#conservationlands15 Social Media Takeover, November, Top 15 Places to View Wildlife on National Conservation Lands
The King Range National Conservation Area (NCA) encompasses 68,000 acres along 35 miles of California’s dramatic north coast. Here, the landscape was too rugged for highway building, forcing State Highway 1 inland. This remote region of mountains and seascapes is known as California’s Lost Coast and is accessible only by a few back roads. It is the Nation's first NCA, designated in 1970.
Offshore rocks, tidepools and kelp beds are inhabited by seals, sea lions and a variety of marine birds. California grey whales can be spotted offshore in winter and spring. The mountains are a mix of Douglas-fir forest, chaparral and grassland, providing habitat for black-tailed deer and black bear. A herd of Roosevelt elk roams the area from Chemise Mountain south into Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Curiously, although this is the wettest spot in California, hot dry summer winds make the King Range too dry to support the redwood forests that surround it on three sides.
Nearly 300 species of native and migratory birds have been spotted in the King Range making it a birders paradise. The old-growth forest is important habitat for the northern spotted owl, bald eagle, and Cooper’s hawk.
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM
#conservationlands15 Social Media Takeover, November, Top 15 Places to View Wildlife on National Conservation Lands
The King Range National Conservation Area (NCA) encompasses 68,000 acres along 35 miles of California’s dramatic north coast. Here, the landscape was too rugged for highway building, forcing State Highway 1 inland. This remote region of mountains and seascapes is known as California’s Lost Coast and is accessible only by a few back roads. It is the Nation's first NCA, designated in 1970.
Offshore rocks, tidepools and kelp beds are inhabited by seals, sea lions and a variety of marine birds. California grey whales can be spotted offshore in winter and spring. The mountains are a mix of Douglas-fir forest, chaparral and grassland, providing habitat for black-tailed deer and black bear. A herd of Roosevelt elk roams the area from Chemise Mountain south into Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Curiously, although this is the wettest spot in California, hot dry summer winds make the King Range too dry to support the redwood forests that surround it on three sides.
Nearly 300 species of native and migratory birds have been spotted in the King Range making it a birders paradise. The old-growth forest is important habitat for the northern spotted owl, bald eagle, and Cooper’s hawk.
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM