Inyo National Forest is a

United States National Forest In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands. National forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned collectively by the American people through the federal government, and managed b ...

covering parts of the eastern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and the White Mountains of California and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The forest hosts several superlatives, including

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney ( Paiute: Tumanguya; ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'') is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of . It is in East– Central California, on the boundary between California's Inyo and ...

, the highest point in the

contiguous United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

; Boundary Peak, the highest point in Nevada; and the

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is a protected area high in the White Mountains in Inyo County in eastern California. Geography The forest is east of the Owens Valley, high on the eastern face of the White Mountains in the upper Fish Lake ...

, which protects the oldest living trees in the world. The forest, encompassing much of the Owens Valley, was established by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

as a way of sectioning off land to accommodate the

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valle ...

project in 1907, making the Inyo National Forest one of the least wooded forests in the U.S. National Forest system.

Geography

The forest covers and includes nine designated

wilderness areas Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

which protect over . Most of the forest is in

, but it includes about in western

. It stretches from the eastern side of

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

to south of

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief ...

. Geographically it is split in two, one on each side of the Long Valley Caldera and Owens Valley. The

John Muir Wilderness The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for , in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist John Muir, it encompa ...

is a part of the Inyo National Forest and abuts Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park along the crest of the Sierra. The northern part of the Inyo National Forest is preserved as a part of the

Ansel Adams Wilderness The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, United States. The wilderness spans ; 33.9% of the territory lies in the Inyo National Forest, 65.8% is in the Sierra National Forest, and the remaining 0.3% cove ...

area, which borders

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

. Together, the wilderness areas and parks form one contiguous area of protected wilderness of more than . The Inyo National Forest was named after

Inyo County, California Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...

, in which much of the forest resides. The name "Inyo" comes from a Native American word meaning "dwelling place of the great spirit". The forest spans parts of

Inyo Inyo may refer to: Places California * Inyo County, California * Inyo National Forest, USA * The Inyo Mountains * The Mono–Inyo Craters Other uses * Japanese for yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophical concep ...

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanes ...

, Tulare,

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

and Madera counties in California, and Esmeralda and

Mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

counties in

. The forest's headquarters are in

Bishop, California Bishop (formerly Bishop Creek) is a city in California, United States. It is the largest populated place and only incorporated city in Inyo County. Bishop is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of . The city was ...

, with

ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

district offices in Bishop, Lee Vining, Lone Pine, and

Mammoth Lakes Mammoth Lakes is a town in Mono County, California, and is the county's only incorporated community. It is located immediately to the east of Mammoth Mountain, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,191, r ...

. The forest was established on May 25, 1907. On July 1, 1945, land from the former Mono National Forest was added.

Wilderness areas

There are nine wilderness areas lying within Inyo NF that are part of the

National Wilderness Preservation System The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the Na ...

. Some of these extend into other National Forests, as indicated: *

(mostly in Sierra NF and partly in Devils Postpile NM) *

Boundary Peak Wilderness The Boundary Peak Wilderness is a protected wilderness area in the White Mountains of Esmeralda County, in the western section of the state of Nevada in the western United States. The wilderness covers an area of approximately 10,000 acres (40&n ...

Golden Trout Wilderness The Golden Trout Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada, in Tulare County and Inyo County, California. It is located east of Porterville within Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Forest. It is in s ...

(partly in Sequoia National Forest) *

Hoover Wilderness The Hoover Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Inyo and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests. It lies to the east of the crest of the central Sierra Nevada in California, to the north and east of Yosemite National Park - a long strip stretching ...

(mostly in Toiyabe NF) * Inyo Mountains Wilderness *

(mostly in Sierra NF)John Muir Wilderness acreage breakdown, Wilderness.net
/ref> * Owens River Headwaters Wilderness *

South Sierra Wilderness The South Sierra Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Southern Sierra Nevada, in eastern California. It is located northeast of Bakersfield, and is southwest of Owens Lake and Olancha. Geography Created with the passag ...

(partly in Sequoia NF) * White Mountains Wilderness

Ecology

The Inyo National Forest contains the

, which protects specimens of Great Basin bristlecone pines (''Pinus longaeva''). One of these bristlecone pines is "

Methuselah Methuselah () ( he, מְתוּשֶׁלַח ''Məṯūšélaḥ'', in pausa ''Məṯūšālaḥ'', "His death shall send" or "Man of the javelin" or "Death of Sword"; gr, Μαθουσάλας ''Mathousalas'') was a biblical patriarch and a f ...

", the second oldest known non-clonal living tree on earth at more than 4,839 years old; the oldest known tree (discovered 2013) also lives in the park. The forest also harbors an estimated of

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

s. The most abundant trees in these forests are

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

(''Pinus contorta'') and

Jeffrey pine ''Pinus jeffreyi'', also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja Califo ...

(''Pinus jeffreyi'').

Filming location

Inyo National Forest was the site for ''

Ride the High Country ''Ride the High Country'' (released internationally as ''Guns in the Afternoon'') is a 1962 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Mariette Hartley. The supporting cast includ ...

'' (1962) starring

Randolph Scott George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...

and

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

, '' Nevada Smith'' (1966) starring

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and ...

, '' Will Penny'' (1968) starring

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten ...

, ''

Joe Kidd ''Joe Kidd'' is a 1972 American Western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges. The film is about an ex-bounty hunter hired by a wealthy landowner named Frank Harlan to track down ...

'' (1972) and '' High Plains Drifter'' (1973) starring

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...

, as well as the

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

film '' Star Trek: Insurrection'' (1998). Inyo National Forest also served as the filming location for the second half of the second episode in the BBC's ''

Walking with Monsters ''Walking with Monsters – Life Before Dinosaurs'', marketed as ''Before the Dinosaurs – Walking with Monsters'' in North America, is a 2005 three-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Impossible Pictures and produced by t ...

'' (2005) documentary series, which was set in

Early Permian 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Destinations

A349, Laurel Mountain and Convict Lake, Sierra Nevadas, California, USA, 2011

Popular within Inyo National Forest are: *

Convict Lake Convict Lake ( Mono: ''Wit-sa-nap'') is a lake located in Mono County, California, United States, situated in the Sherwin Range of the Sierra Nevada. It is known for its turquoise-blue water, the dramatic mountains (including Mount Morrison) ...

* June Lake *

Lake Sabrina Lake Sabrina is a lake created by damming the middle fork of Bishop Creek. It is located south-west of Bishop, California on California State Route 168, in the Inyo National Forest. It has a cafe as well as a dock. The dam was built in 1907� ...

* Lone Pine *

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water a ...

* Mono-Inyo Craters *

Tioga Lake Tioga Lake is a small glacial lake in the Inyo National Forest of Mono County, California, about two miles (3 km) north of the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite National Park. The lake bed is alongside State Route 120 in the Sierra Nevada of ...

Tioga Pass Tioga Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. State Route 120 runs through it, and serves as the eastern entry point for Yosemite National Park, at the Tioga Pass Entrance Station. It is the highest elevation ...

* Westgard Pass

References

External links

Inyo National Forest
- U.S. Forest Service
Inyo National Forest map
- U.S. Forest Service {{Authority control National Forests of California National Forests of Nevada Protected areas of Esmeralda County, Nevada Protected areas of Inyo County, California Protected areas of Madera County, California Protected areas of Mineral County, Nevada Protected areas of Mono County, California Protected areas of the Great Basin Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Protected areas of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Protected areas of Tulare County, California Protected areas established in 1907 1907 establishments in California 1907 establishments in Nevada California placenames of Native American origin