Kuna Crest is a mountain range near

Tuolumne Meadows Tuolumne Meadows () is a gentle, 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 term ''Tuolumne Me ...

, in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

California 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 m ...

Name

The word ''Kuna'' probably derives from a

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 ...

word meaning "fire," which appears in the Mono dialect of the area, with a meaning of '' firewood''. On the summit of near-by

Kuna Peak Kuna Peak is a summit on the boundary between Mono and Tuolumne counties, in the United States, is the highest point on Kuna Crest. With an elevation of , Kuna Peak is the 146th-highest summit in the state of California, and is the third-high ...

, there are many jagged pieces of rock which resemble fire themselves; see

Kuna Crest Granodiorite Kuna Crest Granodiorite (also called ''Granodiorite of Glen Aulin''), is found, in Yosemite National Park, United States. The granodiorite forms part of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (aka Tuolumne Batholith), one of the four major intrusive suites ...

Geography and geology

The Crest lies between two U-shaped glacial valleys:

Lyell Canyon Lyell Canyon is a sub-alpine meadow in Yosemite National Park south of Tuolumne Meadows. For 13 kilometers (8 statute miles) most of the canyon has an approximate elevation of 2 700 meters (8,850 feet), and then rapidly climbs to 3 370 meters (11, ...

and the canyon of the Parker Pass Creek.

Mammoth Peak Mammoth Peak is a mountain in the area of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California. The summit is a class 1-2 cross-country hike that features river crossings and boulder scrambling. The peak lies at the northern end of the Kun ...

lies at the northern end of the Kuna Crest. A number of lakes lie in cirques cut into the eastern edge of the Crest, including Kuna Lake,

Bingaman Lake Bingaman Lake is a lake in Tuolumne County, California, in the United States. Bingaman Lake was named for John W. Bingaman, a park ranger who stocked the lake with fish in exchange for the naming rights. The lake is below Kuna Crest and Kuna Peak ...

, Spillway Lake, and Helen Lake. The Crest consists of

, which is the oldest

granitic rock A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

of the

Tuolumne Intrusive Suite The Tuolumne Intrusive Suite is one of several intrusive suites in Yosemite National Park. These also include # Fine Gold Intrusive Suite # Intrusive Suite of Buena Vista Crest # Intrusive Suite of Jack Main Canyon # Intrusive Suite of Merced P ...

. It is rich in biotite and

hornblende Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals. It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole. Hornblende minerals are common in igneous and metamorphic rock ...

Rock climbing

Climbing on Kuna Crest consists of mostly of walking and

scrambling Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used to describe terrain that falls between hiking and rock climbing (as a “scrambl ...

; there isn't much rock climbing, on Kuna Crest proper. There is a traverse, between

and

References

{{reflist

External links

summitpost on Kuna Crest South
Cretaceous magmatism Igneous petrology of California Yosemite National Park