The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range that is almost entirely in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of California. The range is also known as The Sierra.
GEOGRAPHY
The Sierra Nevada stretches 400 miles, from Fredonyer Pass in the north to Tehachapi Pass in the south. It is bounded on the west by California's Central Valley, and on the east by the Great Basin. In west-east cross section, the Sierra is shaped like a non-equilateral triangle: the altitude gradually increases as you travel east, until you reach the crest, whereupon the altitude rapidly decreases, forming a steep escarpment. Thus, the crest runs principally along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range. Rivers flowing west from the Sierra crest eventually drain into the Pacific Ocean, while rivers draining east flow into the Great Basin and do not reach any ocean. However, water from several streams and the Owens River is redirected to the city of Los Angeles (see Los Angeles Aqueduct). Thus, some east-flowing river water does make it to the Pacific Ocean.
There are several notable geographical features in the Sierra Nevada:
• Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet, is the highest point in the contiguous United States.
• Yosemite National Park is filled with stunning features, such as waterfalls and granite domes.
• Groves of Giant Sequoias occur along a narrow band of altitude on the western side of the Sierra Nevada. Giant Sequoias are the most massive trees in the world.
• Lake Tahoe is a large, clear freshwater lake in the northern Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of 6,225 feet and an area of 191 square miles. Lake Tahoe lies between the main Sierra and the Carson Range, a spur of the Sierra.
• Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon, Tehipite Valley and Kern Canyon are the most well-known of many beautiful, glacially-scoured canyons on the west side of the Sierra.
The height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada gradually increases from north to south. Between Fredonyer Pass and Lake Tahoe, the peaks range from 5,000 ft. to 8,000 ft. The crest near Lake Tahoe is roughly 9,000 ft high, with several peaks as high as Mount Rose (10,778 ft.), the crest near Yosemite National Park is roughly 13,000 ft. high at Mount Dana and Mount Lyell, and the entire range attains its peak at Mount Whitney. South of Mount Whitney, the range diminishes in elevation, but there are still several highpoints like Florence Peak (12,405 ft.) and Olancha Peak (12,123 ft.). The range still climbs almost to 10,000 ft.) near Isabella Lake, but south of the lake, the peaks reach only to a modest 8,000 ft.
GEOLOGY
The geological history of the Sierra Nevada begins in the Jurassic period, approximately 150 million years ago. At that time, an island arc collided with the West coast of North America and raised a set of mountains, in an event called the Nevadan orogeny. This event produced metamorphic rock. At roughly the same time, a subduction zone started to form at the edge of the continent. This means that an oceanic plate started to dive beneath the North American plate. Magma from the melting oceanic plate rose and created plutons of solid granite, deep below the surface. These plutons formed at various times, from 115 million to 87 million years ago. By 65 million years ago, the proto-Sierra Nevada was worn down to a range of rolling low mountains, a few thousand feet high.
About 25 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada started to rise and tilt to the west. Rivers started cutting deep canyons on both sides of the range. The Earth's climate cooled, and ice ages started about 2.5 million years ago. Glaciers carved out characteristic U-shaped canyons throughout the Sierra. The combination of river and glacier erosion exposed the granitic plutons previously buried, leaving only a remnant of metamorphic rock on top of some Sierra peaks. The rocks of the ancient plutons are known as the Sierra Nevada batholith. Uplift of the Sierra Nevada continues today, especially along its eastern side. This uplift causes large earthquakes, such as the Lone Pine earthquake of 1872.
