Carson Peak is a mountain summit located in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

mountain range, in

Mono County Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridg ...

of northern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. It is situated in the

Ansel Adams Wilderness The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, United States. The wilderness spans ; 33.9% of the territory lies in the Inyo National Forest, 65.8% is in the Sierra National Forest, and the remaining 0.3% co ...

, on land managed by

Inyo National Forest Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest p ...

. It is approximately southwest of the community of June Lake, south of Silver Lake, and northwest of San Joaquin Mountain, the nearest higher neighbor. The mountain is visible from various locations along the June Lake Loop, and from the nearby

June Mountain ski area June Mountain ski area is a ski resort, winter resort in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California, located near June Lake, California, June Lake, southeast of Yosemite National Park. Mountains June Mountain ski area consists of two mountains, R ...

. The summit offers impressive views of

Mount Ritter Mount Ritter is the highest mountain in Madera County, California, in the Western United States, at an elevation of . It is also the highest and most prominent peak of its namesake, the Ritter Range, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada in the Anse ...

and

Banner Peak Banner Peak is the second tallest peak in the Ritter Range of California's Sierra Nevada. The mountain is tall, and there are several glaciers on its slopes. It lies within the boundaries of the Ansel Adams Wilderness; at the foot of the pea ...

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as it rises above the valley in 1.2 mile. The mountain consists of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

of Lee Vining Canyon. Carson Peak is considered an eastern Sierra classic by backcountry skiers drawn to routes called the "Devils Slide" and "Petes Dream".

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Carson Peak has an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ins ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the range (

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains into tributaries of Rush Creek.

History

The peak was named after Roy Carson, who died in 1949.Peter Browning, ''Place Names of the Sierra Nevada: From Abbot to Zumwalt'', Wilderness Press, 1986, , page 32. While Roy was employed by the Rush Creek Hydroelectric Project in the area, he established the area's first resort in 1916, known as Carson's Camp, at Silver Lake. The fishing resort featured tents until 1920 when the first cabin was completed. This geographical feature's name has been officially adopted by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

Gallery

File:Carson Peak, June Lake.jpg, Carson Peak from June Lake File:Silver Lake Mammoth September 2016 001.jpg, Carson Peak in the summer, reflected in Silver Lake File:Carson Peak from June Lake Loop.jpg, Carson Peak from June Lake Loop File:Carson Peak autumn.jpg, Carson Peak in autumn File:Silver Lake (8761746816) (2).jpg, The north chute, aka "Devils Slide", is the conspicuous line File:Stunning June Lake in the Fall.jpg, Carson Peak centered beyond June Lake File:Carson Peak winter.jpg, Northeast aspect in winter File:Carson Peak, Eastern Sierra Nevada.jpg File:Silver Lake - Carson Peak.jpg File:June Lake with Sierra crest.jpg, San Joaquin Mountain (left), Carson Peak (right) from June Lake

References

External links

{{stack * Weather forecast
Carson Peak

Webcam
* Carson Peak climbing
Mountainproject.com
Mountains of Mono County, California Mountains of the Ansel Adams Wilderness Three-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States) Inyo National Forest

Climate

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links