Sierra de San Pedro Mártir ( Kiliwa: ʔxaal haq, ) 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 aris ...

located within southern

Ensenada Municipality Ensenada is a municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Baja California. It is the fourth-largest municipality in the country, with a land area of in 2020, making slightly smaller than the state of ...

and southern

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

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 Pacific Coast Range ...

System, that extends from

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

down the Baja California Peninsula into

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

state.

Geography

The range's highest peak is Picacho del Diablo 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 single ...

that demarcates the drainages flowing west into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

or east into the

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

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 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 (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

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 The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a planned extremely large telescope (ELT) proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawai'i. The TMT would become the largest visible-light telescope on Mauna Kea. Scientists hav ...

, now tentatively planned for a controversial site on

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii a ...

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 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 The Baja California desert () is a desert ecoregion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. This ecoregion occupies the western portion of the Baja California peninsula, and occupies most of the Mexican states of Baja California Sur and Baja Cali ...

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 language, Kumeyaay: ''‘Ekwiiyemak''), locally the Cuyamacas, are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges in San Diego County, California. The mountain range runs roughly northwest to southeast. The Laguna Mount ...

, also Peninsular Ranges, in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county (United States), county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its Mexico-United States border, border with Mexico. As of the 2020 United States Cen ...

. Typical

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

species include

white fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, concolor fir, or Colorado fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Sierra Nevada and southern Rocky Mountains, and int ...

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 Conifer cone, cones of any conifer. It is native to coastal and inland mountain areas along the Pacific coa ...

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 critically endangered San Pedro Mártir cypress (''Hesperocyparis montana'') is endemic to the Sierra.Farjon, A. 2013
''Cupressus arizonica'' var. ''montana''
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T34077A2843832. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T34077A2843832.en. Accessed 12 February 2024. The canyons of the lower eastern Sierra de Pedro Mártir are the southernmost of natural distribution of the California fan palm (''Washingtonia filifera''). Native

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s include coast live oak (''Quercus agrifolia''), canyon live oak (''Quercus chrysolepis''), Engelmann oak (''Quercus engelmannii''), and Baja oak (''Quercus peninsularis''). ;Fauna

Baja California rainbow trout The Baja California rainbow trout or San Pedro Martir trout or Nelson's trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss nelsoni'') is a localized subspecies of the rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss''), a freshwater fish in the family Salmonidae. Baja California ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss nelsoni'') are native to the headwaters of Rio Santo Domingo in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir.

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 ...

(''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') also live in the range. California condors, zoo-bred from the

San Diego Zoo Safari Park The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is a zoo and safari park in Escondido, California, Escondido, a suburb of the city of San Diego, California, located in San Pasqual Valley, San Diego, San Pasqual Valley. Opened in 1972, the park operates as a sis ...

condor program, were reintroduced into the Sierra San Pedro Martir in 2002,World CA Condor Update – 2022 Population Status
National Park Service. Retrieved 12 February 2024. 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 The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The city of Los Angeles owns the zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. History Eastlake Zoo, opened in Eastlak ...

, San Diego Zoo Safari Park,

Oregon Zoo The Oregon Zoo, originally the Portland Zoo and later the Washington Park Zoo, is a zoo in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located in Washington Park, approximately southwest of downtown Portland. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest zoo ...

, and The Peregrine Fund 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. As of 2022 there were about 40 condors living in the Sierra.

References

External links

Official Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir website
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Rancho Meling, 100 años de tradición
�� {{DEFAULTSORT:Sierra de San Pedro Martir San Pedro Mártir Peninsular Ranges Geography of Ensenada Municipality

Geography

Features

Ecology

See also

References

External links