Wilderness
Inyo National Forest contains approximately one million acres of wilderness in nine wilderness areas. Three of these were among the first wilderness areas designated by Congress in 1964. Forest visitors may use a network of trails that extend from Inyo National Forest into adjacent wilderness areas of Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The iconic John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails pass through these continuous wilderness areas and encompass some of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States.
Approximately 30 million people live within a few hours’ drive of Inyo National Forest, creating a high demand for wilderness visitation. Wilderness Permits are required in the John Muir, Ansel Adams, Hoover and Golden Trout Wildernesses and a quota system helps manage use to protect natural conditions and opportunities for solitude.
General Information
Wild by Law
The United States was the first country to establish a wilderness preservation system through law. The Wilderness Act of 1964 provides a framework for designating Wilderness and directions for how to manage it.
What is Wilderness?
Wilderness is defined as natural, undeveloped, untrammeled, providing outstanding opportunities for solitude and unconfined recreation, and containing other features of value. It is affected primarily by forces of nature, with man’s work substantially unnoticeable.
From the Wilderness Act:
Definition of Wilderness
(c) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.
Inyo National Forest works in partnership with adjacent agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Sierra National Forest, and Sequoia National Forest to preserve the wilderness character of these congressionally designated wilderness areas.
Comprehensive information about all things related to Wilderness and its management can be found at wilderness.net.