Fifes Peaks is a compact group of summits and spires from an eroded volcanic cone located in

Yakima County Yakima County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and largest city is Yakima. The county was formed out of Ferguson County in January 1865 and is named for the Yakam ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

state. Fifes Peaks is situated in the Cascade Range on the east side of the crest, within the

Norse Peak Wilderness Norse Peak Wilderness is a designated wilderness area located in central Washington in the United States. It protects the portion of the Cascade Range north of Chinook Pass ( Highway 410), south of Naches Pass (Naches Trail), and east of Moun ...

. The Fifes Peaks are remnants of a now extinct

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

which exploded 25 million years ago with volcanic activity extending from 20 to 30 million years ago.

Principal summits

* Fifes Peaks West Peak - 6,880+ ft * Fifes Peaks Central Peak- 6,793 ft * Fifes Peaks East Peak - 6,375 ft * Mainmast - 6,400+ ft * Cannonhole Pinnacle - 6,600+ ft * Teddy Bear Pinnacle - 6260 ftBeckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Climbing and High Routes. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2008.

History

Fifes Peaks were named for Thomas X. Fife (1853-1922), a placer miner. Thomas, his brothers, and their father John, mined in the area near

Chinook Pass Chinook Pass (elevation 5430 ft./1656 m.) is a pass through the Cascade Range in the state of Washington. The pass is located on the crest of the Cascade Range, along a ridge between Yakima Peak to the northwest of the pass, and Naches Pea ...

. Tom homesteaded at Goose Prairie, near Bumping Lake. Camp Fife, the Boy Scout Camp at Goose Prairie, also honors Tom Fife because he willed the land to the Boy Scouts.

Climate

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 in ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, and travel east toward the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, a ...

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade 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 ...

), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the Cascades. As a result, the west side of the Cascades experiences high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...

from Fifes Peaks drains into tributaries of the

American River , name_etymology = , image = American River CA.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = The American River at Folsom , map = Americanrivermap.png , map_size = 300 , map_caption ...

and

Naches River The Naches River is a tributary of the Yakima River in central Washington in the United States. Beginning as the Little Naches River, it is about 75 miles (121 km) long. After the confluence of the Little Naches and Bumping River the name b ...

Gallery

File:Middle and East Fifes Peaks.jpg, Central and East File:Mainmast Fifes Peaks.jpg, Mainmast File:East Fifes Peak.jpg, East Peak File:Fifes Peaks 16960.JPG, West Peak File:Fifes Peaks unnamed pinnacle.jpg, pinnacle

References

External links

{{Commons category * Fifes Peak
weather forecast
Cascade Range Landforms of Yakima County, Washington Mountains of Yakima County, Washington Volcanoes of Washington (state) Calderas of Washington (state) Oligocene calderas Volcanoes of the United States