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 higher t ...

in the

Santa Lucia range The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains 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 fro ...

of central

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 ...

with a height of . 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 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...

, and is located within the boundaries of

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

. It is named after Saint

Junípero Serra Saint Junípero Serra Ferrer (; ; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784), popularly known simply as Junipero Serra, was a Spanish Roman Catholic, Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Francis ...

, the Spanish Franciscan priest who founded the

California Missions The Spanish missions in California () formed a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. The missions were established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan ord ...

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 often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

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 The Native Daughters of the Golden West is an American non-profit organization for women born in California. The organization focuses on the care and preservation of California history. It is the sister organization to the Native Sons of the Golde ...

had bestowed his name upon a

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 ...

peak in June 1905. However, the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

recommended that the name be transferred to Santa Lucia Peak. The

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

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 ...

Native Americans.

Climate

Since the peak is over , 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 of rain plus of snow during the 1965–66 season. In adjacent regions this was an "average" season. In the wet 1966–67 season he measured 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 ; permanent creeks flow at .

Ecology

Montane pine forest dominated by

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree and has the longest Conifer cone, cones of any conifer. It is native to coastal and inland mountain areas along the Pacific coa ...

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 Cone Peak is the second highest mountain in the Santa Lucia Range in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest. It rises nearly a vertical mile only from the coast as the crow flies. This is one of the steepest gradients from o ...

sugar pine forests are isolated from the next sugar pine stands by 220 km.Griffin, J. R. 1975a. Plants of the highest Santa Lucia and Diablo Range Peaks, California. USDA 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), rust fungus in the family Cronartiaceae that causes the disease white pine blister rust. Other names include: (French), (German), (Spanish). Origin ''Cronartium ribicola'' is native to C ...

. 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, common in southern California and

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 Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains 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 fro ...

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 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 (California), Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the V ...

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

References

External links