PALOMAR, MOUNT

peak (6,126 feet ) in the Cleveland National Forest, southern California, U.S., about 40 miles (65 km) north-northeast of San Diego. The Palomar Mountain State Park (1,887 acres [764 hectares]) extends up the mountain slope, and the Palomar Observatory, one of the Hale Observatories, occupies a 720-acre (290-hectare) plateau at the top and can be reached by the Highway to the Stars. The peak was once called Smith Mountain but reverted to its Mexican name, Palomar (meaning place of the pigeons), in 1901.