The Rocky Mountains are a part of the North American continent. They form the longest mountain range in North America, spanning the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The Rockies are bordered on the east by the Great Plains and on the west by the Interior Plateau and Coast Mountains of Canada and the Columbia Plateau and Basin and Range Province of the United States.

The Rocky Mountains include at least 100 separate ranges, which are generally divided into four broad groupings: the Canadian Rockies and Northern Rockies of Montana and northeastern Idaho; the Middle Rockies of Wyoming, Utah, and southeastern Idaho; the Southern Rockies, mainly in Colorado and New Mexico; and the Colorado Plateau in the Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

The Rocky Mountains are part of the North American Continental Divide, which is a plateau that expands from northwestern Montana to northern British Columbia and splits the mountain chain from the parallel occidental ranges. The Rocky Mountains are also part of the Great Divide that separates the rivers that drain into the Atlantic or the Arctic, from flowing into the Pacific Ocean. In the Rockies are born the following rivers: Arkansas, Colorado, Columbia, Missouri, Rio Grande, Saskatchewan, Fraser, Peace, and Snake.