Mather Pass is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

California's 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 mo ...

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 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 ...

. It lies within far eastern

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 ...

, inside

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 ...

and the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness. The pass lies at an elevation of 12,068 feet (3,678 m), separating Palisade Basin (containing the Palisade Lakes and Palisade Creek) to the north and Upper Basin (containing the headwaters 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 ...

) to the south. The pass is traversed by 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, ...

and the

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

, which are coincident (sharing the same route) between Crabtree Meadows and

Tuolumne Meadows Tuolumne Meadows () is a gentle, granitic dome, dome-studded, sub-alpine meadow area along the Tuolumne River in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park in the United States. Its approximate location is . Its approximate elevation is . The ter ...

. It is one of the six high mountain passes above 11,000 feet on the John Muir Trail, along with

Donohue Pass Donohue Pass is a high mountain pass on the boundary between Yosemite National Park and the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Its elevation is . It is situated between Mount Lyell and Donohue Peak. The John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail both t ...

Muir Pass Muir Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada of California, United States, in Kings Canyon National Park. It is named for John Muir. The pass is near the midway point of the John Muir Trail and around mile 841 of the Pacific Crest Trail ...

Pinchot Pass Pinchot Pass is a high mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, in the United States. It lies within far eastern Fresno County, inside Kings Canyon National Park and the Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness. Pinchot Pass sit ...

Glen Pass Glen Pass (also known as Blue Flower Pass) is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada, located in Kings Canyon National Park, eastern Fresno County, California, United States. This pass, on the John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) (Northern ...

, and

Forester Pass Forester Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada. Located on the Kings-Kern Divide and on the boundary between Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park, Forester Pass connects the drainages of Bubbs Creek (a tributary of the So ...

; it lies south of Muir Pass and north of Pinchot Pass. Split Mountain, one of California's

fourteener In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any single ...

s, lies immediately southeast of Mather Pass; the Palisades group of peaks contains another three to the north of the pass.

History

Early usage and trail construction

The pass was named for

Stephen Mather Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a milliona ...

, who served as the

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Assistant may refer to: * Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones * Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration * Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google * ''The Assistant'' (TV seri ...

and head of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

(NPS) from 1917 until 1929, by Chauncey J. Hamlin. Hamlin's was the first known party to cross Mather Pass by

pack train A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of ...

in August 1921, taking 3 days to do so, as it was necessary for them to construct a rough trail. The party was the first to make the trip north on what became the John Muir Trail from Mount Whitney, and Hamlin advocated for state funds to be used to complete the route. In 1923, Susan P. Thew led the third-ever pack train over the pass and became the first woman to cross the pass during a photography expedition through the Sierra. During construction of the John Muir Trail, "serious consideration" was given to the idea of abandoning the proposed route over Mather Pass in favor of the gentler Cartridge Pass to the southwest, indeed, the Cartridge Pass routing was listed as the official one (as well as the main one in Walter Starr’s first edition of the ''Guide to the John Muir Trail)'' in 1934, until the construction of the Golden Staircase portion of the trail north of Mather Pass. The segment of the John Muir Trail which traverses Mather Pass was completed by the U.S. Forest Service during the summer of 1937, using three trail camps to construct 11.25 miles of the trail at the cost of roughly $1,400 per mile in 1937 USD. It was the final segment of the trail to be built.

Modern day

In 2019, following a heavy snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, a 67-year-old man hiking alone died near Mather Pass after he slipped on ice and his head struck a rock.

References

Kings Canyon National Park Landforms of Fresno County, California Mountain passes on the John Muir Trail {{US-trail-stub