Peeler Lake

Peeler Lake
Peeler Lake in July 2009
Location of the lake in California, USA.
Location of the lake in California, USA.
Peeler Lake
Location of the lake in California, USA.
Location of the lake in California, USA.
Peeler Lake
LocationMono County, California
Coordinates38°07′14″N 119°28′04″W / 38.12056°N 119.46778°W / 38.12056; -119.46778
Basin countriesUnited States
Surface elevation9,488 feet (2,892 m)
References[1]

Peeler Lake is a California landform within the Toiyabe National Forest and on the west edge of the Hoover Wilderness.[2] One of the few bodies of water on the Great Basin Divide,[3] Peeler Lake's inflow is sufficient for outlet streams over 2 Sierra Crest sills of similar elevation[quantify] to respectively drain westward to the Pacific Ocean (Rancheria Creek, Tuolumne & San Joaquin Rivers, and Suisun & San Francisco Bays) and eastward into the Great Basin (Robinson Creek, East Walker & Walker Rivers, Walker Lake sink).[4] Peeler Lake's saddle area is a mountain pass between the west Sierra slope (Tuolumne County) and the Sierra Escarpment (Mono County) to the east, and the lake level of 9,488 ft (2,892 m) is over 1,000 ft (300 m) below the summits of Cirque Mountain (north) and Crown Point (south).[1] The namesake Peeler Lake Trail of 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from the east reaches the lake from the Robinson Creek Trailhead parking at the west side of Twin Lakes[5] (formerly Mono Village), and the Bridgeport Ranger Station issues overnight permits for the backcountry area of the lake.[6]

Peeler Lake was named in 1925[7] for Barney Peeler (1833–1920)[8] of nearby Bridgeport[9] (as was Barney Lake downstream to the east), and the lake was added to the Geographic Names Information System in 2000.[1] In 2006, an environmental evaluation of the lake concluded "the nitrate concentration of 17 μeq/L to be too high to come from atmospheric deposition alone."[10]

  1. ^ a b c "Peeler Lake (1652854)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  2. ^ Hoover Wilderness (PDF) (Map). US Forest Service. August 2007.
  3. ^ NOTE: Unlike Peeler Lake's drainage to both the Pacific and a Great Basin sink, the endorheic lakes on the Great Basin Divide such as Cirque Mountain (38°07′55″N 119°27′32″W / 38.131863°N 119.458776°W / 38.131863; -119.458776) and Cup Lake (38°49′39.38″N 120°5′39.79″W / 38.8276056°N 120.0943861°W / 38.8276056; -120.0943861) are by definition not in the Pacific Watershed.
  4. ^ Adkison, Ron (2001). Wild Northern California: A Guide to 41 Roadless Recreation Areas (Google books). Falcon Guide. Globe Pequot. ISBN 9781560447818. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  5. ^ "Peeler Lake Trail" (Forest Service webpage). Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. fs.usda.gov. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  6. ^ "Bridgeport Ranger Station Announces Fall Office Hours & Campground Closures". USDA Forest Service. 9 September 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  7. ^ Schalla, Steve. "Twin Lakes". Fly Fishing the Sierra. Tripod.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  8. ^ "Barney Peeler (1833 - 1920)". ancestry.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  9. ^ Gudde, Erwin G. Gudde; Bright, William (2004). California Place Names. ISBN 9780520242173. Retrieved 2011-11-14. NOTE: For Barney Peeler, this source cites "SCB 12:126" (Francis P. Farquhar identified the eponym in 1926).
  10. ^ http://165.83.37.17/air/Pubs/pdf/EvalAcidificationNineParks.pdf[permanent dead link]