Inyo Mountains

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title: "Inyo Mountains" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["inyo-mountains", "mountain-ranges-of-inyo-county,-california", "mountain-ranges-of-the-mojave-desert", "california-placenames-of-native-american-origin", "inyo-national-forest", "owens-valley"] description: "Mountain range in California, United States" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inyo_Mountains" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mountain range in California, United States ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

Field	Value
name	Inyo Mountains
photo	Owens.lake.arp.750pix.jpg
photo_caption	Inyo Mountains from space
country	United States
subdivision1_type	States
subdivision1
parent	Basin and Range Province
borders_on	White Mountains, Sierra Nevada
length_mi	70
width_mi	10
highest	Waucoba Mountain
highest_location	~18 mi (29 km) southeast of Big Pine.
elevation_ft	11123
coordinates
map_image	Wpdms shdrlfi020l inyo mountains.jpg
::

| name =Inyo Mountains | photo =Owens.lake.arp.750pix.jpg | photo_caption =Inyo Mountains from space | country = United States | subdivision1_type = States | subdivision1 = | parent = Basin and Range Province | borders_on = White Mountains, Sierra Nevada | range_coordinates = | length_mi = 70 | width_mi = 10 | highest =Waucoba Mountain | highest_location =~18 mi (29 km) southeast of Big Pine. | elevation_ft = 11123 | coordinates = | map_image =Wpdms shdrlfi020l inyo mountains.jpg | map_caption =

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Inyo_Mountain_Wilderness.jpg" caption="Inyo Mountain Wilderness"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Inyos_N_of_NYButte.jpg" caption="Inyo Mountain crest, north of New York Butte"] ::

The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States. The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately 70 mi 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.

Wilderness

Most of the mountain range (199208 acres) 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. The USFS manages 73300 acres of the wilderness all within Inyo National Forest.

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

References

References

1. {{cite gnis
2. {{cite gnis
3. [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cambrian/whites.html Localities of the Cambrian: White-Inyo Mountains]
4. [https://wilderness.net/visit-wilderness/?ID=263 Inyo Mountains Wilderness] - Wilderness Connect
5. [http://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/inyo/recreation Inyo Mountains Wilderness] - Inyo National Forest
6. "BLM: Inyo Mountain Wilderness".
7. [https://wilderness.net/visit-wilderness/?ID=263 Inyo Mountains Wilderness] - Wilderness Connect
8. (November 2025)
9. (November 2025)
10. (November 2025)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::