A high Great Basin wilderness of limestone plateaus, ancient pines, and quiet Snake Range ridges in eastern Nevada.
Mount Moriah Wilderness
The Mount Moriah Wilderness is a large federally protected wilderness area in the northern Snake Range of eastern Nevada, spanning the high country between Snake Valley to the east and Spring Valley to the west. Encompassing roughly 89,790 acres, it is anchored by the 12,050-foot peak of Mount Moriah and the broad, distinctive flat-topped plateau known as the Table that stretches north and west of the summit at about 11,000 feet.
The wilderness protects a classic Intermountain landscape, rising from sagebrush and pinyon-juniper foothills through stands of ponderosa pine, aspen, mountain mahogany, white fir, Douglas fir, and limber pine, up to high-elevation groves of ancient bristlecone pine. Limestone bedrock shapes much of the terrain and gives the area its shallow caves, while perennial creeks such as Hampton, Hendry's, and Smith Creek sustain trout populations and a network of riparian habitats that support deer, bighorn sheep, and upland game birds.
Designated in 1989 and administered jointly by the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Mount Moriah Wilderness is valued not only for its scenery and ecosystems but also for its archaeology, including Native American cave sites, pictographs, and lithic scatters that reflect long human use of this remote corner of the Great Basin.