Caliente Range
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Home to the highest peak in San Luis Obispo County, the 1556 meter (5106 foot) Caliente Peak, the Caliente Range is a west-east trending zone of uplift along the Pacific Coast Ranges. The rocks of the Caliente range are dominated by marine and terrestrial sedimentary deposits laid down over the last 30 million years. The range is an anticlinal structure with a sharp southern boundary defined by the Cuyama River which separates the Caliente Range from the Sierra Madre Mountains in neighboring Santa Barbara County. To the northeast, the range is bounded by the Carrizo Plain. To the northwest, the range is abutted by the La Panza and Santa Lucia Ranges, two northwest-southeast trending units of the Coast Ranges.
Most of the Caliente Range is public land, owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Portions are privately owned, and some of the foothills to the northeast are within the domain of the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
The peak is accessible to non-motorized traffic via a gated road. The skeleton of an old cabin remains on the peak as of this writing (Dec. 2005). Dips and rises along this ridgeline road equal about 2,700 feet in elevation gain in the course of the 17-mile round-trip journey from the locked gate to the peak and back.
The higher peaks of the range get more precipitation than the lowlands due to orthographic lift of passing storms. Some snow falls on the highest parts of the range.
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