Kearsarge Pinnacles is a linear series of 12 pillars and crags on a northwest–southeast trending ridge located one mile west of the crest 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 primarily ...

mountain range, in the southeast corner of

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

, in northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is situated in

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed to Kings ...

, west-southwest of the community of

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

, immediately southwest of the Kearsarge Lakes and

Kearsarge Pass Kearsarge Pass is a pass in the Sierra Nevada of California. The pass lies on the Sierra Crest at . The pass permits foot traffic between Kings Canyon National Park and the John Muir Wilderness. The pass was named after the Kearsarge mine to the ...

, and northwest of parent University Peak. The highest, number 4, rises to 12,008 feet in elevation (3,660 meters), whereas number 8 is the most prominent.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

is significant as the west aspect rises 2,500 feet (760 meters) above Vidette Meadow in one-half mile. The

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) (Northern Paiute language, Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, ...

traverses below the west aspect of this remote geographical feature. The Kearsarge pinnacles, lakes,

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

, and pass were named after the Kearsarge mine to the east, which was named by its owners after the USS ''Kearsarge''.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> In turn, the ship was named after Mount Kearsarge in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, the Kearsarge Pinnacles are located in an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of ...

zone. 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 continen ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

onto the 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 ...

). 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 market ...

from the ridge drains into tributaries of

Bubbs Creek Bubbs Creek is a -long tributary of the South Fork Kings River in the Sierra Nevada of California, within Kings Canyon National Park. The creek originates near Junction Pass (east of Forester Pass), in northeastern Tulare County. It flows nort ...

, which in turn is a tributary of the

South Fork Kings River The South Fork Kings River is a tributary of the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada of Fresno County, California. The river forms part of Kings Canyon, the namesake of Kings Canyon National Park and one of the deepest canyons in North America wit ...

Gallery

File:Kearsarge Morning (6907475923).jpg, Numbers 4 (left) through 10 (right) at sunrise File:Kearsarge Lakes and Pinnacles.jpg, from near Kearsarge Pass File:Kearsarge Pinnacles 6 - 10.jpg, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 File:View from Kearsarge Pass.jpg, Kearsarge Lakes and Pinnacles from Kearsarge Pass File:Ansel Adams - National Archives 79-AA-H07.jpg, Kearsarge Pinnacles by

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

ca. 1941 File:Kearsarge Pinnacles.jpg File:Kearsarge Pinnacles by Moonlight.jpg, by moonlight File:University Peak and Kearsarge Pinnacles.jpg, Kearsarge Pinnacles with University Peak (left)

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
Kearsarge Pass
Mountains of Fresno County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park North American 3000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links