High Rock Lake Wilderness

High Rock Lake Wilderness in Nevada protects the northern Calico Hills and a landscape shaped by major geologic change. About 11,800 years ago, a rockslide blocked Box Canyon at High Rock and Little High Rock Canyons, forming High Rock Lake. Water then cut a new path through Fly Canyon toward Soldier Meadows, where stream-driven sand and gravel created distinctive potholes. Ranging from about 4,000 to 7,660 feet in elevation, the area has sparse saltbrush and sagebrush vegetation. It also preserves the Fly Slide on the Applegate-Lassen Trail, where emigrants lowered wagons by rope into Fly Canyon, linking the wilderness to western migration history.

Gerlach, Nevada · United States