Alta Peak is in

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 ...

not far from

Giant Forest The Giant Forest, famed for its giant sequoia trees, is within the United States' Sequoia National Park. This montane forest, situated at over above mean sea level in the western Sierra Nevada of California, covers an area of . The Giant Forest ...

. Before 1896, the mountain was known as Tharps Peak. By 1903 it was generally known by its current name and Alta Peak appears on the Tehipite quadrangle, USGS 30 minute topographic map of 1905, and was officially recognized by the Board on Geographic Names in 1928. The

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

Bulletin noted that the name Alta Peak was "euphonious". A meadow on its southern slope had long been known as Alta Meadow. A rocky outcrop, southwest of the summit, is now known as Tharps Rock.

Hale Tharp Hale Dixon Tharp was a miner during the California Gold Rush, and the first non-Native Americans in the United States, Native American settler to enter Giant Forest, in what is now Sequoia National Park. Gold Country Tharp was born in Michigan in ...

was the first

euro-American European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...

to explore the Giant Forest area. His summer camp, a hollowed out Sequoia log near

Crescent Meadow Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of ...

known as

Tharp's Log Tharp's Log is a hollowed giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') log at Log Meadow in the Giant Forest grove of Sequoia National Park that was used as a shelter by early pioneers. The log is named after Hale D. Tharp, who was described as ...

, is popular with park visitors.

References

Mountains of Sequoia National Park Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Northern California {{TulareCountyCA-geo-stub