Mount Pennell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mount Pennell |
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Mount Pennell, south aspect
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 11,413 ft (3,479 m) |
| Prominence | 3,568 ft (1,088 m) |
| Isolation | 10.62 mi (17.09 km) |
| Parent peak | Mount Ellen (11,527 ft) |
| Naming | |
| Etymology | Joseph Pennell |
| Geography | |
 Mount Pennell
Location in Utah
Mount Pennell
Location in the United States
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| Location | Garfield County, Utah, U.S. |
| Parent range | Henry Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Pennell |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | Oligocene |
| Mountain type | Laccolith |
| Type of rock | Igneous |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | class 2 scrambling |
Mount Pennell is a tall mountain peak in eastern Garfield County, Utah, United States. It stands 11,413 feet (3,478 meters) high. This makes it the second-highest mountain in the Henry Mountains range.
Mount Pennell is about 10.6 miles south of Mount Ellen, which is the tallest peak in the Henry Mountains. The area around Mount Pennell is dry and rugged. It's found east of Capitol Reef National Park. The land here is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The mountain has deep canyons on its sides. Higher up, you can find different types of trees. These include oak, Ponderosa pine, subalpine fir, spruce, Douglas fir, and aspen. Rain and snow that fall on the mountain flow into streams. These streams eventually join the nearby Colorado River.
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History of Mount Pennell
The native Paiute people were the first to live near this mountain. They called it Un-chu'-ka-ret.
How Mount Pennell Got Its Name
The mountain was named by Almon Harris Thompson. He was a topographer and geographer. This means he made maps and studied the Earth's surface. Thompson worked on John Wesley Powell's Second Geographical Expedition from 1871 to 1875.
Thompson named Mount Ellen after his wife, Ellen Powell Thompson. Later, he named Mount Pennell after his friend, Joseph Pennell (1857–1926). Joseph Pennell was an American artist and writer. Thompson also named Mount Hillers, which is seven miles southeast.
Almon Harris Thompson named many places in the Western United States. He did this through his work on the Powell expedition and later with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Studying the Mountain's Geology
An American geologist named Grove Karl Gilbert explored this area in 1875 and 1876. A geologist is a scientist who studies the Earth's physical structure and substances. Gilbert wrote about what he found in 1879 in a book called The Geology of the Henry Mountains.
Gilbert was the first to use the term "laccolith" (originally "laccolite"). He used it to describe how certain types of rock, like diorite, pushed up into the Earth's crust in the Henry Mountains. A laccolith is a mushroom-shaped body of igneous rock that forms when magma pushes up the overlying rock layers.
Climate Around Mount Pennell
The best times to visit Mount Pennell are in the spring and fall. The climate here is a Cold semi-arid climate. This means the coldest month has an average temperature below 32 °F (0 °C). Also, at least half of the yearly rain and snow falls during spring and summer.
This desert climate gets less than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain each year. Snowfall is usually light during the winter months.
