Telescope Peak
| Telescope Peak | |
|---|---|
Telescope Peak viewed from Devil's Golf Course, Death Valley, California
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 11,043 ft (3,366 m) NAVD 88 |
| Prominence | 6,168 ft (1,880 m) |
| Parent peak | White Mountain Peak |
| Listing |
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| Coordinates | 36°10′11″N 117°05′21″W / 36.169815947°N 117.089198336°WCoordinates: 36°10′11″N 117°05′21″W / 36.169815947°N 117.089198336°W |
| Geography | |
 Telescope Peak
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| Location | Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California, U.S. |
| Parent range | Panamint Range |
| Topo map | USGS Telescope Peak |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Trail from Mahogany Flat (hike) |
Telescope Peak is the highest point within Death Valley National Park, in the U.S. state of California. It is also the highest point of the Panamint Range, and lies in Inyo County. From atop this desert mountain one can see for over one hundred miles in many directions, including west to Mount Whitney, and east to Charleston Peak. The mountain was named for the great distance visible from the summit.
Telescope Peak is also notable for having one of the greatest vertical rises above local terrain of any mountain in the contiguous United States. Its summit rises 11,331 feet (3,454 m) above the lowest point in Death Valley, Badwater Basin at −279 feet (−85 m), in about 15 miles (24 km), and about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the floor of Panamint Valley in about 8 miles (13 km). This is comparable to the rises of other tall, but better known, U.S. peaks. It is even somewhat comparable to the rise of Mount Everest above its northern base on the Tibetan Plateau, a rise of roughly 13,000 feet (4,000 m). However Everest rises much more, and much more steeply, above its southern base in Nepal.
Since it is the high point of a range surrounded by low basins, Telescope Peak also has a particularly high topographic prominence of 6,168 feet (1,880 m), ranking it 22nd in the contiguous US by that measure.
A variety of trees can be found on the mountain, including single-leaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), limber pine (Pinus flexilis), and, at the highest elevations, the ancient Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva).
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Wikipedia