United States
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power.
The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations.
In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
Tuolumne County, California
Tuolumne County, officially the County of Tuolumne, is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,365, the county seat and only incorporated city is Sonora. Tuolumne County comprises the Sonora, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area, the county is in the Sierra Nevada region. The northern half of Yosemite National Park is located in the part of the county. Mariano Vallejo, in his report to the first California State Legislature, the name may mean people who dwell in stone houses, i. e. in caves. Tuolumne County is one of the counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Prior to statehood, it had referred to as Oro County. Parts of the county were given to Stanislaus County in 1854, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,274 square miles, of which 2,221 square miles is land and 54 square miles is water. Notable landforms in the county include Table Mountain, in Columbia, a connection can be made to Calaveras County Transit.
Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System makes a daily round trip from Sonora into Yosemite Valley during summer months only. YARTS is set to begin a daily round trip in June 2013. The following table includes the number of reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense. The 2010 United States Census reported that Tuolumne County had a population of 55,365. The racial makeup of Tuolumne County was 48,274 White,1,143 African American,1,039 Native American,572 Asian,76 Pacific Islander,2,238 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5,918 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 54,501 people,21,004 households, there were 28,336 housing units at an average density of 5/km². The racial makeup of the county was 89. 5% White,2. 1% Black or African American,1. 8% Native American,0. 7% Asian,0. 2% Pacific Islander,2. 9% from other races, and 2. 8% from two or more races. 8. 2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,94. 7% spoke English and 3. 5% Spanish as their first language. 26. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.82
Sequoia National Forest
Sequoia National Forest is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The U. S. National Forest is named for the majestic Giant Sequoia trees which populate 38 distinct groves within the boundaries of the forest, the Giant Sequoia National Monument is located in the national forest. Other notable features include glacier-carved landscapes and impressive granite monoliths, the Needles are a series of granite spires atop a narrow ridge above the Kern River. Forest headquarters are located in Porterville, there are local ranger district offices in Dunlap, Lake Isabella, and Springville. The Sequoia National Forest covers 1,193,315 acres and its Giant Sequoia groves are part of its 196,000 acres of old growth forests. Other tree species include, Jeffrey Pine Red Fir Coast Douglas-fir Ponderosa Pine White Fir Lodgepole Pine The Needles are a series of granite atop a narrow ridge above the Kern River. There are six areas within Sequoia NF that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Some of these extend into neighboring National Forests, as indicated, two of them extend into land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The forest is adjacent to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Sequoia National Forest was established on July 1,1908 from a portion of Sierra Forest Reserve. On March 2,1909 Theodore Roosevelt added land by Presidential Proclamation, on July 1,19101,951,191 acres was removed from the forest to create the Kern National Forest. This land was returned to Sequoia National Forest on July 1,1915, the Sequoia National Forest has 34 giant sequoia groves. It can be accessed by paved roads, the grove contains many young sequoias approaching diameters of up to 10 feet. Once the second-largest grove, but much logged around 1890-1900, nearly 100 widely scattered old-growth Giant Sequoias remain, good regrowth of younger trees. Home of the Boole Tree, which the loggers spared as it was by far the largest tree in the grove and is now identified as the sixth-largest tree by volume.
Although not among the very largest Giant Sequoias, the General Noble Tree was perhaps among the top 30 largest Giant Sequoias before it was cut, immediately north of the Agnew Grove, near Monarch Wilderness boundary. 36°48N 118°4930W 2050–2250 m. Agnew & Deer Meadow Grove, located between Converse Basin Grove and General Grant Grove, near McGee Overlook. Cherry Gap Grove is a sequoia grove of about thirty-five acres in Sequoia national forest. Listed by Rundel and Flint, very small, too few trees to qualify as a grove according to Willard, contains the 13th largest giant sequoia in the world, The Ishi Giant
Bass Lake, California
Bass Lake is a census-designated place in Madera County, California. It is located 4.5 miles southeast of Yosemite Forks, the population was 527 at the 2010 census. Bass Lake is situated in the Sierra National Forest approximately 14 mi from the entrance of Yosemite National Park. Established in 1895 as Bass Lake Village, the community grew up around the newly created Bass Lake Reservoir that supplied the first hydroelectric generating project in Central California, much of the community and the reservoir is devoted to the tourism industry. The original post office at Bass Lake opened in 1912, the ZIP Codes for Bass Lake are 93604 and 93669, and is in the 559 area code. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 2.493 square miles,1.926 square miles of it land, the 2010 United States Census reported that Bass Lake had a population of 527. The population density was 211.4 people per square mile, the racial makeup of Bass Lake was 503 White,1 African American,10 Native American,1 Asian,0 Pacific Islander,2 from other races, and 10 from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22 persons, the Census reported that 527 people lived in households,0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 were institutionalized. There were 16 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2 same-sex married couples or partnerships,92 households were made up of individuals and 57 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.92, there were 166 families, the average family size was 2.35. The median age was 62.3 years, for every 100 females there were 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.3 males, there were 1,059 housing units at an average density of 424.8 per square mile, of which 230 were owner-occupied, and 45 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 11. 1%, the vacancy rate was 48. 9%. 428 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 99 people lived in housing units. Archived from the original on 25 February 2009, archived from the original on 13 February 2009.
