The Dinkey Lakes Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area located 45 miles (72.4 km) northeast of Fresno, in the state of California

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. It comprises 30000 acres (12,141 ha) within the Sierra National Forest

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...

 and was added to the National Wilderness Preservation System

National Wilderness Preservation System

The National Wilderness Preservation System of the United States protects federally managed land areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. It was established by the Wilderness Act upon the signature of President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964...

 by the California Wilderness Act of 1984

California Wilderness Act of 1984

The California Wilderness Act of 1984 is a federal law , passed by the United States Congress on September 28, 1984, that authorized the addition of over within the state of California to the National Wilderness Preservation System....

.

Elevations range from 8200 feet (2,499.4 m) to 10,619 feet (ft).

Recreational activities in the wilderness include day hiking

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

, backpacking

Backpacking (wilderness)

Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...

, horseback riding, fishing, 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...

 and cross-country skiing.

The landscape of Dinkey Lakes Wilderness is composed of subalpine forests with high, rolling ridges made up of granitic bedrock intersparsed with large, wet meadows. A high divide along the southwestern boundary has several peaks over 10000 ft (3,048 m). elevation, including the Three Sisters, Brown Peak and Eagle Peak. Extensive glaciation is evident by the many cirques located at timberline.

Flora and fauna

Wildlife include the North Kings and Huntington deer herds, black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, golden-mantled ground squirrel, coyote and the Sierra red fox. Also martins and pikas in rocky areas above timberline.

Dinkey Lakes Wilderness has forests of red fir, lodgepole pine, western white pine, with mountain hemlock

Mountain Hemlock

Tsuga mertensiana, known as Mountain Hemlock, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Tulare County, California....

 and whitebark pine at higher elevations.

Recreation

The large 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...

 (580,323 acres) is to the east of Dinkey Lakes and is separated from it by the Dusy-Ershim Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) route. This corridor links Kaiser Pass in the north to the Courtright Reservoir

Courtright Reservoir

Courtright Reservoir is a reservoir in Fresno County, California. The reservoir is at an elevation of 8,170 feet in the Sierra National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The reservoir is formed by Courtright Dam on Helms Creek and has a capacity of . The dam is composed of rock-fill and...

 in the south. There are three other OHV routes to the west of the wilderness boundary and are popular in the summer months.

Three entry points into the wilderness are; the Cliff Lake trailhead at Courtright Reservoir, Dinkey Creek trailhead and the California Riding and Hiking trailhead located at D and F Pack Station on Kaiser Pass road. There are 50 miles (80.5 km) of trails offering a variety of one way and loop trips into the lake basin areas and mountain summits.

The summits of Dogtooth Peak (10256 feet (3,126 m)) and Three Sisters (10548 feet (3,215 m)) offer Class 2 and Class 3 rock climbing routes.

There are 17 lakes in the wilderness with 14 of those being stocked with golden, brook and rainbow trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

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Winter recreation is limited by the long distance from plowed roads. The nearby Sierra Ski Summit Area on highway 168 provides access to the D and F Pack Station and trailhead which is two miles (3 km) north of the wilderness boundary.

A California campfire permit and a wilderness permit are required all year for overnight trips and can be obtained at various ranger stations of the Sierra National Forest as well as the Courtright Reservoir Homeowners Association building at Courtright Reservoir.

Quotas are in place for Dinkey Lakes Wilderness to limit and control the number of visitors. Permits are in effect all year and are divided up between advance reservations (60%) and walk-ins (40%). Each trailhead has a quota limit.

The Forest Service encourages the practice of Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace is both a set of principles, and an organization that promotes those principles. The principles are designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts with their decisions about how to reduce their impacts when they hike, camp, picnic, snowshoe, run, bike, hunt, paddle, ride horses, fish, ski or...

principles of wilderness travel to minimize human impact on the environment.