Editing Rocky Mountains (section)

==Geography==
{{see also|List of rivers of the Rocky Mountains}}
The Rocky Mountains are the easternmost portion of the expansive [[North American Cordillera]]. They are often defined as stretching from the [[Liard River]] in [[British Columbia]]<ref name=gadd1/>{{rp|13}} south to the headwaters of the [[Pecos River]], a tributary of the [[Rio Grande]], in New Mexico. The Rockies vary in width from {{convert|70|to|300|mi|abbr=off|km|order=flip}}. The Rocky Mountains contain the highest peaks in central North America. The range's highest peak is [[Mount Elbert]] in Colorado at {{convert|14440|ft|m|0|abbr=off|order=flip}} above sea level. [[Mount Robson]] in British Columbia, at {{convert|12972|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}}, is the highest peak in the [[Canadian Rockies]].
[[File:Mount Robson Twilight.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Mount Robson]] in British Columbia]]

The eastern edge of the Rockies rises dramatically above the [[Interior Plains]] of central North America, including the [[Sangre de Cristo Mountains]] of [[New Mexico]] and [[Colorado]], the [[Front Range]] of Colorado, the [[Wind River Range]] and [[Big Horn Mountains]] of [[Wyoming]], the [[Absaroka Range|Absaroka]]-[[Beartooth Mountains|Beartooth]] ranges and [[Rocky Mountain Front]] of [[Montana]] and the [[Clark Range (Rocky Mountains)|Clark Range]] of [[Alberta]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Central ranges of the Rockies include the [[La Sal Mountains|La Sal Range]] along the [[Utah]]-Colorado border, the [[Abajo Mountains]] and [[Henry Mountains]] of Southeastern Utah, the [[Uinta Mountains|Uinta Range]] of Utah and Wyoming, and the [[Teton Range]] of Wyoming and Idaho.

The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the [[Wasatch Range|Wasatch]] near [[Salt Lake City]], the [[San Juan Mountains]] of New Mexico and Colorado, the [[Bitterroot Range|Bitterroots]] along the Idaho-Montana border, and the [[Sawtooth Range (Idaho)|Sawtooths]] in central Idaho. The [[Great Basin]] and [[Columbia River Plateau]] separate these subranges from distinct ranges further to the west. In Canada, the western edge of the Rockies is formed by the huge [[Rocky Mountain Trench]], which runs the length of [[British Columbia]] from its beginning as the [[Kechika River|Kechika Valley]] on the south bank of the [[Liard River]], to the middle [[Lake Koocanusa]] valley in northwestern Montana.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cannings|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ig4OMokvt-0C&q=%22Rocky+Mountain+Trench%22+and+%22Columbia+Mountains%22&pg=PA5|title=The Rockies: A Natural History|page=5|publisher=Greystone/David Suzuki Foundation|year=2007|isbn=978-1-55365-285-4}}</ref>

The Canadian Rockies are defined by Canadian geographers as everything south of the [[Liard River]] and east of the [[Rocky Mountain Trench]], and do not extend into [[Yukon]], [[Northwest Territories]] or central [[British Columbia]]. They are divided into three main groups: the [[Muskwa Ranges]], [[Hart Ranges]] (collectively called the [[Northern Rockies]]) and [[Continental Ranges]]. Other more northerly mountain ranges of the eastern [[Canadian Cordillera]] continue beyond the Liard River valley, including the [[Selwyn Mountains|Selwyn]], [[Mackenzie Mountains|Mackenzie]] and [[Richardson Mountains]] in Yukon as well as the [[British Mountains]]/[[Brooks Range]] in [[Alaska]], but those are not officially recognized as part of the Rockies by the [[Geological Survey of Canada]], although the [[Geological Society of America]] definition does consider them parts of the Rocky Mountains system as the "Arctic Rockies".<ref name="Geology">{{cite book|last1=Madole|first1=Richard F.|last2=Bradley|first2=William C.|last3=Loewenherz|first3=Deborah S.|last4=Ritter|first4=Dale F.|last5=Rutter|first5=Nathaniel W.|last6=Thorn|first6=Colin E.|editor-last=Graf|editor-first=William L.|year= 1987|orig-year= |chapter=Rocky Mountains|script-chapter= |trans-chapter= |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252930914|title=Geomorphic Systems of North America|url= |url-status= |url-access= |format= |type= |language= |volume=2|series=Decade of North American Geology|edition=Centennial Special|location= |publisher=[[Geological Society of America]]|publication-date=1987-01-01|pages=211–257|doi=10.1130/DNAG-CENT-v2.211|isbn=9780813754147|access-date=2021-06-22}}</ref>

The [[Continental Divide of the Americas]] is in the Rocky Mountains and designates the line at which waters flow either to the [[Atlantic]] or Pacific Oceans. [[Triple Divide Peak (Montana)|Triple Divide Peak]] ({{cvt|8020|ft|m|order=flip|disp=or}}) in [[Glacier National Park (U.S.)|Glacier National Park]] is so named because water falling on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific but [[Hudson Bay]] as well. Farther north in Alberta, the [[Athabasca River|Athabasca]] and other rivers feed the basin of the [[Mackenzie River]], which has its outlet on the [[Beaufort Sea]] of the Arctic Ocean.

Human population is not very dense in the Rockies, with an average of four people per square kilometer and few cities with over 50,000 people. However, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The forty-year statewide increases in population range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah and Colorado. The populations of several mountain towns and communities have doubled in the forty years 1972–2012. [[Jackson, Wyoming]], increased 260%, from 1,244 to 4,472 residents, in those forty years.<ref name="USGS" />

{{wide image|Mountains_from_westlands.jpg|1000px|The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains near [[Denver]], Colorado}}