Gale Peak is a 10,690-foot summit in southeastern Yosemite National Park on the border with the Ansel Adams Wilderness, in a rugged high country of lakes, ridges, and drainage divides. Its location is notable because runoff from the mountain flows west to the South Fork Merced River system and east to the San Joaquin River system. Named in 1894 by Lieutenant Nathaniel Fish McClure for Captain George Henry Goodwin Gale, Yosemite’s acting military superintendent, it reflects the era when the U.S. Army administered the park from 1891 to 1914. The name was officially adopted in 1932, and the first recorded ascent followed in 1920.