John Muir Wilderness
John Muir Wilderness | ||
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Lake of the Lone Indian in the sanctuary | ||
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Location: | California , United States | |
Specialty: | High mountain landscape of the Sierra Nevada in a wilderness without human intervention | |
Next city: | Independence | |
Surface: | 2,633.4 km² | |
Founding: | 3rd September 1964 |
The John Muir Wilderness is a nature reserve in California , USA . The area, which was designated as a Wilderness Area in 1964 and expanded to its present size of around 2633 km² in 1984 and 2009, is located in the Sierra Nevada . It is named after the naturalist, philosopher and conservationist John Muir and extends from the Mammoth Mountains to Mount Whitney in the Eastern Sierra.
The reserve encloses the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park to the east and north and is bordered by the Golden Trout Wilderness in the southeast, the Monarch Wilderness in the southwest, the small Dinkey Lakes Wilderness in the west and the Ansel Adams in the north Wilderness . The area belongs to the west of the mountain ridge to the Sierra National Forest , to the east to the Inyo National Forest , two national forest areas , and is administered with the national forests by the US Forest Service .
The John Muir Wilderness includes the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney and also the southernmost glacier in the USA in the Palisades group . The John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail long-distance hiking trails, as well as a variety of smaller hiking trails, run through the reserve. A total of around 950 km of hiking trails are rudimentary maintained. As in all wilderness areas, there are no roads or tourist facilities. People are only allowed into the area on foot or on horseback. The John Muir Wilderness is one of the very few wilderness reserves that is relatively heavily frequented, so access is regulated and anyone who wants to go one of the longer trails and camp in the area needs a permit, which must be ordered months in advance for large parts of the year.