Santa Lucia Range

Santa Lucia Range
File:Conepeak 135711.jpg View from summit of Cone Peak, the highest coastal mountain in the lower 48 states.
Highest point
Peak	Junipero Serra Peak
Elevation
Geography
location of Santa Lucia Range in California
Country	United States
State	California
Region	Monterey County San Luis Obispo County
Range coordinates
Topo map	USGS Cone Peak

Santa Lucias in the clouds, near Santa Margarita

The Santa Lucia Mountains or Santa Lucia Range is a mountain range in coastal central California, running from Monterey County southeast for 105 miles (169 km) into central San Luis Obispo County.

Geography

The Santa Lucia Mountains are part of the Outer South California Coast Ranges, in the Pacific Coast Ranges System. Its northern section runs parallel to the southern section of the Diablo Range, part of the Inner South Coast Ranges, which lies to the east across the Salinas Valley. The range's highest summit is Junipero Serra Peak, 1,784 metres (5,853 ft) in Monterey County and the Los Padres National Forest.

Major peaks

• Junipero Serra Peak, 5,857 feet (1,785 m).
• Cone Peak, 5,158 feet (1,572 m). Cone Peak features the steepest coastal elevation in the lower 48 United States, rising nearly a mile (1,609 m) above sea level, only three miles (5 km) from the Pacific Ocean.
• Ventana Double Cone, 4,856 feet (1,480 m).
• Mount Carmel, 4,420 feet (1,347 m).

History and Toponymy

The first European to document the Santa Lucias was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 while sailing northward along the coast on a Spanish naval expedition. 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. He named the northern part Sierras Nevadas because there was snow on it.

The present name for the range was documented in 1602 by Sebastián Vizcaíno, who had been tasked by the Spanish to complete a detailed chart of the coast. Passing by the range on 14 December, he named the range Sierra de Santa Lucia in honor of Saint Lucy of Syracuse.

The first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, camped on the coast near Ragged Point at the foot of the mountains on September 13, 1769. Prevented from continuing north along the coast by the rugged Big Sur cliffs, the party turned inland, finding a rugged pass northeastward through the mountains. The rough trail required much improvement by the scouts, and it was September 24 before the party emerged from the mountains at the San Antonio River near today's settlement of Jolon.

Natural history

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 receive some snowfall during the winter.

The climate is classified as dry summer subtropical, or Mediterranean. Rainfall varies from 16 to 60 inches throughout the range, with the most on the higher mountains in the north; almost all precipitation falls in the winter. During the summer, fog and low clouds are frequent along the coast up to an elevation of several thousand feet. Surface runoff from rainfall events is rapid, and many streams dry up entirely in the summer, except for some perennial streams in the wetter areas in the north.

Geology

Junipero Serra Peak

The rock of the Santa Lucias is dominated by granitic basement of the Salinian Block, between the San Andreas Fault and Sur-Nacimiento Fault. The core of the Salinian block formed as part of the same batholith which forms the core of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Peninsular Ranges of Baja California. It was separated from the North American Plate and transported north by the action of the San Andreas Fault from an original position. 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 Cenozoic sediments. Units west of the Sur-Nacimiento Fault are dominated by rocks of the Franciscan Assemblage.

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 Santa Lucia fir (Abies bracteata) and Gowen cypress (Cupressus goveniana var. goveniana). The east side is drier, with chaparral and open woods of pine (including Coulter pine and gray pine) and oak woodlands of several Quercus species.

These mountains are home to the southernmost native stands of coast redwood trees, since the climate gets drier towards the south. This range is the only known habitat of the Vortriede's spineflower.

Transportation

California State Route 1 runs along the Big Sur coast to the west of the Santa Lucias, while U.S. Route 101 lies in the Salinas Valley to the East. The only road across the Santa Lucia Range is Nacimiento-Fergusson Road, from Lucia to Jolon.

Contemporary history

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashed in the mountains near Cayucos on December 7, 1987 after a gunman killed both pilots, causing the aircraft to crash. A total of 43 people were killed with no survivors.

Wine

The Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, a producer of California wine, is located in the region.

External links

• Los Padres National Forest — official Monterey Ranger District website — recreation maps, locations, and info.
• 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.