Elevations range from 600 feet where the Big Sur River leaves the Wilderness to about 5,750 feet at the Wilderness boundary circumventing Junipero Serra Peak. Effects of uplifting and massive faulting provide panoramas of reoriented rock formations. Individual rock outcroppings provide a contrast with a landscape of woodlands and chaparral. Most streams originating in the Ventana fall rapidly through narrow vertical-walled canyons flowing on bedrock or a veneer of boulders. Waterfalls, deep pools and thermal springs are found along major streams.
Water is largely responsible for carving the mountains into their present conformation.
The watersheds of the Ventana Wilderness produce approximately 500,000 acre feet of water annually. Crossing creeks and rivers in the wilderness may be refreshingly cool in the summer and fall but can be very dangerous in the winter and spring. The Ventana Wilderness has a Mediterranean type climate with mild dry summers and cool wet winters. Precipitation falls primarily from November to April and ranges widely from 75 inches annually along the Coast Ridge near Cold Springs to less than 25 inches only a few miles inland. Snow occasionally falls at the higher elevations.