Official National Weather Service Reporting Station Bass Lake weather and lake conditions Bass Lake, CA Chamber of Commerce Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce
United States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States. The National Forest System was created by the Land Revision Act of 1891, abbot Kinney and forester Theodore Lukens were key spokesmen for the effort. In the United States there are 155 National Forests containing almost 190 million acres of land and these lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area of the United States, an area about the size of Texas. Some 87 percent of National Forest land lies west of the Mississippi River in the ranges of the Western United States. Alaska has 12 percent of all National Forest lands, the U. S. Forest Service manages all of the United States National Grasslands, and around half of the United States National Recreation Areas. There are two different types of forests within the National Forest system. Those east of the Great Plains in the Midwestern and Eastern United States were primarily acquired by the government since 1891. The land had long been in the domain and sometimes repeatedly logged since colonial times.
These are mostly lands that were kept in the domain, with the exception of inholdings. Land management of these areas focuses on conservation, timber harvesting, livestock grazing, watershed protection, unlike national parks and other federal lands managed by the National Park Service, extraction of natural resources from national forests is permitted, and in many cases encouraged. National Forests are categorized by the U. S. as IUCN Category VI protected areas, the first-designated wilderness areas, and some of the largest, are on National Forest lands. There are management decision conflicts between conservationists and environmentalists, and natural resource extraction companies and lobbies, over the protection and/or use of National Forest lands, many ski resorts and summer resorts operate on leased land in National Forests
John Muir Wilderness
The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for 90 miles, in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist John Muir, the wilderness lies along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra from near Mammoth Lakes and Devils Postpile National Monument in the north, to Cottonwood Pass near Mount Whitney in the south. The wilderness area spans the Sierra crest north of Kings Canyon National Park, the wilderness contains some of the most spectacular and highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, with 57 peaks over 13,000 feet in elevation. The peaks are made of granite from the Sierra Nevada Batholith. The southernmost glacier in the United States, the Palisade Glacier, is contained within the wilderness area, notable eastside glaciated canyons are drained by Rock, McGee, and Bishop Creeks. The eastern escarpment in the wilderness rises from 6,000 to 8,000 feet from base to peak, the Sierra crest contains peaks from 12,000 to 14,000 feet in elevation, including Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.
Other notable mountains in the area include the Palisades and Mount Humphreys. Mount Muir is located 2 miles south of Mount Whitney, Mount Williamson is the second-highest peak in the wilderness, at 14,375 feet, it rises in one continuous sweep of granite from the floor of the Owens Valley to a peak just east of the main range. The John Muir Wilderness contains the largest contiguous area above 10,000 feet in the continental United States and it contains large areas of subalpine meadows and fellfields above 10,800 feet, containing stands of whitebark and foxtail pine. From 9,000 feet to 10,800 feet, the wilderness is dominated by lodgepole pines, below the lodgepole forest is forest dominated by Jeffrey pine. Common animals in the wilderness include yellow-bellied marmots, golden-mantled ground squirrels, Clarks nutcrackers, golden trout, the wilderness area includes California bighorn sheep zoological areas, which are set aside for the protection of the species. The wilderness contains 589.5 miles of hiking trails, including the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, the John Muir Wilderness is the second most-visited wilderness in the United States, and quota are required for overnight use on virtually all trailheads.
Duck Lake Lake Virginia Squaw Lake Bibliography of the Sierra Nevada, for further reading Wilderness. net TopoQuest map
California
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence.
The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups were diverse in their organization with bands, villages. Trade and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years English explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
Ecology of the Sierra Nevada
See Sierra Nevada for general information about the mountain range in the United States. The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U. S. state of California, is diverse and complex, the plants and animals are a significant part of the scenic beauty of the mountain range. The combination of climate, topography and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 1,000 feet to over 14,000 feet. Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral communities at lower elevations, to subalpine forests, particular ecoregions that follow elevation contours are often described as a series of belts that follow the length of the Sierra Nevada. There are many hiking trails and unpaved roads, and vast public lands in the Sierra Nevada for exploring the different biomes. The western and eastern Sierra Nevada have substantially different species of plants and animals, the plants and animals in the east are thus adapted to much drier conditions. The altitudes listed for the zones are for the central Sierra Nevada.
