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Tahoe flume trail7/4/2023 However, there are historical and literary references that use the plural, such as the 1871 collection of Joaquin Miller poems, Songs of the Sierras. While many mountain ranges are unanimously referred to in the plural ( Smokies, Rockies, Cascades, etc.), since Sierra is already pluralized in its native language, some locals who live in "the Sierra" are not hesitant to admonish those who refer to the area as "the Sierras". "saw", from Latin serra "a saw" and from fem. The literal translation is "snowy mountains", from sierra "a range of mountains", 1610s, from Spanish sierra "jagged mountain range", lit. In 1776, Pedro Font's map applied the name to the range currently known as the Sierra Nevada. Used in 1542 by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to describe a Pacific Coast Range ( Santa Cruz Mountains), the term "Sierra Nevada" was a general identification of less familiar ranges toward the interior. Kearsarge Lakes Basin is named after the USS Kearsarge Due to its inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912. The California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. The Sierra Nevada has played an important role in the history of California and the United States. Uplift continues due to faulting caused by tectonic forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones (areas with similar plant and animal communities). The range started to uplift less than five million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. More than one hundred million years ago during the Nevadan orogeny, granite formed deep underground. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks and Devils Postpile National Monument. The Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty-six wilderness areas, ten national forests, and two national monuments. Notable features include General Sherman, the largest tree in the world by volume Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft (4,421 m), the highest point in the contiguous United States and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers from one-hundred-million-year-old granite, containing high waterfalls. The Sierra runs 400 miles (640 km) north-south and its width ranges from 50 miles (80 km) to 80 miles (130 km) across east–west. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada ( / s i ˌ ɛr ə n ɪ ˈ v æ d ə, - ˈ v ɑː d ə/) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin.
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