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).