Sierra Juárez
Encyclopedia
Sierra de Juárez is a mountain range
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...

 on the Baja California Peninsula
Baja California Peninsula
The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...

, of Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It is part of the Peninsular Ranges
Peninsular Ranges
The Peninsular Ranges are a group of mountain ranges, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, which stretch from southern California in the United States to the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges that run along the Pacific coast from Alaska...

. The Laguna Mountains
Laguna Mountains
The Laguna Mountains are a section of the Peninsular Ranges in eastern San Diego County, California. The mountains run in a northwest/southeast alignment for approximately ....

 of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 lie to the north and the Sierra San Pedro Mártir
Sierra San Pedro Mártir
Sierra de San Pedro Mártir is a mountain range that is one of the Peninsular Ranges of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. At , the highest peak is the Picacho del Diablo, also known as Cerro de la Encantada or Picacho la Providencia...

 lies to the south.

It is also the location of the southern tip of the Great Basin Divide
Great Basin Divide
The Great Basin Divide is the western continental divide that separates the Great Basin from the Pacific Ocean watershed. The water divide is the perimeter of the largest set of contiguous endorheic watersheds of North America, including six entire USGS watershed subregions...

 at the triple watershed point (31.460736°N 115.508709°W for the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...

 and two watersheds of the peninsula's west and east slopes.

Climate and ecology

The western flank of the range lies at the southeastern extremity of the Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

 region that extends across much of California and into northwestern Baja California. The lower slopes of the western flank are covered chiefly by chaparral
Chaparral
Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico...

. The Sonoran Desert
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...

 lies to the east. The higher elevations of the range, together with the higher elevations of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, are home to the Sierra Juarez and San Pedro Martir pine-oak forests
Sierra Juarez and San Pedro Martir pine-oak forests
The Sierra Juárez and San Pedro Mártir pine-oak forests is an ecoregion, in the Temperate coniferous forests biome, that covers the higher elevations of the Sierra Juárez and Sierra San Pedro Mártir ranges, of the Peninsular Ranges, in the northern Baja California Peninsula of Mexico, near the...

. The Parque Nacional Constitución de 1857 protects part of the range. The Sierra Juarez is near the southern limit of the distribution of the California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera
Washingtonia filifera
Washingtonia filifera , with the common names California Fan Palm , Desert Fan Palm, Cotton palm, and Arizona Fan Palm. It is a palm native to southwestern North America between an elevation range of , at seeps, desert bajadas, and springs where underground water is continuously available...

.
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