Tunnabora Peak is a mountain summit located on 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

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 on the common border of

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...

with Inyo County, as well as the shared boundary of

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing ...

and John Muir Wilderness. It is set above the north shore of

Tulainyo Lake Tulainyo Lake is a freshwater alpine lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada in the U.S. state of California, and one of the highest and largest of the alpine lakes of the Sierra. It lies in a large granite bowl bounded by the Sierra Crest to the n ...

, west of the community of Lone Pine, north-northeast of

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: Tumanguya; ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'') is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of . It is in East–Central California, on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tu ...

, and north-northwest of Mount Carillon. Tunnabora ranks as the 51st-highest peak in California. Topographic relief is significant as it rises approximately above Whitney Portal in approximately three miles.

History

The

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

of the summit was made in August 1905 by George R. Davis, USGS topographic engineer.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> The peak's name was submitted by the National Park Service, and officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

in 1928. The etymology is uncertain, possibly

Shoshonean The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

dialect.

Climate

Tunnabora Peak has 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 ...

. Most weather fronts 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 onto the range ( orographic lift). 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 this mountain drains west to the

Kern River The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfiel ...

via Wallace Creek, and east to

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Numic Numic is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Pl ...

via George and Hogback Creeks.

Gallery

File:Tunnabora Peak from Russell.jpg, Tunnabora Peak from Mt. Russell File:Tunaiya Lake.jpg, Tunnabora summit to the left.
Tulainyo Lake, with Mt. Carillon's subpeak "The Cleaver" to the right. File:Sierra Eastern Front.jpg, Eastern Sierra, with road pointed toward Tunnabora Peak File:Panorama of Alabama Hills.jpg, Eastern Sierra, with Tunnabora Peak centered

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
Tunnabora Peak
* Tunnabora Peak photo
PBase
Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Sequoia National Park Inyo National Forest Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness North American 4000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links