Though not far from Clear Lake, the Blue Lakes are of a different breed altogether. The two small lakes sit narrowly in the bottom of the steep and densely wooded Cold Creek Canyon. Considerably less eutrophic than Clear Lake, the Blue Lakes live up to their name much better than does Clear Lake. With only a few small resorts and no high-horsepower motorboats, the Blue Lakes are tranquil and serene.

At one time, before the Blue Lakes were formed, Clear Lake drained north through this valley to the Russian River. A few thousand years ago, a giant landslide from the west blocked off the valley, raising Clear Lake and forcing it to drain out of the Lower Arm into Cache Creek on the southern end, thus forming the Blue Lakes. Highway 20 climbs to the crest of the old landslide, and you can see the great scar on the hillside to the south-west that produced it. To get a closer look at these lakes, return on Blue Lakes Road.

The Blue Lakes slide tells part of the story of the Clear Lake and Russian River fish faunas. The Clear Lake Volcanics at some point in the last 100,000 years produced lava flows that dammed Cache Creek, causing Clear Lake to rise and flow through Cold Creek Canyon into the Russian River, where its Sacramento derived fishes colonized. The landslide later restored the outlet to Cache Creek by raising the lake level until it found its way across the lava flows. Clear Lake has thus left and rejoined the Sacramento Valley bioregion, rather recently on the geological time scale, a testimony to the dynamism of the earth.

Bicycling, boating, fishing, hiking, swimming, sailing, windsurfing, camping, etc.

Fishing: trout and largemouth bass, catfish & blue gill

Blue Lakes are located along Highway 20 and are accessible year-round.