Snow Mountain Wilderness

The Snow Mountain Wilderness is a 60,076-acre (243.12 km2) federally designated wilderness area located 65 miles (105 km) north of Santa Rosa, California, USA in the Mendocino National Forest. The U.S. Congress passed the California Wilderness Act of 1984 which created 23 new wilderness areas including Snow Mountain. It lies within the North Coast Range of mountains.

Elevations are from 1,800 feet (500 m) to 7,056 feet (2,151 m). The wilderness covers the crest of this North Coast Range mountain divide for 13 miles (21 km) and the summit area includes two peaks, East (7,050 ft) and West (7,021 ft). On October 17, 2006 the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act was signed into law (Public Law No: 109-362) which added 23,706 acres (95.93 km2) to the Snow Mountain Wilderness.

The Trough Fire burned 24,970 acres (101.1 km2) of Snow Mountain Wilderness and national forest land in August 2001. More than 12 million dollars was spent to contain the wildfire even though most of the area was within the wilderness boundary. This human-caused wildfire started near Fouts Springs, an off-road vehicle recreational area in Mendocino National Forest.

Read more about Snow Mountain Wilderness:  Streams and Waterways, Flora and Fauna, Recreation

Famous quotes containing the words snow, mountain and/or wilderness:

    Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, “I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.”
    Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    And no one knows what’s yet to come.
    For Patrick Pearse had said
    That in every generation
    Must Ireland’s blood be shed.
    From mountain to mountain ride the fierce horsemen.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)