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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.
The present name for the range was documented in 1602, when another Spanish voyage, this time lead by Sebastián Vizcaíno, tasked with completing a detailed chart of 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 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.1.
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 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 broken off 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 Tertiary 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 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 home to the southernmost native stands of redwood trees, since the climate gets drier towards the south. This range is the only known habitat of the Vortriede's spineflower.
Major peaks
- Junipero Serra Peak, 1,786 m (5,862 ft), at
- Cone Peak, 1,571 m (5,155 ft), at . 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, 1,479 m (4,853 ft)
- Mount Carmel, 1,346 m (4,417 ft)
Wine
The Santa Lucia Highlands American Viticultural Area, a producer of California wine, is located in the region.
References
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.
