Middle Mountain is an 8,337-foot summit in California’s Sierra Nevada within Desolation Wilderness west of Lake Tahoe. Set amid exposed granite, forests, and alpine waters, it rises between the Crystal Range and Rockbound Valley and the Lake Tahoe-Emerald Bay country. Its rugged character comes from granodiorite and other intrusive igneous rock formed in the Mesozoic as part of the Sierra Nevada batholith, with nearby valleys and cirques later carved by Ice Age glaciation. The peak is reached mainly by hikers and backpackers using nearby wilderness trails, including connections to the Pacific Crest Trail, and remains part of a federally protected backcountry landscape prized for scenery.