Johnson Peak rises in Yosemite National Park’s Tuolumne Meadows area as the highest mountain nearby and a commanding viewpoint over much of the park’s high country. Composed of eroded granite, it is tied to the Johnson Granite Porphyry, dated to about 85 million years ago and identified as the youngest granite rock in Yosemite. Like much of the Sierra Nevada batholith, it formed deep beneath the Earth’s crust and later emerged through uplift and erosion linked to subduction. Named in the 1890s by surveyor R. B. Marshall for a guide and teamster in his party, it remains a relatively easy but quieter climb valued for both geology and scenery.