BIOLOGY
The Sierra Nevada are divided into a number of biotic zones
• The Pinyon pine-Juniper woodland, 5000-7000 ft. east side only
• Notable species: Pinyon Jay, Desert Bighorn Sheep
• The lower montane forest, 3000-7000 ft. west side, 7000-8500 ft. east side
• Notable species: Ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine, California black oak, Incense-cedar, Giant Sequoia, Dark-eyed Junco, Mountain Chickadee, Western gray squirrel, Mule deer, American black bear
• The upper montane forest, 7000-9000 ft. west side, 8500-10,500 ft. east side
• Notable species: Lodgepole pine, Red Fir, Mountain Hemlock, Sierra Juniper, Hermit Thrush, Sage Grouse, Great Grey Owl, Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel, Marten
• The subalpine forest, 9000-10500 ft. west side, 10500-11500 ft. east side
• Notable species: Whitebark pine and Foxtail pine, Clark's Nutcracker
• The alpine region 10500 ft. west side, 11500 ft. east side
• Notable species: Sky Pilot, Pika, Belding's ground squirrel, Yellow-Bellied Marmot, Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep
HISTORY OF EXPLORATION
The earliest identified inhabitants of the Sierra Nevada were the Paiute tribe on the east side and the Mono and Sierra Miwok tribe on the west. Today, passes such as Duck Pass are littered with discarded obsidian arrowheads that date back to trade between tribes. There were also prehistorical territorial disputes between the Paiute and Sierra Miwok tribes European-American exploration of the mountain range started in the 1840s. In the winter of 1844, Lieutenant John C. Frémont, accompanied by Kit Carson, was the first white man to see Lake Tahoe.
By 1860, even though the California gold rush populated the flanks of the Sierra Nevada, most of the Sierra remained unexplored. Therefore, the state legislature authorized the California Geological Survey to officially explore the Sierra (and survey the rest of the state). Josiah Whitney was appointed to head the survey. Men of the survey, including William H. Brewer, Charles F. Hoffmann, and Clarence King, explored the backcountry of what would become Yosemite National Park in 1863. In 1864, they explored the area around Kings Canyon. King later recounted his adventures over the Kings-Kern divide in his book Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. In 1871, King mistakenly thought that Mount Langley was the highest peak in the Sierra and climbed it. However, before he could climb the true highest peak (Mount Whitney), fishermen from Lone Pine, California climbed it and left a note. Between 1892 and 1897, Theodore Solomons was the first explorer to attempt to map a route along the crest of the Sierra (what would eventually become the John Muir Trail, along a different route). On his 1894 expedition, he took along Leigh Bierce, son of writer Ambrose Bierce.
Noted early mountaineers included:
• John Muir
• Bolton Coit Brown
• Joseph LeConte
• James S. Hutchinson
• Norman Clyde
• Walter Starr, Sr.
• Walter A. Starr, Jr.
Features in the Sierra are named after these men.
HISTORY OF THE NAME
Sierra Nevada means "snowy range" in Spanish. In April of 1776, Padre Pedro Font on the second de Anza expedition gave that name to the mountains that could be seen in the distance to the east. Its most common nickname is the Range of Light. This nickname comes from John Muir, who in 1894 wrote in The Mountains of California:
Looking eastward from the summit of Pacheco Pass one shining morning, a landscape was displayed that after all my wanderings still appears as the most beautiful I have ever beheld. At my feet lay the Great Central Valley of California, level and flowery, like a lake of pure sunshine, forty or fifty miles wide, five hundred miles long, one rich furred garden of yellow Compositae. And from the eastern boundary of this vast golden flower-bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with light but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city.... Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light. This description is due in part to the unusually light colored granite exposed by glacial action.
TRIVIA
A unique peculiarity of the Sierra Nevada is that, under certain wind conditions, a large circular tube of air begins to roll on the southeast side. This is known as the "Sierra Nevada Rotor." This "mountain wave" forms when dry continental winds from the east cause the formation of a stacked set of counter-revolving cylinders of air reaching into the stratosphere. As of 2004, no sailplane has found its top. Similar features occur on many mountain ranges, but it is often observed and utilized in the Sierra. The phenomenon was the subject of an Air Force-funded study in the early 1950s called the Sierra Wave Project. All recent world altitude records set in unpowered aircraft were set in the Sierra Nevada Rotor, most flown from Mojave Airport. The Sierra Nevada casts the valleys east of the Sierra in a rain shadow, which makes Death Valley and Owens Valley "the land of little rain".
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