Olancha Peak is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains 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...

. The mountain rises to an elevation of 12132 feet (3,698 m) on the Tulare-Inyo county line in the South Sierra Wilderness

South Sierra Wilderness

The South Sierra Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness protected area located northeast of Bakersfield, California.Created with the passage of the California Wilderness Act of 1984 by the U.S. Congress, it is in size, is within both the Sequoia and Inyo national forests and is managed...

. It takes its name from the nearby town of Olancha

Olancha, California

Olancha is a census-designated place in Inyo County of the U.S. state of California. Olancha is located on U.S. Route 395 in California, south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of 3658 feet...

.

The mountain is also known as "Indianhead" and "the Sleeping Maiden" as some think that parts of the ridgeline of the southern slope of the mountain, when viewed from certain angles, resembles either the face of a man or the figure of a woman lying on her back.

The peak is also one of the highest in the Sierra Nevada south of Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...

. It is the southernmost peak on the Sierra Nevada escarpment

Escarpment

An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...

 whose peak is significantly above the treeline. Due to the high elevation, most of the precipitation the mountain receives consists of snow.