Santa Lucia Mountains
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The Santa Lucia Mountains or Santa Lucia Range is a mountain range in coastal California, running from Monterey southeast for 170 km to San Luis Obispo. The highest summit is Junipero Serra Peak, 1,786 m (5,862 ft), at in Monterey County, California. It is part of the Pacific Coast Ranges.
Toponymy
It is unclear what the indigenous Native American peoples called this range, but the first European explorers to document the Santa Lucias were the naval expedition of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo originally named the southern portion of the range the "Sierras de San Martín", as he was passing the area on 11 November, the feast day for Saint Martin.The present name for the range was documented in 1602, when the Spanish exploratory voyage lead by Sebastian Vizcaíno charted the coast. Passing by the northern portion of the range on 14 December, he named the range "Sierra de Santa Lucia" in honor of Saint Lucia.
Climate
Like all other Pacific Coast Ranges, these mountains are close enough to the Pacific Ocean and high enough to force incoming moisture upward, making the west side wet and fit for conifers to grow. This creates a rain shadow over Salinas Valley to the east, which is considerably drier. The higher peaks of the mountains like Junipero Serra Peak get a bit of snowfall during the winter.Geology
The rock of the Santa Lucias is dominated by granitic basement of the Salinian Block, between the San Andreas fault and Sur-Nacimiento fault. According to plate tectonic theory, the Salinian block was transported north from an original position adjacent to the Mojave Desert or, perhaps northwestern Mexico. It is predominantly Mesozoic granitic and pre-Cretaceous metamorphic rocks. There is some Cretaceous sedimentary rock of the Great Valley Sequence, considerable Miocene marine sediments, and some other Tertiary sediments. Units west of the Sur-Nacimiento fault are dominated by rocks of the Franciscan Complex.Flora
The west slope of the range facing the Pacific Ocean is moist with good forest growth including Coast Redwood, Douglas fir, Ponderosa Pine, Pacific Madrone and the local endemics Bristlecone Fir (Abies bracteata) and Gowen Cypress (Cupressus goveniana var. goveniana), while the east side is drier, with chaparral and open woods of pine (including Coulter Pine and Gray Pine) and several species of oak. These mountains are probably home to the most southern stand of redwood trees, since the climate gets drier towards the south.Major peaks
- Junipero Serra Peak, 1786 m (5862 ft), at
- Cone Peak, 1571 m (5155 ft), at . Cone Peak features the steepest coastal elevation in the continental United States, rising nearly a mile above sea level, only three miles from the Pacific Ocean.
- Ventana Double Cone, 1479 m (4853 ft)
- Mount Carmel, 1346 m (4417 ft)
Wine
The Santa Lucia Highlands American Viticultural Area, a producer of California wine, is located in the region.External links
- [Ventana Wilderness Alliance]: Dedicated to the protection, preservation, enhancement and restoration of the wilderness qualities and biodiversity of the public lands within California's northern Santa Lucia Mountains.
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