971.Fremont Peak - south view from the south slope. NOTE: If redistributing, please be consistent with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License and the GNU Free Documentation License agreements. Nikon (35mm) camera – scanned 35mm slide
context_page_description: The Wind River Range, is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW–SE for approximately 100 mi. The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and includes Gannett Peak, which at 13,802 ft, is the highest peak in Wyoming; and also Fremont Peak at 13,750 ft, the third highest peak in Wyoming. There are more than 40 other named peaks in excess of 12,999 ft. With the exception of the Grand Teton in the Teton Range, the next 19 highest peaks in Wyoming after Gannett are also in the Winds.
  Two large national forests including three wilderness areas encompass most of the mountain range. Shoshone National Forest is on the eastern side of the continental divide while Bridger-Teton National Forest is on the west. Both national forests and the entire mountain range are an integral part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Portions of the east side of the range are inside the Wind River Indian Reservation.
context_section_description: The Winds are known to have a small grizzly bear population, primarily in the northernmost areas. Other mammals include the black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, mountain lion and wolverine. Bald eagles, falcons and hawks are just a few of the 300 species of birds known to inhabit the region. The streams and lakes are home to Yellowstone cutthroat, rainbow, brook, brown, lake, and golden trout—about 2.5 million of which were stocked by a local explorer named Finis Mitchell and his wife during the Great Depression. The forests are dominated by lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, subalpine fir, and Engelmann spruce.
  The range sits alongside many of the animal migration routes in the United States and contains several important passes, notably South Pass, 7,549 ft (2,301 m), at the south end of the range, which was one of the more important passes on the Oregon Trail as it passed through the Rockies. Aside from South Pass, which is at the southernmost tip of the range, no roads cross the mountains until Union Pass, 9,209 ft (2,807 m) at the northern terminus of the range. There are many passes between tall peaks across the continental divide, which runs through the entire range.
caption: Wind River Range - looking south from atop Fremont Peak - during a backpacking trip.