Junipero Serra Peak is the highest

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

in the

Santa Lucia range The Santa Lucia Mountains (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Range is a rugged mountain range in coastal central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than from ...

of central

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is also the highest peak in

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

, and is located within the boundaries of

Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Mo ...

. It is named after Saint

Junípero Serra Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierr ...

, the Spanish Franciscan priest who founded the

California Missions The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests of ...

in the 18th century. There is a fire lookout, with a tower and building, near the peak that was constructed around 1935. An unauthorized skiing operation on the summit was reported sometime before 1970. Good astronomical observing conditions were an early attraction to the peak. Astronomers scratched a trail to the summit in January 1880 to observe a total eclipse of the sun. Observations from the peak were also made on the transit of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

in 1882.

Toponymy

It was originally named Santa Lucia Peak, as it is the highest point in the range of the same name. Wanting to honor

, the Native Daughters of the Golden West had bestowed his name upon a Sierra Nevada peak in June 1905. However, the Sierra Club recommended that the name be transferred to Santa Lucia Peak. The United States Board on Geographic Names officially approved the name change in 1906 finding that Junípero Serra was familiar with the Santa Lucia Mountains, but in all likelihood he had never encountered the Sierra Nevada. The peak was named ''Pimkolam'' by the

Salinan The Salinan are a Native American tribe whose ancestral territory is in the southern Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia Range in the Central Coast of California. Today, the Salinan governments are now working toward federal tribal recognition f ...

Native Americans.

Climate

Since the peak is over 5,000 feet (1,524 m), temperatures in winter are low enough to support snowfall and relatively high amounts of precipitation compared to the Salinas Valley and places farther east in the Coast Ranges. Although by far the tallest of the Santa Lucia Range peaks, Junipero Serra Peak appears to have a drier climate than the others. No long-term weather data are available. Walker (1970), an astronomer who spent several seasons on the summit, measured 51 cm (19.9 inches) of rain plus 93 cm (36.6 inches) of snow during the 1965-66 season. In adjacent regions this was an "average" season. In the wet 1966-67 season he measured 100 cm (39.4 inches) of rain plus 304 cm (1 19.7 inches) of snow. There is no surface water above 5,000 ft in summer. In years with above-average rainfall some creeks may start at 4,800 ft (1463 m); permanent creeks flow at 4,500 ft (1372 m).

Ecology

Montane pine forest dominated by sugar pine covers areas of the peak's north summit and the upper reaches of water courses on the north slope. Junípero Serra Peak and nearby Cone Peak sugar pine forests are isolated from the next sugar pine stands by 220 km. An interesting feature of this sugar pine population is the unexpectedly high frequency of a major gene for resistance to

white pine blister rust ''Cronartium ribicola'' is a species of rust fungus in the family Cronartiaceae that causes the disease white pine blister rust. Other names include: (French), (German), (Spanish). ''Cronartium ribicola'' is native to China, and was subseque ...

. This fatal disease, caused by an exotic pathogen, has caused high mortality to sugar pine and other white pine in North America. Natural resistance in other sugar pine populations ranges from near 0% in the South Cascade Range to 8% in the southern Sierra Nevada; on Junipero Serra, it is 8.9%. No blister rust has as yet been reported in this stand. The Junípero Serra Peak pines are surrounded by a vast area of scrubby mixed hardwood forest and chaparral. Understory shrubs and herbs associated with the pine forest are also isolated from distant forests, and many of them differ from the nearby isolated montane species on Cone Peak. The most interesting disjunct is ''Cycladenia humilus'' var. ''venusta'', which has one population under the pines on the summit of Junipero Serra Peak and three tiny colonies on Cone Peak. The type specimen of this variety is collected at the peak of Junipero Serra Peak.

Mountain chickadee The mountain chickadee (''Poecile gambeli'') is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. Taxonomy The specific name honors naturalist William Gambel. The mountain chickadee was formerly placed in the genus ''Parus'' with ...

, common in southern California and Sierra Nevada montane forest, is present in the South Coast Ranges only in the Junipero Serra Peak and Cone Peak forests.

Fire History

Junipero Serra Peak has a long history of wildfires. Between 1640 and 1907 fires hot enough to produce basal scars on pines in a small isolated sugar pine forest in the

Santa Lucia Range The Santa Lucia Mountains (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Range is a rugged mountain range in coastal central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than from ...

of central California occurred on average once every 21 years. Except for two small lightning fires that were quickly extinguished, no fires occurred in the pine forest after 1907 until the lightning-caused Marble Cone Fire burned the entire forest in 1977. This was the most intense burn recorded within the life of the present forest. It caused significant loss of pines, particularly within the 40 percent of the forest on the north summit above 1600 m elevation. Changes in forest composition resulting from the Marble Cone Fire suggest that several more fires following 50-75 year intervals may eliminate sugar pine forest above 1600 m on Junípero Serra Peak.Talley, S.N. and Griffin, J.R., 1980. Fire ecology of a montane pine forest, Junipero Serra Peak, California. Madrono, pp.49-60. More recently, the

Dolan Fire The Dolan Fire was a large wildfire that burned in the Big Sur region and other parts of the Santa Lucia mountain range in Monterey County, California, in the United States as part of the 2020 California wildfire season. The fire began at approx ...

burned the southern slopes and upper portions of the northern summit in the fall of 2020. Along with much of the southern

Ventana Wilderness The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesig ...

, Junipero Serra was also burned extensively in the 2008 Indians Fire.

References

External links