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Wilderness Profile


Just three miles off of Interstate 80, Castle Peak Potential Wilderness is among the most scenic areas in the Tahoe National Forest. Home to extraordinary old-growth red fir forests and the little Truckee River, Castle Peak provides clean drinking water to residents of Nevada County.

Silver Mountain Potential Wilderness

Managing agency: Angeles National Forest

Size: Approximately 7,680 acres.

Location: Los Angeles County, near Duarte.

Description:

  • Key watershed for the San Gabriel River
  • Home to black bear, mule deer, mountain lion
  • Outstanding opportunities for hiking, horseback riding and solitude just beyond the urban boundary
  • Outstanding spring flower blooms in meadow west of Roberts Canyon
  • Outstanding opportunities for solitude along spectacular water falls

"In spring, when the water runs high, these falls are easily the most spectacular in the range, plunging some eighty feet in a stairway fashion. The topmost fall is the longest, shooting out from the narrow gorge above, then swishing down into a sparkling pool forty feet below. Then there is a short cascade, followed by a 30-foot plunge into a large lower pool, with one final 8 foot drop below that." - John Robinson in Trails of the Angeles

Nelson bighorn sheep are known to use the adjacent San Gabriel Wilderness as part of their range. Researchers have suggested that recent fires in the area (i.e., Brown's Gulch) may create improved vegetation resources for this threatened bighorn sheep. The addition of Silver Mountain as well as nearby West Fork and Pleasant View would create a nearly seamless swath of wilderness stretching north to south. This possibility doesn't exist anywhere else in the Angeles.

Access: From Foothill Blvd in the city of Duarte, take Encanto Parkway north to the last fork (before gun club). Trail marker should be found on the western wall of the canyon taking you up Fish Canyon.

For additional information, please contact:
Tim Allyn
Sierra Club
3435 Wilshire Blvd. #302
Los Angeles, CA 90010-1901
Phone: (213) 387-6528 x202
Email: tim.allyn@sierraclub.org