Mount Maclure is the nearest neighbor to Mount Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...

. Mount Maclure is located at the southeast end of the Cathedral Range

Cathedral Range

The Cathedral Range is a mountain range immediately to the South of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, USA. It is a beautiful range, sculpted by glaciers out of granite. The tops of the peaks in the range were above the level of the highest glaciation, and are therefore uneroded and...

, about 0.6 mile (0.965604 km) northwest of Lyell. It is named for William Maclure

William Maclure

William Maclure, American - British social experimenter on new types of community life together with British social reformer Robert Owen, , in Indiana State, U. S. A....

, was a pioneer in American geology, who produced one of the earliest geological maps of the United States. Maclure Glacier

Maclure Glacier

Maclure Glacier is a glacier located on Mount Maclure in the Sierra Nevada crest of Yosemite National Park in Tuolumne County, California, United States. Like most glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, the Maclure Glacier is a small cirque glacier that is 0.3 mi long and covers an area of...

, one of the last remaining glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s in Yosemite, is situated on the mountain's norther flank.

The easiest climbing route leaves the John Muir Trail

John Muir Trail

The John Muir Trail is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, running between the northern terminus at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley and the southern terminus located on the summit of Mount Whitney . For almost all of its length, the trail is in the High Sierra...

 about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south of Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows is a gentle, dome-studded sub-alpine meadowy section of the Tuolumne River, in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park. Its approximate location is . Its approximate elevation is 8619 feet .-Natural History:...

and traverses the Maclure Glacier to the summit.