Inyo National Forest. Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. It is represented in art primarily through its breathtaking and diverse natural landscapes, which include towering Sierra Nevada mountains, ancient bristlecone pines, serene alpine lakes, and expansive desert regions. Artists often emphasize the forest’s dramatic contrasts between rugged peaks, tranquil valleys, and the stark beauty of desert plains. The forest's iconic bristlecone pines, some of the oldest living trees on Earth, are a common subject, symbolizing endurance and time. Paintings, photographs, and other visual art capture the play of light and shadow on the mountains, the clarity of the forest's lakes, and the wide, open spaces, often evoking a sense of solitude and majesty that characterizes the American wilderness. This representation celebrates both the raw beauty and the ecological significance of Inyo National Forest. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States; Boundary Peak, the highest point in Nevada; and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, which protects the oldest living trees in the world. The forest, encompassing much of the Owens Valley, was established by Theodore Roosevelt as a way of sectioning off land to accommodate the Los Angeles Aqueduct project in 1907, making the Inyo National Forest one of the least wooded forests in the U.S. National Forest system. The forest covers 1,903,381 acres and includes nine designated wilderness areas which protect over 800,000 acres. Most of the forest is in California, but it includes about 60,700 acres in western Nevada. It stretches from the eastern side of Yosemite to south of Sequoia National Park. Geographically it is split in two, one on each side of the Long Valley Caldera and Owens Valley. The John Muir Wilderness is a part of the Inyo National Forest and abuts Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park along the crest of the Sierra. The northern part of the Inyo National Forest is preserved as a part of the Ansel Adams Wilderness area, which borders Yosemite National Park. Together, the wilderness areas and parks form one contiguous area of protected wilderness of more than 1.5 million acres. The Inyo National Forest was named after Inyo County, California, in which much of the forest resides. The name Inyo comes from a Native American word meaning dwelling place of the great spirit. The forest spans parts of Inyo, Mono, Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties in California, and Esmeralda and Mineral counties in Nevada. The forest's headquarters are in Bishop, California, with ranger district offices in Bishop, Lee Vining, Lone Pine, and Mammoth Lakes. The forest was established on May 25, 1907. On July 1, 1945, land from the former Mono National Forest was added.