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The Emigrant Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA. It is bordered by Yosemite National Park on the south, the Toiyabe National Forest on the east, and California State Highway 108 on the north. It is an elongated area that trends northeast about 25 miles (40 km) in length and up to 15 miles (24 km) in width. Watersheds drain to the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers. This area is entirely within Tuolumne County, California and is approximately 140 miles (225 km) east of San Francisco, California and 50 miles (80 km) south of Lake Tahoe.
The Emigrant Wilderness is a glaciated landscape of great scenic beauty. The northeastern third of the Wilderness is dominated by volcanic ridges and peaks; the remaining areas consist of many sparsely vegetated, granitic ridges interspersed with numerous lakes and meadows. Elevations range from below 5000 feet (1500 m) near Cherry Reservoir to 11,570 feet (3526 m) at Leavitt Peak, but the elevation range of most of the popular areas is 7500 to 9000 feet (2300 to 2900 m). Precipitation averages 50 inches (1300 mm) annually, 80 % of it in the form of snow. Snowpacks typically linger into June, sometimes later following very wet winters. Summers are generally dry and mild, but afternoon thundershowers occur periodically and nighttime temperatures could dip below freezing anytime.
Various native peoples occupied this area for 10,000 years, spending the summer and early autumn hunting in the high country and trading with groups from the eastern side of the Sierra. The most recent groups were the Miwok of the western slope and Piute of the Great Basin. Following the discovery of gold in 1848, large numbers of miners and settlers came to the Sierra and the native cultures quickly declined. In September-October 1852, the Clark-Skidmore party became the first emigrant group to travel the West Walker route over Emigrant Pass, continuing through a portion of the present-day Emigrant Wilderness. Several more emigrant parties were enticed by officials from Sonora to use this route in 1853, but it was a very difficult passage with many hardships and was soon abandoned. Relief Valley was so named because of the assistance some emigrants received there from residents of the Sonora area.
In 1931, the United States Forest Service designated this area for primitive management as the Emigrant Basin Primitive Area. On January 41975, the Emigrant Basin Primitive Area was designated as the Emigrant Wilderness.
