Nearly 1 million acres of unique landscape

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. Learn More About the Forest

North Coast Ranges of California

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.

Ranger Districts

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: the 37,679-acre Snow Mountain Wilderness, the 147,070-acre Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, the 53,887 acre Yuki Wilderness, and the 10,571 acre Sanhedrin Wilderness.

Water and Vegetation

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.

Wildlife

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.

Lake Pillsbury

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. The Yolla Bolly - Middle Eel Wilderness Area is shared by the Covelo and Grindstone Ranger Districts as well as the Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests and the Bureau of Land Management. The Snow Mountain Wilderness Area is shared by the Grindstone and Upper Lake Ranger Districts. Travel times to the major trail heads range from 3 to 6 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area, including 1 to 2 hours on dirt roads. Both the Grindstone and Upper Lake Ranger Districts manage a system of off-highway vehicle trails that are recognized by users and environmentalists as a model for quality, environmentally-sound off-highway vehicle recreation.

Clear Lake

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, home to lush forests of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii ssp. menziesii). 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.