Marble Mountain Wilderness

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Marble Mountain Wilderness

Marble Mountain Wilderness is a large, protected area in northern California. It sits in the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County, about 60 miles southwest of Yreka. The U.S. Forest Service manages it.

Size and history
- The wilderness covers about 241,744 acres (978 square kilometers).
- It started as Marble Mountain Primitive Area in 1931 and became a federally designated wilderness in 1964 under the Wilderness Act.
- The name comes from the light-colored limestone and dark metamorphic rocks that give some peaks a marble-like look. The main area sits in the Klamath Mountains, with Marble Mountain as a north-south spur of the Salmon Mountains. The highest point is Boulder Peak, at 8,299 feet.

What you’ll find there
- The landscape features deep canyons, high ridges, and big changes in elevation, with more than 7,000 feet of relief.
- There are about 89 lakes and two major Wild and Scenic Rivers: Wooley Creek and the North Fork Salmon River. The Pacific Crest Trail runs through the area for about 32 miles.
- Elevations range from 400 feet to 8,299 feet.

Plants and animals
- Common wildlife includes black-tailed deer and black bears; badgers and wolverines are rarer.
- Birds you might see include the great gray owl, northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, and bald eagle (the last two are no longer federally listed as threatened).
- Subalpine fir groves grow at high elevations in areas like Sky High Lakes Basin, Shelly Meadow, and Deep Lake.
- The wilderness has rare wildflowers that grow in serpentine soils, such as crested cinquefoil, Siskiyou fireweed, and McDonald’s rockcress (an endangered plant).

Caves and recreation
- The area has several caves with stalactites and flowstone. They’re often accessed only by experienced cavers because many are deep and hard to reach.
- Bigfoot Cave is one of the deepest caves in the continental United States.
- White-nose syndrome warnings are posted at some trailheads.
- Recreation includes fishing, backpacking, and cross-country skiing. There are several Forest Service campgrounds nearby, and one inside the wilderness near Wooley Creek called Anthony Milne Camp.