The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

in the

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within San ...

system of

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 ...

in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. The range extends for approximately in southern

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county ...

and northwestern

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

and form part of the boundary between the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

and the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...

Geography

The Tehachapis form a geographic,

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, and

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carri ...

divide separating the

to the northwest and the

to the southeast. The Tehachapis' crest varies in height from approximately . They are southeast of

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley (California), Central Valley r ...

and the Central Valley, and west of Mojave and the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and t ...

. The range runs southwest to northeast (SW-NE) connecting the Southern

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 ...

range on their northeast with the San Emigdio Mountains on the west and Sierra Pelona Mountains on the southwest. The Tehachapis are delineated from the San Emigdio Mountains by

Tejon Pass The Tejon Pass , previously known as ''Portezuelo de Cortes'', ''Portezuela de Castac'', and Fort Tejon Pass is a mountain pass between the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains and northeastern San Emigdio Mountains, linking Southern Calif ...

at the range's western end. The dramatic incline of

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Calif ...

from the San Joaquin Valley floor up to the pass, is regionally referred to as ''The Grapevine'', after Grapevine Canyon which it follows between the northern slopes of the two mountain ranges and is sometimes extended to include the portion of Interstate 5 on the southern side of Tejon Pass, especially during snow closures. The canyon was named after native grapevines, the California grapevine (''Vitis californica''), found at springs on its slopes. The

California State Water Project The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public water ...

is to the east, with the California Aqueduct pumped by the Edmonston Pumping Plant over/through the Tehachapis to

Castaic Lake Castaic Lake ( Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a reservoir formed by Castaic Dam on Castaic Creek, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, near the town of Castaic. The California Office of En ...

reservoir. The Tehachapis are delineated from the Sierra Pelona Mountains by California State Route 138 at the range's southwestern end, connecting Interstate 5 and the Antelope Valley. The Tehachapis are delineated from the Sierra Nevada by Tehachapi Pass and

State Route 58 The following highways are numbered 58: International * European route E58 Australia * Riverina Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 58 * Highway 58 (Ontario) * Saskatchewan Highway 58 Finland * Finnish national road 58 India * National Highw ...

at the range's northeastern end, connecting the San Joaquin Valley and Mojave Desert. The

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

north/south railroad line, with the famous

Tehachapi Loop The Tehachapi Loop is a long spiral, or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin ...

, crosses here also. The Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm is on its eastern side. The Tehachapis, though neither as long or high as other California mountain ranges, are often considered the topographic feature that separates this part of

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

from

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

, with the geographic boundary often being

. Some historians consider that California averted a potential split into two separate states – "North California" and "South California" – from the early 20th century Ridge Route construction, the first highway crossing these mountains to connect the

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino ...

and San Joaquin Valley regions.

Geology

The Tehachapis are largely the result of the movements of the Garlock Fault, located along the southeastern base of the range, a major

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subducti ...

which runs from the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...

in the west to the Sierra Nevada Fault on the east and some distance beyond. This

earthquake fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

is unusual in California in that it is a left-lateral fault — meaning that if one stands facing the fault, the land on the opposite side moves to the left — opposite to most of the state's faults which are right-lateral faults.

Natural history

The Tehachapi Mountains are a major and crucial

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat (ecology), habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of i ...

and plant habitat bridge linking the other Transverse Ranges and the California Coast Ranges on the west with the Sierra Nevada on the east. Their relative lack of development, especially in the large Tejon Ranch section, have allowed the continuity of these ecological functions to date.

Flora

The Tehachapis are primarily in the California interior chaparral and woodlands sub-

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

, with native

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

California oak woodland California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coa ...

s and

oak savanna An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks (''Quercus ''spp.) are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Medite ...

the predominant

s. The higher

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

elevations include the California mixed evergreen forest

plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...

