Mountains and hills of England the Pennines (often called "the backbone of England") continues into the Yorkshire Dales, a limestone-dominated area of broad valleys and moorland. The Yorkshire Three Peaks are some of the highest summits in the area, which became a national park in 1954. The Yorkshire Dales end at Skipton, and a short distance to the south is a range of moors that rises up between the urban cores of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The range has no continuous name - the western part as far as Blackburn is called the West Pennine Moors, the eastern part north of the A646 (including
Moonbi Range Macdonald River to the north, which are both themselves tributaries of the Namoi River. The higher parts of the area often receive a snowfall in the winter, and the highest peak in the range is called Black Jack Mountain at . The original inhabitants of the Ranges were Aborigines of the Kamilaroi clan. To the road traveller on the New England Highway, the Moonbi Range is notable as it is a major uphill climb on the highway as the motorist ascends from Moonbi at the foot of the 1st Moonbi Hill to the Northern Tablelands and the village of Bendemeer.