Nature
Mount Watkins, an 8,497-foot summit in Yosemite National Park’s Sierra Nevada, rises sharply above Tenaya Canyon and drains into Tenaya Creek within the Merced River watershed. Formed of Half Dome Granodiorite from the Cretaceous period, it is part of Yosemite’s granite landscape. Known to Native Americans as Waijau, or Pine Mountain, it was later named for photographer Carleton Watkins, whose 19th-century Yosemite images helped build support for preservation. The name was in print by 1871 and officially adopted in 1932. Mount Watkins is also one of Yosemite’s three major big walls, with notable climbing routes and a hiking route to the summit.
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