. Some of the

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...

woodland species include: canyon live oak (''Quercus chrysolepis''), valley oak (''Quercus lobata''), blue oak (''Quercus douglasii''), and gray pine (''Pinus sabiniana''). Montane species include: black oak (''Quercus kelloggii''), Coulter pine (''Pinus coulteri''), incense cedar (''Calocedrus decurrens''), white fir (''Abies concolor''), and in a few remote locations small stands of quaking aspen (''Populus tremuloides''). The Tehachapi linanthus (''Leptosiphon nudatus'') is a phlox plant species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

habitat in the Tehachapi Mountains and the southern Sierra Nevada. The Tehachapi ragwort (''Packera ionophylla'') is an aster plant species

to forest habitat in the Tehachapis and eastern Transverse Ranges. The Tehachapi buckwheat (''Eriogonum callistum'') is known only from the chaparral of the Tehachapis.

Fauna

The Tehachapi slender salamander is

to the Tehachapi Mountains and a listed

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulne ...

. The white-eared pocket mouse is

to the Tehachapis and

San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...

and a listed endangered species. There are at least 107 bird species, including the

Steller's jay Steller's jay (''Cyanocitta stelleri'') is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay found in eastern North America. It is also known as the long-crested jay, mountain jay, and p ...

and

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'' ...

, found in the Tehachapis, many which consume acorns of the black oak (''Quercus kelloggii'') as part of their diet. Other flora found here include the

buckbrush Buckbrush is the common name for several species of North American shrubs that deer feed on, including but probably not limited to: *''Cephalanthus occidentalis'' *'' Phyllanthopsis phyllanthoides'', maidenbrush (south-central U.S.) * Some western N ...

and mountain mahogany. The notable raptor is the

California condor The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to n ...

, a critically endangered species. As in many California mountains, larger fauna includes:

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological ni ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

, black bear,

feral pig The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IU ...

and

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight o ...

. The Tehachapi Mountains are also the only known breeding site prior to 1860 of the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

in the United States. The big cats were found there as recently as the late 1800s.

Climate

Muir Woods National Monument Road Trip (33983009688)

The range includes and is the boundary between the

xeric Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this h ...

Mojave Desert and Mediterranean

climate zone Climate classifications are systems that categorize the world's climates. A climate classification may correlate closely with a biome classification, as climate is a major influence on life in a region. One of the most used is the Köppen climate ...

s, and includes the

subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

. The majority of the range is in the Mediterranean climate zone, receiving precipitation in the winter similar to the neighboring Transverse Ranges in the Los Padres and

Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) of the U.S. Forest Service is located in the San Gabriel Mountains and Sierra Pelona Mountains, primarily within Los Angeles County in southern California. The ANF manages a majority of the San Gabriel Mountains ...

s to the west and southwest. They create a

for the eastern foothills

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

into the Mojave climate zone that typically receives only a few inches of precipitation a year, usually in winter. Summer

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...

season can bring localized rains to the higher subalpine parts of the range. The wettest slopes receive about 20–25 inches of precipitation a year, some in the form of snow. The prevailing wind is northwesterly, funneling up the east–west

canyons A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut ...

from the San Joaquin Valley into the

valleys A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

, upper canyons, and passes of the Tehachapi range with regularity. The Tehachapi Wind Resource Area exists due to this. To the northwest lies the

with its

s and oak savanna climbing the broad western slopes of the range. Like sand dunes piling up where winds converge, the Tehachapis collect marine and valley moisture, which piles up into fog that blankets the windward sides of the range many weeks of the year. The higher north-facing slopes are mixed evergreen forest, while the south-facing are chaparral and woodlands, typical of the relationship between the cooler moisture-retaining northern slopes and the exposed warmer and drier southern slopes. Canyons, even on southern slopes, can have year-round

surface water Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surface water is produced by pr ...

flow, from springs and where

orographic Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discip ...

enhancement brings extra precipitation and snow from passing storms.

History

The origin of the name Tehachapi may come from the Kawaiisu language, derived from the word '' "tihachipia" '' translated as "hard climb".
The historic

Indigenous peoples of California The indigenous peoples of California (known as Native Californians) are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. ...

with homelands in the Tehachapi Mountains were the: *

Kitanemuk The Kitanemuk are an indigenous people of California. They traditionally lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern California, United States. Today some Kitanemuk people are enrolled i ...

