Mount Toro is a mountain peak in the

Santa Lucia range The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains is a rugged mountain range in coastal Central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than fro ...

Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county (United States), county located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The count ...

. Mount Torosa Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated February 19, 2010; database download sa February 28, 2017 It is located within the boundaries of

Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California, southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast ...

. The name comes from the word "Toro," which in Spanish means "Bull". The highest point in the area is the

Sierra de Salinas Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" or "mountain chain" 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 Nieve ...

mountain range, above sea level, southeast of Mount Toro and above the surrounding terrain. There are about 16 people per square kilometer around Mount Toro. The land around Mount Toro is mountainous. The nearest town is Salinas, north of Mount Toro. The area around Mount Toro is covered with dirt and mud. Mount Toro is not accessible to the public. In the past, it had been used for winter recreational activities during rare events of snowfall. Magnificent views can be seen of the entire shoreline of

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

, the Corral de Tierra basin, Monterey, Watsonville, Castroville, Salinas, Santa Rita, Natividad, Chualar, Gonzales, and Soledad with the naked eye. Using a telescope you can see

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

on Mt. Hamilton, and

Mount Diablo Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton, California, Clayton and northeast of Danville, Califo ...

and the snow-covered Sierras eastward. The KPRC-FM,

KWAV KWAV (96.9 FM "K-Wave 96.9") is a commercial radio station in Monterey, California, broadcasting to the Salinas - Monterey - Santa Cruz region of Central California. It is owned by Stephens Media Group and it broadcasts an adult contemporar ...

KLVM (FM) KLVM (88.9 MHz) is an FM radio station broadcasting a Contemporary Christian music format. Licensed to Santa Cruz, California, United States, the station is an affiliate of the K-LOVE Christian music radio network and is owned by Educational ...

, KION-TV, KOTR-LD and other

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

s are on Mount Toro, located to the south of Salinas. The Monterey County Superintendent of Schools began building a network of K31OL-D translators in the early 1960s to rebroadcast public television from KQED in San Francisco, with the first, channel 72 from Mount Toro, going on air in September 1964. Dorrance Ranch, having

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (muni ...

s with the Big Sur Land Trust is about south of Salinas and east/southeast of Monterey in the Sierra de Salinas Mountain Range of Monterey County on Mount Toro's northern ridge. The land has oak savannas, ponds, wetlands, and grasslands, habitat for golden eagle, California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, burrowing owl, and California condor. Mount Toro is one of Monterey County's most familiar vistas.

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

characterized Corral de Tierra as "Pastures of Heaven.” The River Fire was a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

that broke out from a lightning storm early on August 16, 2020, in Monterey County, south of Salinas, near River Road and Mount Toro. Within its first day, it spread to and was 10% contained; mandatory evacuations were ordered, while air and ground crews worked the fire.

Climate

The climate is

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. The average temperature is

°C The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius temperature scale "Celsius temperature scale, also called centigrade temperature scale, scale based on 0 ° for the melting point of water and 100 ° for the boiling point ...

. The warmest month is July, at

, and the coldest is February, at °C. The average rainfall is millimeters per year. The wettest month is December, with millimeters of rain, and the driest is May, with millimeters.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toro Mountains of Monterey County, California Carmel Valley, California Santa Lucia Range Monterey Ranger District, Los Padres National Forest Mountains of Northern California Big Sur Junípero Serra

Climate

See also

References

External links