Ansel Adams Wilderness
Encyclopedia
The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California
, USA
. The wilderness is part of the Sierra
(majority of the wilderness) and Inyo
National Forests. The wilderness spans 231533 acres (93,698.2 ha). Yosemite National Park
lies to the north and northwest, while the John Muir Wilderness
lies to the south.
in 1964 as the Minarets Wilderness. The 109500 acres (44,313.1 ha) Minarets Wilderness was created by enlarging and renaming the Mount Dana-Minarets Primitive Area.
In 1984, after his death, the area was expanded and renamed in honor of Ansel Adams
, well-known environmentalist and nature photographer who is famous for his black and white landscape
photograph
s of the Sierra Nevada.
Adventurer Steve Fossett
died in 2007 after his airplane crashed in the wilderness near Minaret Lake
; despite a massive search effort, the wreckage wasn't discovered for over a year.
The centerpiece of the Ansel Adams wilderness is the Ritter Range
, which includes dark metavolcanic glaciated
mountains such as Mount Ritter
, Banner Peak
, and The Minarets
.
Immediately to the east of the Ritter Range is the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River
, which contains Devils Postpile
, a series of basaltic columns that were revealed and smoothed by glacier action. The Middle Fork originates from Thousand Island Lake
, at the foot of Banner Peak, one of the largest backcountry lakes in the Sierra.
To the east of the Middle Fork canyon is the true Sierra Crest, which, at roughly 10000 feet (3,048 m) of elevation is lower than the Ritter Range. This relatively low region of the Crest allows winter storms through and cause large amounts of snowfall on Mammoth Mountain
, which sits in the gap. The gap also allows migration of plants and animals across the Sierra Crest.
To the west of the Ritter Range lies the canyon of the North Fork of the San Joaquin, a relatively remote and unvisited high-country area. The southern part of the wilderness contains the 3000 feet (914.4 m) deep canyon of the main San Joaquin River, which flows out of the Sierra Nevada to California's Central Valley.
s, with a large number of glacial lakes. Below treeline, the wilderness is dominated by lodgepole pine
, red fir
, and Jeffrey pine
, depending on elevation.
and Pacific Crest Trail
s. The Sierra High Route
, an off-trail route described by Steve Roper
, runs along the base of the Ritter Range, through the wilderness.
The Middle Fork of the San Joaquin receives the most visitors: a mandatory bus is required for visitors to reach Devils Postpile from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area
during the summer.
The Minarets are a well-known area for technical rock climbing
.
Winter brings various cross-country ski
possibilities, accessible from both Mammoth Mountain and the June Mountain
ski area.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The wilderness is part of the Sierra
Sierra National Forest
Sierra National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located on the western slope of central Sierra Nevada in the state of California. The forest is known for its mountain scenery and natural resources. Forest headquarters are located in Clovis, California...
(majority of the wilderness) and Inyo
Inyo National Forest
Inyo National Forest is a federally administered forest in the United States. The forest covers parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California, and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. It contains two wilderness areas: the John Muir Wilderness and the Ansel Adams Wilderness...
National Forests. The wilderness spans 231533 acres (93,698.2 ha). 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...
lies to the north and northwest, while the John Muir Wilderness
John Muir Wilderness
The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA for , in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist John Muir, it contains...
lies to the south.
History
The wilderness was established as part of the original Wilderness ActWilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected some 9 million acres of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed...
in 1964 as the Minarets Wilderness. The 109500 acres (44,313.1 ha) Minarets Wilderness was created by enlarging and renaming the Mount Dana-Minarets Primitive Area.
In 1984, after his death, the area was expanded and renamed in honor of Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, well-known environmentalist and nature photographer who is famous for his black and white landscape
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s of the Sierra Nevada.
Adventurer Steve Fossett
Steve Fossett
James Stephen Fossett was an American commodities trader, businessman, and adventurer. Fossett is the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon...
died in 2007 after his airplane crashed in the wilderness near Minaret Lake
Minaret Lake
Minaret Lake is a lake in the Ritter Range, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada, in California. It is located in extreme northeastern Madera County, within the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Inyo National Forest....
; despite a massive search effort, the wreckage wasn't discovered for over a year.
Geography and Geology
The Ansel Adams wilderness spans in elevation from 3500 to 13157 ft (1,066.8 to 4,010.3 m), forming the northern end of the High Sierra.The centerpiece of the Ansel Adams wilderness is the Ritter Range
Ritter Range
The Ritter Range is a small mountain range within California's Sierra Nevada. Most of the mountain range lies within the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The Range is easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. The Ritter Range is most easily accessible from Mammoth Lakes, where hiking...
, which includes dark metavolcanic glaciated
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...
mountains such as Mount Ritter
Mount Ritter
Mount Ritter is located in the Sierra Nevada, in Madera County of California, in the Western United States. It is in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Mount Ritter is the 16th highest mountain peak of California.-Geography:...
, Banner Peak
Banner Peak
Banner Peak is the second tallest peak in the Ritter Range of California's Sierra Nevada. The mountain is 12,936 feet tall and there are a few glaciers on its slopes. It lies within the boundaries of the Ansel Adams Wilderness; at the foot of the peak lie Garnet Lake, Lake Ediza, and the famous...
