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View from Excelsior Mountain, on the boundary between Yosemite National Park to the west and the Hoover Wilderness in Inyo and Toyabee National Forests to the east. Photos from 1 July 1990. Initial view is east down Lundy Canyon to Mono Lake, which is partially obscured by Gilcrest Peak to the right. Farther right on the same ridge is Mt. Warren. The nearer, darker ridge farther right is the Tioga Crest, to the right of which is part of Saddlebag Lake. Mt. Dana is the pointed peak directly above the left edge of Saddlebag Lake. Tioga Pass is the forested area down to the right of Mt. Dana. The distant pointed peak on the skyline a bit right of Tioga Pass is Banner Peak; the bulkier peak to the right is Mt. Ritter. Farther right, the highest peak above a large snowfield is Mt. Lyell; Mt. McClure is to its right and Rodgers Peak is to the left. Much farther right on a nearer ridgeline is a high pointed peak in shadow, Mt. Conness, named for the Senator who introduced legislation in 1864 to withdraw Yosemite Valley as a park to be run by the state. Mt. Conness is on the Sierran crest (as is Dana and Excelsior). Farther right, the prominent triangular peak is Cathedral Peak; below it to the left is Ragged Mtn and below it to the right is Fairview Dome, marking the edge of Tuolumne Meadows. The nearer ridge to the right is Sheep Peak; just to its lest if Clouds Rest and directly behind it is Half Dome (barely visible in the original photos), and then to the right of that and more distant are Tuolumne Peak and Mt. Hoffman, named for the topographer who first mapped much of the Sierra for the Geological Survey of California in the 1860s. Farther right, the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne is visible over the Shepherds Crest West summit; the canyon to the right is Virginia Canyon with Return Creek draining it. The bulky dark mountain on the skyline is Piute Mountain, above Benson Lake (not visible) and the Pacific Crest Trail. Across the upper part of Virginia Canyon is Soldier Lake; the distant high peak above its right edge is Tower Peak, near the northernmost point in Yosemite National Park. The shaded peaks closer that Tower and to its right include Whorl Peak (the rigthhand one); farther right on that ridgeline is a subnlit Matterhorn Peak, which is to the right of dramatic, dark red Virginia Peak on the closer ridgeline. Twin Peaks (with a large, nearly flat summit snowfield) cap the ridge at the very head of Virginia Canyon. Multihued Camiaca Peak sits low, just above the shaded part of the summit plateau of Excelsior. Beyond is Monument Ridge, bounding the north side of the Green Creek drainage. To the right of the Green Creek drainage is the prominent red-brown Dunderberg Peak; below and slightly to the left is the trail and pass from East Lake to Virginia Lakes. Finally returning toward Lundy Canyon is Black Mtn (partially shaded) on the north side of Lundy Canyon.
A bigger (27 Mb) QTVR version has somewhat greater detail.
Geology: Coming (there is a lot, from the tectonics of Mono Lake to the metamorphic rocks of the Saddlebag roof pendent)
C. H. Jones | CIRES | Dept. of Geological Sciences | Univ. of Colorado at Boulder
Last modified at November 16, 2014 9:55 PM