Sylvania Mountains Wilderness
| Sylvania Mountains Wilderness | |
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IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
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 Map of the United States
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| Location | Inyo County, California, USA |
| Nearest city | Bishop, California |
| Coordinates | 37°22′41″N 117°46′26″W / 37.3779867°N 117.7739777°WCoordinates: 37°22′41″N 117°46′26″W / 37.3779867°N 117.7739777°W |
| Area | 18,682 acres (7,560 ha) |
| Established | 1994 |
| Governing body | Bureau of Land Management |
The Sylvania Mountains Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area located 30 miles (48 km) east of Bishop in the state of California. The wilderness is 18,677acres in size and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 created the Sylvania Mountains Wilderness and was added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The wilderness is bordered by Nevada stateline on the east, Piper Mountain Wilderness on the west and Death Valley National Park to the south.
The Sylvania Mountains are a subrange of the Last Chance Mountains and straddle the California-Nevada border. There is no distinct crest, only rounded summits and ridges with many canyons, drainages and bahadas (fans of alluvial soil that have combined at the base of canyons). Elevations range from 4,640 to 7,970 feet (1,410 to 2,430 m).
There are limited water sources, but the springs that do exist support mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, chukar, coyote, as well as ground squirrels and lizards.
The wilderness flora is a mixture of Mojave Desert and Great Basin plant life. Joshua trees are numerous, as well as desert tea, hop sage, cheesebush, deerhorn cholla and in the highest elevations, single-leaf pinyon, big sagebrush and Utah juniper. Rare plants in the area include fernleaf fleabane (Erigeron compactus), a native perennial wildflower, and Mormon needlegrass (Achnatherum aridum), a native perennial that grows in Joshua Tree and Pinyon-juniper woodland communities.
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