The Sierra Crest is a ~500 mi (804.7 km) generally north-to-south ridgeline that demarcates the broad west and narrow east slopes of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) and that extends as far east as the Sierra's topographic front

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:...

 (e.g., Diamond Mountains

Diamond Mountains (California)

----The Diamond Mountains are a mountain range in Plumas County, California, which includes several named points on the Sierra Crest ....

 and Sierran escarpment

Wheeler Crest

The Wheeler Crest or Wheeler Ridge is a ridge in Mono and Inyo Counties, California. The crest is long, and partially lies in the John Muir Wilderness. The ridge is bound on the west by Rock Creek, on the north by the community of Toms Place, on the east by Round Valley, on the southeast by Gable...

). The northern and central Sierra Crest sections coincide with over 300 mi (482.8 km) 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...

, and the southern crest demarcates Tulare & Inyo counties and extends through Kern County to meet the Tehachapi crest

Tehachapi Mountains

The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...

. The Sierra Crest also forms two paths (bifurcates) around endorheic cirque

Cirque

Cirque may refer to:* Cirque, a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , an album by Biosphere* Cirque Corporation, a company that makes touchpads...

s (e.g., Cup Lake) between the west and east Sierra slopes. From 1892-7, Theodore Solomons

Theodore Solomons

Theodore Seixas Solomons was an explorer and early member of the Sierra Club. From 1892 to 1897 he explored and named the Mount Goddard, Evolution Valley and Evolution Basin region in what is now northern Kings Canyon National Park in eastern California...

 made the first attempt to map a crest route along the Sierras.