Cirque Peak is a mountain summit located on the crest of 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

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 ...

. It is situated on the common border of

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lake ...

with

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...

, as well as the shared boundary of

Golden Trout Wilderness The Golden Trout Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada, in Tulare County, California, Tulare County and Inyo County, California, Inyo County, California. It is located east of Porterville, California, Portervi ...

and

John Muir Wilderness The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for , in the Inyo National Forest, Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist ...

, 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 southwest of the community of Lone Pine, south-southeast of

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'' or ''Too-man-go-yah'') is a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of . It lies in East–Central Califor ...

, and south of Mount Langley, the nearest higher neighbor. Cirque Peak is the highest point of the Golden Trout Wilderness, and ranks as the 175th highest peak in California.

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 Cirque Lake in approximately one mile. The

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

traverses the southwest slope of this mountain, providing an approach option. The mountain was apparently named in 1890 by Joseph Nisbet LeConte and companions who noted the remarkable cirque on the north aspect.Kenneth L. Taylor, ''Names on the Range: Scientists and Science in the Naming of Sierra Nevada Features''
/ref>

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, Cirque 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 west to the

Kern River The Kern River is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between ...

via

Golden Trout Creek Golden Trout Creek is an approximately long tributary of the Kern River, flowing in northeastern Tulare County, California. The creek drains an area of the High Sierra Nevada in the Inyo National Forest. Volcano Creek is a tributary of it. Co ...

, and east to

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Mono language (California), Mono: ''Payahǖǖnadǖ'', meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra ...

via Cottonwood Creek.

Gallery

File:Cirque Peak from South Fork Lake 2.jpg File:Cirque Peak hikers.jpg File:Eastern Sierra High Peaks Panorama.jpg, Summit view looking north into the cirque and to Mt. Langley File:Cottonwood Lakes Trail and Cirque Peak.jpg, Cottonwood Lakes Trail and Cirque Peak File:Cottonwood Lake 1 and Cirque Peak.jpg

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Cirque Peak
* Cirque Peak
Mountain-Forecast.com
{{John Muir Wilderness Mountains of Tulare County, California Inyo National Forest Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness Three-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links