About the Area
Mendocino National Forest straddles the eastern spur of the North Coast Range, a 3-hour drive north of San Francisco and Sacramento.
Some 65 miles long and 35 miles across, the forest's approximately 927,650 acres of mountains, canyons and foothills offer a variety of recreational opportunities—camping, hiking, backpacking, boating, fishing, hunting, nature study, photography, and off-highway vehicle travel.
Mendocino National Forest is the only California national forests that is not crossed by a paved road or highway. That makes it especially attractive to people seeking an outdoor experience of tranquility and solitude. The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument was established in 2015 and lies on the southern part of the forest.
Elevations in the Forest range from 750 feet in the Grindstone Creek Canyon in the Sacramento Valley foothills on the Forest's eastern edge to the 8,092 feet of South Yolla Bolly Mountain in the northern part of the Forest. The average elevation is about 4,000 feet.
Thousands of years before pioneer explorers from the eastern United States entered the area, five Native American peoples cultivated and lived off its bounty - the Yuki, Nomlaki Wintu, Patwin Wintu, Eastern Pomo, and Northeastern Pomo. Archaeological artifacts and records from more than 1,800 sites have told us a number of things about the distant past of these peoples, but we have much more to learn.
Between 1850 and 1900, many small sawmills operated within what are now the Forest Boundaries. Mining also played a role in the history of the area. Copper City and Pacific City, now just place names on the map, were mining communities before the turn of the century. Most mining activity was limited to exploration for copper in the late 1800s, completely disappearing before 1900. During World War II, responding to the needs of the war industry, miners re-entered the Forest to do exploratory digging for manganese and chrome.
The minerals that attracted most people, however, were the ones dissolved in waters of the Forest's gurgling, steaming hot springs. During the early 1900s, visitors would travel many miles to soak up the supposed health benefits of baths in several resorts and spas. You can see remains of three resort hotels, mineral baths, and a bottling plant for mineral water at Bartlett Flats. Fouts Springs, Hough Springs, and Allen Springs also boasted popular resort facilities, although little evidence of their buildings remains.
First set aside as a "forest reserve" by President Roosevelt on February 6, 1907, it was originally named the Stony Creek Forest Reserve and later the California National Forest on July 1, 1908. This designation proved to be confusing with relation to the state itself, and President Herbert Hoover renamed it the Mendocino National Forest on July 12, 1932. Mendocino takes its name from Mendocino County which was named for Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County. In 1542 explorer Roderiques de Cabrillo named the cape in honor of Don Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain.
The North Coast Ranges of California are a section of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, which run parallel to the Pacific Coast from north of San Francisco Bay to the South Fork Mountains of northern Humboldt County.
The Klamath-Siskiyou Ranges lie to the north, and the Southern Coast Ranges continue south of San Francisco Bay. The North Coast Ranges run north-south parallel to the coast, and include the King Range of Humboldt County, where the coastal mountains meet the sea dramatically on what is called California's Lost Coast. Component ranges within the North Coast Ranges include the Mendocino Range and the Mayacmas, Sonoma, and Vaca Mountains and the Marin Hills of the North Bay.
The North Coast Ranges consist of two main parallel belts of mountains, one lying along the coast, the other running further inland. They are separated by a long valley, the northern portion of which is drained by the Eel River and its tributaries, and the southern by the Russian River. A series of short rivers, including the Mattole, Gualala, and Navarro rivers, drain the western slopes of the range. The eastern slope of the North Coast Ranges drains into the California Central Valley.
The Mendocino is divided into three ranger districts: Covelo, Grindstone, and Upper Lake. The Forest also manages two units that are located outside the Forest boundaries: the Chico Seed Orchard and the Red Bluff Recreation Area. The Mendocino partly or wholly manages four wilderness areas: Snow Mountain Wilderness, Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, Yuki Wilderness and the Sanhedrin Wilderness.
Grindstone Ranger District has both the highest and lowest points on the Forest (Mount Linn, in the Yolla Bolly - Middle Eel Wilderness at 8,092 feet and Grindstone Creek at 720 feet as it leaves the Forest). It also shares the other two Districts' highest points.
Covelo Ranger District's highest point is Solomon Peak (7,581 feet) in the Yolla Bolly - Middle Eel Wilderness on the District Boundary with Grindstone Ranger District; the lowest points are at 1,480 feet, where the Middle Fork Eel and Black Butte Rivers leave the Forest near their confluence.
Upper Lake Ranger District's highest point is Snow Mountain West (7,038 feet) in the Snow Mountain Wilderness, on the District Boundary with Grindstone Ranger District; the lowest point is 1,480 feet, where Elk Creek leaves the Forest.
All of the Ranger Districts have a wide variety of wildflowers that bloom at various times through spring and summer: California poppy, penstemon, shooting stars, wild iris, milkweed, Indian paintbrush, buttercups, dogwood, wild lilac, and many varieties of lupine. Vegetation types include mixed conifer forests, oak woodlands and savannah, chaparral, annual and perennial grass glades, and wet meadows.
The Districts also share many species of wildlife in common, including black-tailed deer, black bear, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, skunk, jackrabbits, opossum, badger, gray squirrel, ground squirrel, rattlesnakes, gopher snakes, lizards, toads, pacific tree frog, quail, wild turkey, blue grouse, golden eagle, spotted owl, goshawk, prairie falcon, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, turkey buzzard, scrub jays, woodpeckers and a variety of migratory water and song birds. Upper Lake Ranger District has a small population of tule elk. Salmon and steelhead spawn in streams of the Covelo and Upper Lake Ranger Districts, and rainbow trout, western pond turtle and yellow-legged frog live in and around many of the streams of each of the three Districts.
The Mendocino's waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, westward through the Eel River system or eastward through the Sacramento River system and into the San Francisco Bay. Vegetation types include mixed conifer forests, oak woodlands and savannah, chaparral, annual and perennial grass glades, and wet meadows. The Forest also provides habitat for several Forest Service sensitive plants.
Lake Pillsbury, the only sizable lake on the Mendocino, is a popular attraction on Upper Lake Ranger District. Howard and Hammerhorn Lakes on Covelo Ranger District, and Letts and Plaskett Lakes on Grindstone Ranger District range in size from 3 to 35 acres, and are locally popular for camping and fishing.
Clear Lake lies in the southeast portion of the range and drains eastward via Cache Creek. The rivers of the north coast ranges are home to several species of salmon. The seaward face of the coastal mountains is part of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion. The drier inland portion is part of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion and is home to a number of plant communities, including mixed evergreen forest, oak woodland, and chaparral.
The forest is home to many species of wildlife and fish. Management and public interest focus on special status and game species. The Mendocino's special status species include federally listed threatened or endangered (such as northern spotted owl, summer steelhead and salmon) and Forest Service sensitive (such as goshawk, pacific marten and yellow-legged frog). Game species include black tail deer, black bear and several bird species. Upper Lake Ranger District has a small population of tule elk, making the Mendocino one of only two national forests in California with tule elk.