Sierra de San Pedro Mártir ( Kiliwa: ʔxaal haq, en, mountains of Saint Peter the Martyr) is 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 ari ...

located within southern

Ensenada Municipality The municipality ( es, link=no, municipio) of Ensenada is the fourth-largest municipality in Mexico with a land area of in 2020, about the same size as Hidalgo state and larger than five Mexican states. Located offshore, Cedros Island and G ...

and southern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

state, of northwestern Mexico. It is a major mountain range in the long

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which ...

System, that extends 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 ...

down the Baja California Peninsula into

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur (; 'South Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California Sur), is the least populated state and the 31st admitted state of the 32 federal ent ...

state.

Geography

The range's highest peak is

Picacho del Diablo ('Devil's Peak') is the highest peak on the Baja California peninsula, measuring . It is alternately called , meaning 'Hill of the Enchanted' or 'Hill of the Bewitched'. The peak is located in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, a part of the Pen ...

at in elevation. Also known as ''Cerro de la Encantada'' (Enchanted Mountain) and ''Picacho la Providencia'' (Providence Peak), it is the highest point in Baja California state and of the entire Baja California Peninsula. The range is a

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...

that demarcates the drainages flowing west into 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 conti ...

or east into the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

for this section of the Baja California Peninsula. Snow is usually present at the highest elevations in the winter. The Sierra de Juárez are on the north, and

Sierra de San Francisco The Sierra de San Francisco is a mountain range in Mulegé Municipality of the northern region of Baja California Sur state, in northwestern Mexico. Geography The Sierra de San Francisco are on the eastern side of the Baja California Peninsula, ...

are on the south, both are also part of the

System.

Features

;Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir protects an area of in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir. It was established by presidential decree in 1974, and the first of two national parks to be established on the Baja California Peninsula. The second is Parque Nacional Constitución de 1857 to the north, in the Sierra de Juárez and also in Baja California state. ;National Astronomical Observatory The National Astronomical Observatory is located at an elevation of in the range. The astronomical complex was built in 1975. It has several large

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...

s, the largest of which is in diameter. The observatory's site takes advantage of the high elevation, along with typically clear skies, low relative humidity, low atmospheric pollution, low light pollution, and low levels of radio interference. The range was a site considered for construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, now tentatively planned for a controversial site on

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea ( or ; ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the highest point in the state of Hawaii and second-highest peak of an island on Earth. The peak ...

in Hawaii. In 1889, there was a gold rush in the Santa Clara mountains about southeast of Ensenada.

Ecology

Mountains03-Sierra SanPedroMartir-BajaCalifornia-Mexico

Mountains01-Sierra SanPedroMartir-BajaCalifornia-Mexico

;Flora Sierra de San Pedro Mártir has a very similar flora to the Sierra de Juárez on the north. Higher elevations have

Sierra Juarez and San Pedro Martir pine-oak forests Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range ...

ecoregion flora, which are surrounded at lower elevations by

California chaparral and woodlands The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...

ecoregion flora, and at lowest elevations by the Baja California Desert ecoregion flora. The flora is distinct from that of 'mainland' Mexico across the Gulf of California to the east, and shares many species with the Laguna Mountains and

Cuyamaca Mountains The Cuyamaca Mountains (Kumeyaay: ''‘Ekwiiyemak''), locally the Cuyamacas, are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System, in San Diego County, southern California. The mountain range runs roughly northwest to southeast. The Laguna Mounta ...

, also Peninsular Ranges, in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

. Typical

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

species include white fir,

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name ''lambertiana'' was given by the Scottish botanist David Douglas, ...

and

Jeffrey pine ''Pinus jeffreyi'', also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja Califo ...

. The canyons of the lower eastern Sierra de Pedro Mártir are the southern range demarcation of natural California fan palm (''Washingtonia filifera'') distribution. Arizona cypress (''Cupressus arizonica'') can be found with Canyon live oaks (''Quercus chrysolepis'') and California fan palms. ;Fauna Baja California rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss nelsoni'') are native to the headwaters of Rio Santo Domingo in the Sierra San Pedro Martir.

Desert bighorn sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The ...

also live in the range California condors, zoo-bred from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park condor program, were reintroduced into the Sierra San Pedro Martir in 1987, the first time seen in the range since 1937. Each year, a small group of young California condors are selected from the pool of birds being bred by the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Oregon Zoo, and

The Peregrine Fund The Peregrine Fund (named after the bird of prey of the same name the peregrine falcon) is a non-profit organization founded in 1970 that conserves threatened and endangered birds of prey worldwide. The successful recovery of the peregrine falcon ...

for release to the wild. Annual releases range from four to seven zoo-bred birds. EndExtinction.org: "Condors in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico"
. accessed 03.09.2016.

References

External links

Official Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir website
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Rancho Meling, 100 años de tradición
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Geography

Features

Ecology

See also

References

External links