Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Owens Peak Wilderness Boundary?

This 4WD road has been open until recently...

I rode up it a couple of years ago (and a bunch more since) and wondered why it was open since it's not included as a cherry stem in the wilderness description. It provided easy access to Heller Rocks and the east face of John Backus Peak (upper-center of photo).

Kind of bummed that it's closed now. Anybody know the story behind why it was left open for so long and now closed? (I think it was mid-90's when this became wilderness?)

Could it be related to all of the road designation work that is going on in all forests?
A lot of old roads/routes are getting closed by that process.

I don't know where that is, but here is a BLM page w/topos
BLM Owens Peak Page

Yeah, I've seen all of that...

Them trying to catch up on all the wilderness boundary markings would seem to make sense... There was a wilderness sign over near the Walker Pass Road that made no sense at all. I'll bet I was one of the few people to ever see it. It was one of those "what the heck?" moments as I saw it while trying to get a wire fence out of the frame while taking a photograph. It was recently moved.

This is the 4WD road heading up between points 55 and 56 in the legal description for anybody who doesn't know which road I was talking about in my original post.

I've been checking the wilderness legal descriptions every time I run across a road/trail that isn't marked and seems suspect. (I see a lot of vandalism by the people pissed off about the wilderness closures.) Can't say that I'm not guilty of riding them if they aren't marked. Thus, my comment about being bummed that this one is fenced now. I had been hoping that somehow it changed status and was an additional cherry stem in the wilderness. It did provide real easy access to some fun riding/hiking/climbing/wildflower viewing terrain. It's a long walk in now...