The Kingston Range, sometimes called the Kingston Mountains, is located in

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 philosophy, Chinese p ...

and

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...

counties in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

in eastern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The range reaches a height of above sea level at Kingston Peak. The range is located southeast of the

Nopah Range The Nopah Range is a mountain range located in Inyo County, California, United States, near the eastern border with Nevada. Geography The mountain range lies east of the adjacent Resting Spring Range, the Owlshead Mountains and lower Death Valley ...

, and north of the

Shadow Mountains The Shadow Mountains are located in the Mojave Desert of eastern California in the United States. The mountains lie in a generally north–south direction south of the Kingston Range and east of the Avawatz Mountains and the Silurian Hills. An is ...

and

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border i ...

. The small community of Halloran Springs is about south of the Kingston Range. The range stretches about in a northeast–southwest direction. Tecopa Pass, at , is located at the northeastern end of the mountains.

Wilderness

The Kingston Range Wilderness was added to 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 ...

by the U.S. Congress in 1994 and is currently composed of 252,149 acres in three distinct units separated by non-wilderness corridors. This area protects an ecological transition zone between the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

and

s. The Amargosa unit in the north is centered around Amargosa Canyon and protects a desert wetland habitat that supports a diverse population of migratory birds and aquatic life. The central Kingston unit encompasses the Kingston Mountains themselves, a 17-mile ridgeline that rises to 7,323 on Kingston Peak. The southern Shadow Mountain unit covers the lower elevation Shadow Mountains. There are 505 native plant species in the

wilderness area 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 ...

. From

Creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...

scrub vegetation in the lower elevations to

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

- pinyon woodland at higher elevations, this desert wilderness includes a wealth of botanical biodiversity including the only stand of Giant nolina in the eastern Mojave Desert as well as a relic stand of

white fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Cascade Range and southern Rocky Mountains, and into the isolated mountain range ...

trees clinging to the slopes of two drainages just below Kingston Peak. Wildlife includes the banded

gila monster The Gila monster (''Heloderma suspectum'', ) is a species of venomous lizard native to the Southwestern United States and the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is a heavy, typically slow-moving reptile, up to long, and it is the only v ...

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspec ...

, wild

burro The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

black-tailed jackrabbit The black-tailed jackrabbit (''Lepus californicus''), also known as the American desert hare, is a common hare of the western United States and Mexico, where it is found at elevations from sea level up to . Reaching a length around , and a ...

ground squirrel Ground squirrels are members of the squirrel family of rodents (Sciuridae), which generally live on or in the ground, rather than trees. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones are more commonly known ...

kangaroo rat Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed thi ...

s, roadrunners, quail,

rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...

s, tarantulas, several species of lizards, and the desert tortoise.Kingston Range Wilderness
- BLM

References

*California Road and Recreation Atlas, 2005, pg.97 {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Southern California Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert Mountain ranges of San Bernardino County, California

Wilderness

See also

References