, and The Minarets
Minarets (California)
The Minarets are a series of jagged peaks located in the Ritter Range, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the state of California. They are easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. The peaks bear a certain resemblance to the minarets of Islamic mosques...
.
Immediately to the east of the Ritter Range is the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
, which contains Devils Postpile
Devils Postpile National Monument
Devils Postpile National Monument is located near Mammoth Mountain in extreme northeastern Madera County in eastern California. It was established in 1911, and protects Devils Postpile, an unusual formation of columnar basalt.-Geography:...
, a series of basaltic columns that were revealed and smoothed by glacier action. The Middle Fork originates from Thousand Island Lake
Thousand Island Lake
Thousand Island Lake is a large alpine lake in the Sierra Nevada, within the Ansel Adams Wilderness in eastern Madera County, California.The lake is named for the many small rocky islands that dot its surface. Theodore Solomons probably established the 'Thousand Island' name, as this appears on his...
, at the foot of Banner Peak, one of the largest backcountry lakes in the Sierra.
To the east of the Middle Fork canyon is the true Sierra Crest, which, at roughly 10000 feet (3,048 m) of elevation is lower than the Ritter Range. This relatively low region of the Crest allows winter storms through and cause large amounts of snowfall on Mammoth Mountain
Mammoth Mountain
Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome complex west of the town of Mammoth Lakes, California in the Inyo National Forest of Madera County and Mono County. It is home to a large ski area on the Mono County side....
, which sits in the gap. The gap also allows migration of plants and animals across the Sierra Crest.
To the west of the Ritter Range lies the canyon of the North Fork of the San Joaquin, a relatively remote and unvisited high-country area. The southern part of the wilderness contains the 3000 feet (914.4 m) deep canyon of the main San Joaquin River, which flows out of the Sierra Nevada to California's Central Valley.
Ecology
The Ansel Adams wilderness contains substantial area above treeline, at approximately 9600 to 10400 ft (2,926.1 to 3,169.9 m). The area above treeline contains alpine meadows and fellfieldFellfield
A fellfield or fell field comprises the environment of a slope, usually alpine or tundra, where the dynamics of frost and of wind give rise to characteristic plant forms in scree interstices.-Soil dynamics:...
s, with a large number of glacial lakes. Below treeline, the wilderness is dominated by lodgepole pine
Lodgepole Pine
Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.-Subspecies:...
, red fir
Red Fir
Abies magnifica, the Red Fir or Silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high altitude tree, typically occurring at altitude, though only rarely reaching tree line...
, and Jeffrey pine
Jeffrey Pine
The Jeffrey Pine, Pinus jeffreyi, named in honor of its botanist documenter John Jeffrey, is a North American pine related to Ponderosa Pine.-Distribution and habitat:...
, depending on elevation.
Recreation
The wilderness contains 349 miles (561.7 km) of hiking trails, including portions of the John MuirJohn 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...
and Pacific Crest Trail
Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail is a long-distance mountain hiking and equestrian trail on the Western Seaboard of the United States. The southern terminus is at the California border with Mexico...
s. The Sierra High Route
Sierra High Route
The Sierra High Route is a cross-country hiking route, long, through the Sierra Nevada. It was scouted by Steve Roper and described by him in his book Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country....
, an off-trail route described by Steve Roper
Steve Roper
Steve Roper is a noted climber and historian of the Sierra Nevada in the United States. He along with Allen Steck are the founding editors of the Sierra Club journal Ascent.Roper is the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P...
, runs along the base of the Ritter Range, through the wilderness.
The Middle Fork of the San Joaquin receives the most visitors: a mandatory bus is required for visitors to reach Devils Postpile from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is a large ski resort located in Eastern California, along the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Inyo National Forest.- Description :...
during the summer.
The Minarets are a well-known area for technical rock climbing
Rock climbing
Rock climbing also lightly called 'The Gravity Game', is a sport in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route without falling...
.
Winter brings various cross-country ski
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
possibilities, accessible from both Mammoth Mountain and the June Mountain
June Mountain
June Mountain is a winter resort in northern California, located near June Lake, southeast of Yosemite National Park. June Mountain hosted the 2006 Ski Mountaineering Race Series and the ski and snowboard portions of the 2006 California Winter Games in March 2006.The ski resort is now owned by...
ski area.
See also
- Ansel AdamsAnsel AdamsAnsel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
- List of books about the Sierra Nevada for further reading
- Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
- Sierra National ForestSierra National ForestSierra National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located on the western slope of central Sierra Nevada in the state of California. The forest is known for its mountain scenery and natural resources. Forest headquarters are located in Clovis, California...
- Inyo National ForestInyo National ForestInyo National Forest is a federally administered forest in the United States. The forest covers parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California, and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. It contains two wilderness areas: the John Muir Wilderness and the Ansel Adams Wilderness...
External links
- QTVR photos of locations in the Ansel Adams Wilderness
- Wilderness.net
- TopoQuest map
- Summitpost - Ansel Adams Wilderenss