Monitor Pass (el. 8,314 ft / 2,534 m) is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

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 ...

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 ...

southeast of

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

. It is traversed by State Route 89 near that highway's southern terminus at U.S. Route 395 near the community of Topaz. While this section of Route 89 serves to connect the basins of the

West Walker River The West Walker River is a tributary of the Walker River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 17, 2011 in eastern California and western Nevada in ...

and

Carson River The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length , traversing five counties: Alpine Count ...

, Monitor Pass itself lies on a side ridge between tributaries of the East Fork Carson River. Crossing the pass allows for a more direct route between U.S. 395 and

Markleeville, California Markleeville (formerly Markleville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Alpine County, California, United States. The population was 191 at the 2020 census, down from 210 at the 2010 census. History Jacob J. Marklee fou ...

, at the expense of some additional elevation. Monitor Pass is part of the route taken by

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartography, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Unit ...

in late spring of 1827 when leaving California at the end of his first exploratory journey, the first crossing ever of the Sierra Nevada by a non-native. Smith first came down from

Ebbetts Pass Ebbetts Pass (el. ), named after John Ebbetts, is a high mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada range in Alpine County, California. Ebbetts is the eastern of two passes in the area traversed by State Route 4. The western pass is the Pacific Gra ...

, then continued from Monitor Pass past

Topaz Lake Topaz Lake is a reservoir located on the California-Nevada border, about south of Reno. The census-designated place of Topaz Lake, Nevada, is located along its northwest shore. The modern reservoir was formed by diverting waters from the Wes ...

into Nevada. The highway through the pass was completed in the early 1950s, making it one of the most recent Sierra Nevada passes to be opened by a paved road. The highway project was promoted by Robert M. Jackson of Markleeville, who worked for the Alpine County Public Works Department for more than 30 years. State Route 89 over Monitor Pass is subject to winter closure due to snow accumulation. Dates of closure vary depending on the weather, but Monitor Pass is generally closed to vehicular traffic between late November and early April.

References

External links

Video of road traversal of Monitor Pass
Landforms of Alpine County, California Mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada (United States) {{AlpineCountyCA-geo-stub