The climate across the axis of the range varies somewhat. The lowest-elevation biotic zone in the Sierra Nevada is found along the boundary with the Central Valley. This zone, stretching in elevation from 500 to 3,500 feet, is the woodland zone. The foothills are vegetated with grasslands of mostly non-native grasses, mixed grasslands and woodlands savanna, a foothill woodland community of blue oak and gray pine, many of the plant communities are similar to those found on the inner California Coast Ranges. Animals typical of this zone include black bear, ringtail cat, gray squirrel, California mule deer, in the foothills of the northern portion of the Sierra Nevada and chamise often co-dominate certain open serpentine chaparral communities. Beginning near the 3,000 foot elevation, the hot, dry summers and cool and this zone is known as the yellow pine forest zone. The accumulation of several feet of snow during the winter is not uncommon, the diversity of tree species found in this zone make this a beautiful and interesting forest to explore.
The lower montane forests include such as California black oak, sugar pine, incense-cedar. The giant sequoia groves of the Sierra Nevada are found within this biotic zone, animals that may be found in this zone include the dark-eyed junco, mountain chickadee, western gray squirrel, mule deer, and American black bear. The endangered Yosemite toad is found in forests of the central Sierra Nevada. The lower montane forest can be seen in Yosemite Valley and along the Wawona, Hetch Hetchy, the upper montane forest begins at higher elevations near 7,000 feet, where the montane climate is characterized by short, cool summers and cold, wet winters
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25,1890, the park is south of and contiguous with Kings Canyon National Park, the two are administered by the National Park Service together as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. They were designated the UNESCO Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976, the park is famous for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth. The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest, which five out of the ten largest trees in the world. The Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Parks General Grant Grove, the parks giant sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Indeed, the preserve a landscape that still resembles the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement. Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at 1,700 ft elevation.
The last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922, the California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest. At higher elevations in the front country, between 5,500 and 9,000 feet in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt, found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir. Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on earth, between the trees and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black bears. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park, the vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness, no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the parks boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is only by foot or by horseback. Sequoias backcountry offers a vast expanse of high-alpine wonders, covering the highest-elevation region of the High Sierra, the backcountry includes Mount Whitney on the eastern border of the park, accessible from the Giant Forest via the High Sierra Trail.
On the floor of canyon, at least two days hike from the nearest road, is the Kern Canyon hot spring, a popular resting point for weary backpackers. From the floor of Kern Canyon, the trail ascends again over 8,000 ft to the summit of Mount Whitney, in the summertime, Native Americans would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, smallpox had spread to the region. The first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, Tharp allowed his cattle to graze the meadow, but at the same time had a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area
Pinus contorta
Pinus contorta, with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine. Like all pines, it is an evergreen conifer, there are four subspecies of Pinus contorta, and one of them is sometimes considered to have two varieties. The subspecies are sometimes treated at the rank of variety, Bolanders beach pine, Bolander pine, endemic to NW California Coast, Near Threatened by fires and development Pinus contorta subsp. Contorta, Shore pine, Pacific Coast, southern Alaska to northern California. Pinus contorta subsp, contorta var. contorta, Shore pine, Pacific Coast, Northwest California through Alaska. Murrayana, Tamarack pine, or Sierra lodgepole pine, Cascade Range from Washington into Northern California, the Sierra Nevada, Lodgepole pine, Rocky Mountains, Colorado to Yukon and Saskatchewan, Aspen parkland and boreal forests. Depending on subspecies, Pinus contorta grows as a shrub or tree.
The shrub form is krummholz and is approximately 1 to 3 m high, the thin and narrow-crowned tree is 40 to 50 m high and can achieve up to 2 m in diameter at chest height. The murrayana subspecies is the tallest, the crown is rounded and the top of the tree is flattened. In dense forests, the tree has a slim, conical crown, the formation of twin trees is common in some populations in British Columbia. The elastic branches stand upright or overhang and are difficult to break, the branches are covered with short shoots that are easy to remove. The species name is contorta because of the twisted, bent pines found at coastal areas, Pinus contorta is occasionally known under several English names, black pine, scrub pine, and coast pine. Latifolia will hybridise with the closely related Jack pine, the egg-shaped growth buds are reddish-brown and between 20 and 30 mm long. They are short pointed, slightly rotated, and very resinous, spring growth starts in beginning of April and the annual growth is completed by early July.
