Mount Hilgard is a remote 13,361-foot Sierra Nevada summit in Fresno County, rising above Bear Creek and the west end of Lake Italy in the John Muir Wilderness. On Sierra National Forest land, it is one of California’s highest peaks and is commonly approached from the John Muir Trail along Bear Creek. Theodore Solomons named it for University of California, Berkeley professor Eugene W. Hilgard, a leading figure in modern soil science in the United States, after a suggestion in 1895 from Ernest C. Bonner. Its first recorded ascent was made on July 10, 1905, by USGS topographer Charles F. Urquhart, and its runoff ultimately reaches the San Joaquin River watershed.