About the Redwood Coast Geotourism Project
The Redwood Coast MapGuide is a collaborative project that combines the National Geographic Society's map-making expertise with local communities' knowledge and enthusiasm to highlight the region's unique values. It depends on input from people like you who have learned to appreciate the Redwood Coast by exploring it.
Photo © Lake County Marketing Program
The project involves a region of exceptional diversity, from San Francisco Bay to Oregon. In the south, redwood groves mingle with farm valleys and ranchlands. Northward, ancient forest reigns in Redwood State and National Parks, where redwoods over a thousand years old and 300 feet tall grow with other giant trees.
Inland lies Clear Lake, the largest freshwater body within California. The snowy crests of the Coast Range and Klamath Mountains form the eastern boundary. Natural habitats range from coastal cliffs and estuarine salt marshes, to hilly oak woodlands and river canyons, to alpine forests and meadows.
Photo © Cate Hawthorne/Visit Mendocino
Natural wealth has engendered cultural richness. Indigenous societies are among the most diverse in America, and their ancient traditions continue on tribal lands called rancherias. Spanish missionaries and Russian fur traders left a presence. New residents arrived from around the world during mining and logging "boom times" and when the region became a focus of the 1960s "counter culture."
