Boundary Peak Wilderness Area

Of the 1,859,214 heavily-visited acres of the Inyo National Forest, a small portion (60,654 acres) lies in Nevada and the rest in California. On the Nevada side, one Wilderness exists, Boundary Peak, the state's smallest area. Boundary Peak itself, at 13,140 feet, attracts visitors primarily due to the fact that no point in Nevada stands higher. The peak overlooks, as might be expected, the California border, and rises above the White Mountains, a high and dry range from which colorful canyons descend eastward into desertland. Hiking up these precipitous canyons will often lead you to an abrupt end where waterfalls once carved the rock. Rising dramatically from the floor of Nevada, the mountains are comprised primarily of granite with an overlay with old sedimentary rock and exposed fossils dating back 600 million years. Boundary Peak and nearby Montgomery Peak pair up in an impressive massif from which the view can be grand.