Sierra National Forest

Sierra National Forest covers about 1.3 million acres of the western Sierra Nevada in central California, filling the wild country between Yosemite and Kings Canyon national parks -- climbing from ~900-foot blue-oak foothills east of Fresno up to a nearly 14,000-foot alpine crest. It is a land of giant sequoia groves, a chain of high hydroelectric reservoirs, and roughly half a million acres of designated wilderness. Cool twist: some of its biggest "lakes" -- Huntington, Shaver, Florence, Edison -- are actually part of a century-old power system that reuses the same water down more than a mile of drop, an engineering feat Southern California Edison nicknamed "the hardest working water in the world."

The place

Sierra National Forest spreads across roughly 1.3 million acres of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in central California, plugging the gap between Yosemite National Park to the north and Kings Canyon to the south. It is a forest of enormous vertical range -- blue-oak and chaparral foothills around 900 feet climb through pine and fir up to a granite crest approaching 14,000 feet (Mount Humphreys, about 13,986 feet, is the forest's high point), so you can pass through three climates in a day. The high country holds close to half a million acres of designated wilderness, ancient giant sequoia groves, and a string of glittering reservoirs, while the San Joaquin River drains much of the range. It is one of the classic west-side gateways to the High Sierra, and a quieter, dirt-road alternative to the crowded parks on either side.

History

The forest traces back to the Sierra Forest Reserve, proclaimed on February 14, 1893 -- a huge original block that once stretched across a big chunk of the range. When the reserves became national forests and were reorganized around 1907-08, that giant reserve was carved into today's Sierra National Forest and neighboring units including Stanislaus, Inyo, and Sequoia. It was among the earliest national forests in California and, for a time, one of the largest. Long before that, this was home to Native peoples whose territories overlapped across the range -- the Western Mono (Monache) around the Bass Lake country, the Southern Sierra Miwok, and Chukchansi and other Yokuts groups in the foothills. One piece of archival flavor: the first commercial timber sale on a California national forest is said to have taken place here, back in 1899. In recent years the forest has also been reshaped by big wildfires -- the Railroad Fire in 2017 and the enormous Creek Fire in 2020 -- which changed access, campgrounds, and the look of the land across large areas.

Wildlife & plants

The forest's headliner among wildlife is the Pacific fisher -- the southern Sierra Nevada population is federally endangered, and this forest is important habitat for the shy, house-cat-sized weasel relative. You are far more likely to meet the everyday residents: black bears (hang your food), mule deer, coyotes, and mountain lions you will usually only read in tracks, plus Pacific marten and bobcat higher up. Bald eagles and ospreys work the bigger reservoirs. The forest also sits on the southern edge of the range of the great gray owl -- North America's southernmost population, most of which actually lives just north in Yosemite, so it is only rarely detected on the forest itself and a sighting is a genuine rarity. The lakes and streams are trout water -- rainbow, brown, and brook -- and the forest layers up by elevation through ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, incense cedar, red and white fir, and of course the giant sequoia.

Notable features

The forest's crown jewels are its giant sequoia groves: Nelder Grove near Oakhurst -- a quiet, dirt-road alternative to Yosemite's famous Mariposa Grove -- holds the Bull Buck Tree (once marketed as one of the world's biggest, and still a true giant) along with the even larger Nelder Tree, while McKinley Grove sits off in the Dinkey Creek country to the south. The high country is studded with reservoirs -- Bass, Huntington, Shaver, Florence, Lake Thomas A. Edison, Mammoth Pool, Wishon, and Courtright -- most of them part of the Big Creek hydroelectric system. Above them rise the jagged Minarets and peaks like Kaiser Peak (around 10,300 feet), all wrapped in five wilderness areas: large shares of the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses, plus the Kaiser and Dinkey Lakes wildernesses and part of Monarch. The John Muir and Pacific Crest trails thread the crest along the forest's eastern edge, reached from west-side portals like Florence and Edison lakes.

Cool to know

• Several of the forest's biggest lakes are not natural -- Huntington, Shaver, Florence, and Lake Thomas A. Edison are reservoirs in Southern California Edison's Big Creek hydroelectric system, which reuses the same water through a chain of powerhouses down more than a mile of vertical drop. Edison called it "the hardest working water in the world."
• Nelder Grove is the honest forester's answer to Yosemite's Mariposa Grove: the same kind of ancient giant sequoias, but reached by dirt roads with a fraction of the crowds. Its Bull Buck Tree was once promoted as one of the largest sequoias on earth -- newer measurements knock it well down the list, but it is still a genuine monster, and the nearby Nelder Tree is actually bigger.
• The forest is a three-climate sandwich. In a single day you can start in ~900-foot blue-oak foothills, roll up through pine and fir, and end on a granite crest approaching 14,000 feet.
• The Dusy-Ershim route -- a rugged, high-elevation four-wheel-drive trail -- runs through the forest and physically separates the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness from the John Muir Wilderness. It is one of the tougher backcountry OHV drives in the Sierra.
• Kaiser Pass Road is a legendary Sierra drive: a narrow, steep, seasonal mountain road that climbs to the wilderness trailhead lakes at Florence and Edison and the little resort at Mono Hot Springs.
• The forest is important habitat for the Pacific fisher, a rarely-seen forest carnivore whose southern Sierra population is federally endangered -- one of the real conservation stories that actually lives here, not just "somewhere in the Sierra."