* Kawaiisuhttp://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=610 Tomo-Kahni/Kawaiisu . accessed 12.12.2010 *

Serrano people The Serrano are an indigenous people of California. They use the autonyms of Taaqtam, meaning "people"; Maarrênga’yam, "people from Morongo"; and Yuhaaviatam, "people of the pines." Today the Maarrênga'yam are enrolled in the Morongo Ba ...

The historic

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement fo ...

s in the Tehachapis are: * Rancho El Tejon (1843) * Rancho Castac (1843) * Rancho La Liebre (1846) * Rancho Los Alamos y Agua Caliente (1846) All four Tehachapi ranchos were acquired over 1855 to 1866 and combined by Edward Beale. As the Tejon Ranch it stayed in the family until sold by

Truxtun Beale Truxtun Beale (March 6, 1856 – June 2, 1936) was an American diplomat. Biography Beale was born in San Francisco to Mary Engle Edwards and Edward Fitzgerald Beale; his siblings were Mary (1852–1925), who married Russian diplomat George ...

1912. The purchase was by a

Harry Chandler Harry Chandler (May 17, 1864 – September 23, 1944) was an American newspaper publisher and investor who became owner of the largest real estate empire in the U.S. Early life Harry Chandler was born in Landaff, New Hampshire, the eldest of four ...

—

Moses Sherman Moses Hazeltine Sherman (December 3, 1853 – September 9, 1932) was an American land developer who built the Phoenix Street Railway in Phoenix, Arizona and streetcar systems that would become the core of the Los Angeles Railway and part of t ...

lead syndicate of land investors, and became a public company in 1936. Tejon Ranch is still one of the largest private landholdings in the state, and currently an undeveloped agricultural and wildland entity. The Tejon Ranch corporation has recently proposed major new developments in portions of the Tehachapi Mountains, including the Tejon Mountain Village and

Centennial, California Centennial, California is a proposed master-planned community on Tejon Ranch in northwestern Los Angeles County between Bakersfield and Los Angeles.Patric Hedlund, "Centennial Hearing at Gorman School Thursday, 6 P.M.," ''The Mountain Enterpris ...

planned urban center.

Historic sites

* Oak Creek Pass – Indian trail in the Tehachapis, Francisco Garces was first European to use the pass in 1776 *

Fort Tejon Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon (''La Cañada de las Uvas'') between the San Emigdio Mountains and ...

: 1854 fort, with the nearby former 1854 Chumash Sebastian Indian Reservation. Now Fort Tejon State Historic Park in the Tejon Pass area. *

1857 Fort Tejon earthquake The 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake occurred at about 8:20 a.m. ( Pacific time) on January 9 in central and Southern California. One of the largest recorded earthquakes in the United States, with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9, it ruptur ...

– moment magnitude of 7.9, average slip along the fault was *Monolith Cement Works: supplied

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...

for the construction of Hoover Dam and other major public works; east of Tehachapi Pass. * Old Tejon Pass – Another ancient native trail, used by

Pedro Fages Pedro Fages (1734–1794) was a Spanish soldier, explorer, first Lieutenant Governor of the Californias under Gaspar de Portolá. Fages claimed the governorship after Portolá's death, acting as governor in opposition to the official governo ...

in 1772 and

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

in 1827.

Peaks

* Double Mountain 7,981 ft (2,433 m) * Tehachapi Mountain 7,960+ ft (2,426+ m) * Cummings Mountain 7,760+ ft (2,365+ m) * Bear Mountain 6,920+ ft (2,109+ m) * Black Mountain 5,686 ft (1,733 m) * Grapevine Peak 4,815 ft (1,468 m)

References

External links

Tomo-Kahni State Historic Park website
– ''with the Kawaiisu Native American Village'' {{Authority control Transverse Ranges Mountain ranges of Kern County, California Mountain ranges of Los Angeles County, California Mountain ranges of Southern California Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Geography of the San Joaquin Valley Geology of Kern County, California Geology of Los Angeles County, California Mountain ranges of California