Sometimes people who name mountains choose a descriptive and/or dominant attribute. Consider the Rocky Mountains, which are rocky. The Smoky Mountains, with their smoke-like fog. The Snowy Range—a small range within the Rockies—appears snow covered every month of the year. At other times, the mountain names seem arbitrary—like the White Mountains, which are not white at all. Some mountain ranges have names that describe events that happened. Canada is home to the Badshot Range and Bonanza Range. Naming mountains and ranges still causes a controversy, which you can read about here. 

Individual mountain peaks have names too.Some names come from the lucky person who “discovered” and/or first climbed the peak–Pikes Peak and Longs Peak in Colorado, for example.  Many peaks or land forms hold the name of things people “see” in the rocks and ridge lines. In Wyoming, I lived near Squaw Peak—a small bump in the Laramie Range foothills that looked like a pregnant squaw laying on her back. I never saw this. In fact, I never saw the images where other people saw elephant, alligator, and bear shapes. When someone says, look, I see a whale in that formation, I blink and squint but never see the image. Really? A whale in the cliffs above the Colorado River running through Moab? I am not imaginative in that way.

Before arriving, I expect the Turtle Mountain land form to look like a turtle, and I expect to miss the image as always. As I approach from the prairie lands, no turtle shape.  After setting up camp, Tango and I headed out for a walk. I leashed him and headed around the back of the camper. Tango started barking wildly—his I just saw a chipmunk and I want to chase it bark. He tugged. I looked down his line of sight and saw a turtle. Ah…maybe the Turtle Mountains are so named because turtles are abundant. Wouldn’t that be logical or was that just a fluke? We walked a bit further along the campground road, and another turtle. Later, we took a ride into the small touristy town of Lake Metigoshe and passed two turtles crossing the road.  The next night and the next, a turtle passed through our campsite. I discover that these round reptiles are Painted Turtles and that they have some unique qualities like coming back to life after freezing solid. What a great camp host. They don’t make a sound or get into the trash. They simply wander.  I have no idea where the turtles are heading, only that they are everywhere in the Turtle Mountains and always on the move.

So, add to the list mountains named after a critter who lives there. I consult the list again, and see that this is unusual, at least in North America. Exceptions include the Cariboo Range in Canada, Gila Mountains in Arizona,  and the Elk Range (one of my favorites) in Colorado.

I already love the Turtle Mountains and their resident turtles. Great trip so far!