BLM Dispatch #8 - Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
Building on my last dispatch from the Cache Creek Natural Area, we now move to its next door neighbor: the massive 344,476-acre Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
Designated by President Obama in 2015 and named for its two geographic anchors — Berryessa Peak in the south and Snow Mountain to the north — this monument forms a stunning hundred-mile corridor through California’s Inner Coast Ranges, with elevations ranging from near sea level to over 7,000 feet. The U.S. Forest Service oversees the northern half; the Bureau of Land Management stewards the southern stretch, including Molok Luyuk, a sacred ridge newly added in 2023. That addition is now co-stewarded by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
I’ve visited Berryessa many times over the past several years, but one of the most memorable trips came in April 2022, when I set out with two of my sisters for a half marathon day hike into the Cache Creek Wilderness, one of the Monument’s most remote and rewarding corners…
—