The dark and mostly shiny needles are pointed and 4 to 8 cm long and 0.9 to 2 mm wide, the needle edge is weak to clearly serrated. The needles are in pairs on short shoots and rotated about the shoots longitudinal axes, in Alberta above 2,000 m,1 to 5 needles occur per short shoot. A population with a proportion of three-needled short shoots occurs in the Yukon. Needles live an average of four to six years, with a maximum of 13 years, the cones are 3–7 centimetres long
Pinus ponderosa
It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America. It grows in various forms from British Columbia southward and eastward through 16 western U. S. states and has been successfully introduced in temperate regions of Europe. It was first documented into modern science in 1826 in eastern Washington near present-day Spokane, on that occasion, David Douglas misidentified it as Pinus resinosa. In 1829, Douglas concluded that he had a new pine among his specimens, in 1836, it was formally named and described by Charles Lawson, a Scottish nurseryman. It is the state tree of Montana. Pinus ponderosa is a large pine tree. The bark helps to distinguish it from other species, mature to over-mature individuals have yellow to orange-red bark in broad to very broad plates with black crevices. Younger trees have blackish-brown bark, referred to as blackjacks by early loggers, ponderosa pines five subspecies, as classified by some botanists, can be identified by their characteristically bright, green needles.
The Pacific subspecies has the longest—19.8 cm or 7.8 in—and most flexible needles in fascicles of three. The Columbia ponderosa pine has long—12. 0–20.5 cm or 4. 7–8.1 in—and relatively flexible needles in fascicles of three. The Rocky Mountains subspecies has shorter—9. 2–14.4 cm or 3. 6–5.7 in—and stout needles growing in scopulate fascicles of two or three. The southwestern subspecies has 11. 2–19.8 cm or 4. 4–7.8 in, needles are widest and fewest for the species. Sources differ on the scent of P. ponderosa, but it is more or less of turpentine, some state that it has no distinctive scent. The National Register of Big Trees lists a ponderosa pine that is 235 ft tall and 324 in in circumference, in January 2011, a Pacific ponderosa pine in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon was measured with a laser to be 268.35 ft high. The measurement was performed by Michael Taylor and Mario Vaden, a professional arborist from Oregon, the tree was climbed on October 13,2011, by Ascending The Giants and directly measured with tape-line at 268.29 ft high.
This is the second tallest known pine after the sugar pine and this species is grown as an ornamental plant in parks and large gardens. The trees were burned and blown over. Pinus ponderosa is a dominant tree in the Kuchler plant association, like most western pines, the ponderosa generally is associated with mountainous topography
Ansel Adams Wilderness
The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. The wilderness is part of the Sierra and Inyo National Forests, yosemite National Park lies to the north and northwest, while the John Muir Wilderness lies to the south. The wilderness was established as part of the original Wilderness Act in 1964 as the Minarets Wilderness, the 109, 500-acre Minarets Wilderness was created by enlarging and renaming the Mount Dana-Minarets Primitive Area. The Ansel Adams wilderness spans in elevation from 3,500 to 13,157 feet, the centerpiece of the Ansel Adams wilderness is the Ritter Range, which includes dark metavolcanic glaciated mountains such as Mount Ritter, Banner Peak, and The Minarets. The Middle Fork originates from Thousand Island Lake, at the foot of Banner Peak, to the east of the Middle Fork canyon is the true Sierra Crest, which, at roughly 10,000 feet of elevation is lower than the Ritter Range. This relatively low region of the Crest allows winter storms through and cause large amounts of snowfall on Mammoth Mountain, the gap allows migration of plants and animals across the Sierra Crest.
To the west of the Ritter Range lies the canyon of the North Fork of the San Joaquin, the southern part of the wilderness contains the 3,000 feet deep canyon of the main San Joaquin River, which flows out of the Sierra Nevada to Californias Central Valley. The Ansel Adams wilderness contains substantial area above treeline, at approximately 9,600 to 10,400 feet, the area above treeline contains alpine meadows and fellfields, with a large number of glacial lakes. Below treeline, the wilderness is dominated by pine, red fir. The wilderness contains 349 miles of hiking trails, including portions of the John Muir, the Sierra High Route, an off-trail route described by Steve Roper, runs along the base of the Ritter Range, through the wilderness. The Middle Fork of the San Joaquin receives the most visitors, the Minarets are a well-known area for technical rock climbing. Winter brings various cross-country ski possibilities, accessible from both Mammoth Mountain and the June Mountain ski area
