Granite Mountain Potential Wilderness
 Size: Approximately 54,178 acres
Management Agencies: Bureau of Land Management, Bishop Field Office, and Inyo National Forest
Location: East of Mono Lake, between Highway 120 East and Highway 167.
Description: A geologically varied landscape of living sand dunes, basaltic plateaus, and granite ridges, Granite Mountain would make an excellent Great Basin addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Granite Mountain, along with the Bodie Hills potential wilderness and Log Cabin-Saddlebag potential wilderness additions, would form a crescent of protected land along the northern rim of the Mono Basin. This crescent would ensure that the outstanding habitat and scenic quality of the Basin is permanently protected.
Granite Mountain encompasses an amazing diversity of terrain. Rounded, buff granite protrudes along steep ridgelines and as lone buttresses in alluvial flats. Dark, chunky basaltic flows form the high plateau of Cowtrack Mountain. Fine desert sand heaps into migrating dunes to the northeast of the flat, white, alkali crust of Mono Lake's shoreline.
The Great Basin sagebrush habitat of the Granite Mountain potential wilderness would make an excellent addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Very little Great Basin habitat is currently protected as wilderness.
Numerous archaeological sites, many of which have already been disturbed by illegal artifact collection, are scattered throughout the pinyon-juniper woodland. Mono Lake Paiutes historically wintered here, on the east side of the lake, to escape the heavier snows nearer to the Sierran crest.
A climb up the nearly 9,000-foot Granite Mountain or Horse Peak yields one of the most amazing views in the whole Eastern Sierra: a complete 360-degree vista encompassing the Sierran scarp, the volcanic Mono Craters and Glass Mountain, the rugged White Mountains, Adobe Valley, the Excelsior Range in Nevada, the Bodie Hills, and Mono Lake.
Access to private parcels on the border of the potential wilderness would be unaffected by wilderness designation, while access to inholdings could continue based on BLM wilderness regulations. Well-used routes form many of the proposed boundaries: the Dobie Road on the east, Highway 167 on the north, the East Shore road following the old Bodie Railroad Grade on the west, and Highway 120 on the south. Routes to popular car camping sites along Cowtrack Mountain are cherry-stemmed out of the proposal. Current grazing levels would not change with wilderness status. Hair Raiser Buttress, a popular climbing area, is not included in the wilderness.
While no current proposals exist, potential development of a geothermal plant and an open-pit gold mine have threatened the integrity of Granite Mountain in the not so distant past. Growing off-highway vehicle use, if left unchecked, could disturb much of this fragile Great Basin habitat. Wilderness status for Granite Mountain would ensure one of California's wildest places stays that way.
For additional information, please contact:
Sally Miller
The Wilderness Society
Phone: (760) 647-1614
Email: sally_miller@tws.org
Or contact:
Paul McFarland
Friends of the Inyo
P.O. Box 64
Lee Vining, CA 93541
(760) 647-0079
Email: pmcfarland@qnet.com
Web site: www.friendsoftheinyo.org
|
Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
