2021 Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, Humboldt-Toiyabe NF

Designated wilderness in 1984 and managed today by both the Toiyabe and Stanislaus National Forests, the Carson-Iceberg includes both eastern and western slopes of the Sierra in its 161,181 acres. Though it lacks modern-day glaciers, the effect of glaciation is clear on its “Iceberg” namesake, a distinctive rock formation near Clark Fork Road on the wilderness’s southern boundary. The area is also characterized by a geologic anomaly – a series of volcanic peaks and ridges known as the Dardanelles. Climbing from 5,000 feet at Donnell Reservoir to the 11,400 foot Sonora Peak, the Carson-Iceberg contains comparatively few lakes but many deep river canyons lush with riparian vegetation. With almost a third of the precipitation of the wetter western slope, eastern plant life of pinon and juniper subsists on 15 inches of water a year with most of that falling as snow. Watersheds feed the Stanislaus River on the western side and the Carson River on the east, sustaining both the threatened Lahontan and sensitive Paiute trout species. Once the former mountain warfare training grounds of the U.S. Marine Corps, the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness, as well as the Carson River, draw their names from Kit Carson, one of America’s early western frontiersmen.