Caliente Range

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Home to the highest peak in San Luis Obispo County, the 1556 meter (5106 foot) Caliente Peak, the Caliente Range is a west-east trending zone of uplift along the Pacific Coast Ranges. The rocks of the Caliente range are dominanted by marine and terrestrial sedimentary deposits laid down over the last 30 million years. The range is an anticlinal structure with a sharp southern boundary defined by the Cuyama River which separates the Caliente Range from the Sierra Madre Mountains in neighboring Santa Barbara County. To the northeast, the range is bounded by the Carrizo Plain. To the northwest, the range is abutted by the La Panza and Santa Lucia Ranges, two northwest-southeast trending units of the Coast Ranges.

The peak is accessible to non-motorized traffic via a gated road. The skeleton of an old cabin remains on the peak as of this writing (Dec. 2005). Dips and rises along this ridgeline road equal about 2,700 feet in elevation gain in the course of the 17-mile round-trip journey from the locked gate to the peak and back.