Emigrant Wilderness

Emigrant Wilderness is a formally designated wilderness area in the Stanislaus National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada of California, in the United States, in Tuolumne County about 140 miles east of San Francisco. It borders Yosemite National Park to the south and the Toiyabe National Forest and Hoover Wilderness to the east, and extends roughly 25 miles northeast and up to 15 miles wide. First protected as the Emigrant Basin Primitive Area in 1931 and formally designated a wilderness on January 4, 1975, it covers 112,277 acres of glaciated terrain, with volcanic ridges in its northeastern third and granitic ridges, lakes and meadows elsewhere, and elevations ranging from below 5,000 feet near Cherry Reservoir to 11,570 feet at Leavitt Peak. Annual precipitation averages 50 inches, most of it falling as snow that often lingers into June. It is managed by the United States Forest Service.