Strawberry Mountain Wilderness is a wilderness area of the Strawberry Mountain Range , within Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of east Oregon . The area comprises 69,350 acres (28,060 ha), including mountain peaks and several lakes, and contains more than 125 miles (201 km) of hiking trails. Strawberry Mountain was designated wilderness under the Wilderness Act of 1964 , and in 1984 more than doubled in size with the passage of the Oregon Wilderness Act . It is managed by the United States Forest Service .
12-602: Strawberry Mountain Wilderness ranges in elevation from 4,000 feet (1,219 m) to 9,038 feet (2,755 m), at the summit of Strawberry Mountain , and contains five of the seven major life zones in North America . There are seven alpine lakes in the wilderness, including Strawberry Lake , High Lake, and Slide Lake. It also contains the headwaters of numerous streams , including Pine, Indian, Strawberry, Canyon, Bear, Lake, Wall, Roberts, and Big Creek. Strawberry Creek includes
24-434: A large number of larch trees, as well as spruce , fir , and pine forests. Common flowers in the Wilderness include buttercups , mariposa lily , shooting star , paintbrush , wild onion , yarrow , and western Jacob's ladder . Other abundant vegetation includes wild strawberry , grouseberry, thinleaf huckleberry , Oregon grape , swamp gooseberry , thimbleberry , and Sitka alder . Strawberry Mountain Wilderness
36-785: A mountain range in Grant County , Oregon , United States. An east–west range rising south of the John Day River valley, the mountains are bounded on the west by the South Fork John Day River , on the south by Murderers Creek and the Bear Valley, and the east by Canyon Creek. Most of the Aldrich Mountains and the mountainous terrain south of them are contained within the Malheur National Forest . The highest point in
48-614: Is home to at least 378 kinds of animals and 22 species of fish. These include Rocky Mountain elk , mule deer , antelope , black bear , cougar , mountain goat , bighorn sheep , ruffed and blue grouse , pileated woodpecker , sharp-shinned hawk , bald eagle , pine marten , mink , and beaver . Some species of fish in the Middle Fork of the Malheur River include bull trout , Great Basin redband trout , and rainbow trout . Strawberry Mountain (Oregon) Strawberry Mountain
60-642: Is the highest peak in the Strawberry Mountains of eastern Oregon in the United States. It is the 30th highest point in Oregon. It is in the Malheur National Forest and is the most prominent feature of the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness . The mountain, and nearby Strawberry Creek, were named by homesteader Nathan Willis Fisk "because there were wild strawberries in abundance there..." It
72-614: The 40-foot (12 m) Strawberry Falls. The basement geology of the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness is a Permian -age ophiolite complex consisting of a sequence of ultramafic, mafic, and silicic igneous rocks, interpreted to have formed as deep crustal rocks near an intra-oceanic island arc system. The sequence is distinctive from other Permo-Triassic ophiolite-type complexes in Western North America by its large volume of silicic intrusive and volcanic rocks. By
84-479: The greater Blue Mountain region. This intrusion was followed by periods of regional volcanism and erosion, representing the last 60 million years. Basalt deposits from the Columbia River Basalt Group almost entirely surround the base of Strawberry Mountain. The current edifice is made up of andesitic volcanic material erupted locally about 16 to 14 million years ago, a timeframe that overlaps with
96-528: The mid-Triassic, this complex had been heavily fragmented, uplifted, and overlain by Triassic-age oceanic sediments. All of these Permo-Triassic rocks were incorporated onto the western margin of North America by the mid- Cretaceous . Extensive Tertiary -age continental volcanic flows covered the region, and subsequent uplift and erosion has exposed the older basement. More recently, glaciation carved U-shaped valleys and hollowed out beds that today hold seven alpine lakes. Strawberry Mountain Wilderness contains
108-557: The most active period of the Columbia River Basalt Group. This material is typically referred to as the Strawberry Volcanics. Despite having a different chemical composition, some evidence shows that the Strawberry Volcanics are related to the Columbia River Basalt Group. About 100 km (24 mi ) of material is estimated to have erupted. Other volcanoes are believed to have existed near the Strawberry Volcanics around
120-861: The mountains. Some of these valleys hold alpine lakes. Much of the material eroded from Strawberry Mountain now lies as gravel in part of the John Day River Valley and is known as the Rattlesnake Formation. Overlying this gravel is a 100 feet (30 m) thick volcanic ash bed. The fossilized remains of several animals ranging from the Eocene to the Miocene are preserved within the Rattlesnake Formation, including several now-extinct species of horse such as Eohippus and Merychippus . [REDACTED] Media related to Strawberry Mountain at Wikimedia Commons Aldrich Mountains The Aldrich Mountains are
132-465: The same time period they were active. This region is inferred to have had similar topography to the Oregon Cascades today. Compression on the north-south axis occurred after these volcanoes became extinct. Erosion by streams and ice age glaciation exposed the inner workings of this volcano as well as early eruptive material. Glaciation also widened existing drainages to create U-shaped valleys into
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#1732852728254144-645: Was originally named "Strawberry Butte", but common usage changed it to Strawberry Mountain, which now appears on official maps. Strawberry Mountain lies atop a bed of volcanics and marine sediment deposited during the Early Jurassic period. This region was later accreted to the North American Plate . The granite that forms the nearby Aldrich Mountains intruded into that region during the Early Cretaceous period. That event formed gold veins throughout
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