The Sierra Crest is a roughly generally north-to-south ridgeline that demarcates the broad west and narrow east slopes 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 ...

and that extends as far east as the Sierra's topographic front (e.g.,

Diamond Mountains The Diamond Mountains are a mountain range along the border of Eureka and White Pine Counties, in northern Nevada, Western United States. Geography The range reaches a maximum elevation of on the summit of Diamond Peak. The range separates ...

and Sierran escarpment). The northern and central Sierra Crest sections coincide with over of the

Great Basin Divide The Great Basin Divide in the western United States is the ridgeline that separates the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean watershed, which completely surrounds it. The Great Basin is the largest set of contiguous endorheic watersheds of No ...

, and the southern crest demarcates Tulare and Inyo counties and extends through

Kern County Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

to meet the Tehachapi crest. The Sierra Crest also forms two paths (bifurcates) around

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

s (e.g., Cup Lake) between the west and east Sierra slopes.

Theodore Solomons Theodore Seixas Solomons (1870–1947) was an American explorer and early member of the Sierra Club. From 1892 to 1897 he explored and named the Mount Goddard, Evolution Valley and Evolution Basin region in what is now northern Kings Canyon N ...

made the first attempt to map a crest route along the Sierras. He was instrumental in envisioning, exploring, and establishing the route of what became the

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, Kings Canyon National Park, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, Se ...

from

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about long a ...

along the crest of the

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 ...

References

{{Reflist Landforms of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Landforms of Tulare County, California Ridges of California Landforms of Kern County, California Landforms of Lassen County, California Landforms of Fresno County, California Landforms of Inyo County, California Landforms of Madera County, California Landforms of Plumas County, California Landforms of Mono County, California