Ventana Wilderness

The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesignated the 87.2-square-mile (226-square-kilometer) Ventana Primitive Area as the Ventana Wilderness and added land, totalling 153 mi2 (400 km2). In 1978, the Endangered American Wilderness Act added 95 mi2 (250 km2), increasing the total wilderness area to about 248 mi2 (640 km2). The California Wilderness Act of 1984 added about 4.3 mi2 (11 km2). The Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act of 1992 created the approximately 23-square-mile (60-square-kilometer) Silver Peak Wilderness and added about 60.6 mi2 (157 km2) to the Ventana Wilderness in addition to designating the Big Sur River as a Wild and Scenic River. The Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act of 2002 expanded the wilderness for the fifth time, adding nearly 55 mi2 (140 km2), increasing the total acreage of the wilderness to its present size of 375 mi2 (970 km2).