Inyo Mountains

Inyo Mountains
Inyo Mountains
	Inyo Mountains from space
Highest point
Peak	Waucoba Mountain, ~18 mi (29 km) southeast of Big Pine.
Elevation	11,123 ft (3,390 m)
Coordinates	36°10′00″N 118°00′03″W / 36.16667°N 118.00083°W
Dimensions
Length	70 mi (110 km)
Width	10 mi (16 km)
Geography
Country	United States
States	California; Nevada;
Parent range	Basin and Range Province
Borders on	White Mountains, Sierra Nevada

The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States.^[2] The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately 70 miles (110 km) south-southeast from the southern end of the White Mountains, from which they are separated by Westgard Pass, to the east of Owens Lake.

Geologically, the mountains are a fault block range in the Basin and Range Province, at the western end of the Great Basin. They are considered to be among the most important and best-known Late Proterozoic to Cambrian sections in the United States.^[3]

Wilderness

Most of the mountain range (199,208 acres (806.17 km²)) is designated as the Inyo Mountain Wilderness, managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the south and the United States Forest Service in the north.^[4] The USFS manages 73,300 acres (297 km²) of the wilderness all within Inyo National Forest.^[5]

Wildlife in the area includes the endangered Inyo Mountains salamander and the desert bighorn sheep.^[6] Plant communities include creosote and sagebrush at lower altitudes, and bristlecone pine forests at higher altitudes.^[7] A number of rare and endemic plants are adapted to the unique limestone soils of the mountains, including the cliffdweller,^[8] bristlecone cryptantha,^[9] and Inyo rock daisy.^[10]