The Sierra Crest is a ~500 mi (800 km) generally north-to-south ridgeline that demarcates the broad west and narrow east slopes of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) and that extends as far east as the Sierra's topographic front (e.g., Diamond Mountains and Sierran escarpment). The northern and central Sierra Crest sections coincide with over 300 mi (480 km) of the Great Basin Divide, and the southern crest demarcates Tulare & Inyo counties and extends through Kern County to meet the Tehachapi crest. The Sierra Crest also forms two paths (bifurcates) around endorheic cirques (e.g., Cup Lake) between the west and east Sierra slopes. From 1892-7, Theodore Solomons made the first attempt to map a crest route along the Sierras.
closest.to.Nevada local.westernmost.point Sacramento/San.Joaquin.triple.point San.Joaquin/Kings.triple.point Mt.Whitney (highest) 117.979°W Tehachapi Pass Sierra Crest extreme pointsFamous quotes containing the word crest:
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)