![San Rafael Wilderness CA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/San_Rafael_Wilderness_CA.jpg)
The San Rafael Wilderness is a
wilderness area
Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...
in the mountains of north central
Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.
Santa Barba ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States. It is north of the city of
Santa Barbara and east of
Santa Maria within the
Los Padres National Forest
Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California, southern and central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast ...
. Formed in 1968, it was the first wilderness area to be created from a previously designated
Primitive Area
A Primitive Area is a land designation previously used by the United States Forest Service. Although there are still lands with this title, most are now known as wilderness areas.
The Forest Service began this new designation in 1929 with the L- ...
after the passage of the 1964
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 () was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a lon ...
. It also includes the Sisquoc
Condor
Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.
They are:
* The Andean condor (''Vult ...
Sanctuary, created in 1937, which is the oldest designated sanctuary for the large
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
birds.
Geography
Most of the wilderness lies between the crests of two parallel mountain ranges, the
San Rafael Mountains
The San Rafael Mountains are a mountain range in central Santa Barbara County, California, U.S., separating the drainages of the Santa Ynez River and the Santa Maria River. They are part of the Transverse Ranges system of Southern California ...
and
Sierra Madre Mountains, and includes the drainages of two watercourses: the Sisquoc River and Manzana Creek. Both flow to the northwest, eventually joining together and draining into the ocean near Santa Maria. Elevations within the wilderness vary from at the confluence of Manzana Creek and the Sisquoc River on the western boundary, to over at
Big Pine Mountain
Big Pine Mountain is a mountain located in the San Rafael Mountains of the California Transverse Ranges. High enough to receive snowfall during the winter,
The summit, at 6800+ feet (2,074+ m), is the highest point in the San Rafael Mou ...
, the highest point in Santa Barbara County. Dividing the drainages of the Manzana and Sisquoc is a ridge known as Hurricane Deck, a rugged slab of upthrust
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
with a trail snaking along the top.
Rock formations in the wilderness are predominantly
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...
, and are of
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
and
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
age. Both the Nacimiento and Big Pine Faults run through the wilderness, roughly parallelling the Sierra Madre and San Rafael Mountain crests respectively. Hurricane Deck is a single block of Miocene-age sedimentary rock. Immediately south of the wilderness, opposite the Big Pine and Camuesa Faults, is a large region of the
Franciscan Formation
The Franciscan Complex or Franciscan Assemblage is a geologic term for a late Mesozoic terrane of heterogeneous rocks found throughout the California Coast Ranges, and particularly on the San Francisco Peninsula. It was named by geologist Andrew ...
.
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
was formerly mined in this area, and abandoned mines along with tailings piles can be found.
Climate
The climate of the wilderness is
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
, although the distance from the coast allows for cooler winters and hotter summers than are found in the coastal strip. Snow is common on the higher peaks in the winter, although it rarely lingers except on north-facing slopes. Rain is extremely rare in the summer, and dry lightning from the occasional thunderstorms can start fires.
Vegetation and wildlife
The typical vegetation in the wilderness is
chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...
and
oak woodland
An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...
, although there are stands of pine and fir at higher elevations and on north-facing slopes, as well as
riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...
forests in the streams. The river valleys open out in a few places to allow for meadows and
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s; these are the locations that were settled in the 19th century. Wildlife that may be encountered in the wilderness includes coyotes, black bears, and mountain lions. The California condor can occasionally be seen, since the endangered bird was released back into the wild in 1992. The Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary, in the southeastern part of the wilderness, was chosen for its inaccessible terrain, which includes rock ledges favored by condors for nesting sites. Public entry is prohibited in the Sanctuary.
History
The region has been continuously inhabited by humans for over 10,000 years. Rock art by the resident
Chumash Indians
The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu ...
is scattered across the region; locations of rock paintings are generally not made public for fear of vandalism.
In the 1880s, a group of about 200
faith healer
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...
s, led by
Hiram Preserved Wheat
Hiram may refer to:
People
* Hiram (name)
Places
* Hiram, Georgia
** Hiram High School, Hiram, Georgia
* Hiram, Maine
* Hiram, Missouri
* Hiram, Ohio
** Hiram College, a private liberal arts college located in Hiram, Ohio
***Hiram Terriers, th ...
(1822–1903), settled along the Sisquoc River in about 20 separate homesteads. The ruins of their habitations, including the "Manzana Schoolhouse," can be seen to the present day. At the time, they were mistakenly called "
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
s," and the error has been preserved in the name of one campsite along the Sisquoc River in the central part of the wilderness. They built the schoolhouse in 1893, but by 1902 it was closed, and most of the group had left. After the faith healers had left, another settler, Charles Dabney, built a cabin for himself and his family in 1914; it can be seen on a terrace above Manzana Creek.
The wilderness is often closed to entry during fire season, the exact dates of which vary but usually include the late summer and early fall. Most of the wilderness was burned in the 1966 Wellman Fire, and during July, August, and September 2007, the western, southern, and eastern parts of the wilderness were burned for the first time in 41 years (for the western portion) and for more than 100 years (for the remainder), in the
Zaca Fire
The Zaca Fire was a wildfire that began burning in the San Rafael Mountains, northeast of the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. It was also the single largest wildfire of the 2007 California wildfire season. The fire started ...
At its creation in 1968 the San Rafael Wilderness consisted of only . Originally it was the San Rafael Primitive Area. Due to a disagreement between the Forest Service, US Congress and conservationists over of natural grass openings called ''portreros'', which contained pictographs from the Chumash Indians, it took a long time for the wilderness designation.
[Godfrey, Anthony ''The Ever-Changing View-A History of the National Forests in California'' USDA Forest Service Publishers, 2005 pp 444-5] In 1992, after the passage of the Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act, Congress added an additional adjacent to the original area on the northwest. The wilderness is also adjacent to the
Dick Smith Wilderness
The Dick Smith Wilderness is a wilderness area in the mountains of eastern Santa Barbara County, California, United States, with a portion in Ventura County, California, Ventura County. It is completely contained within the Los Padres National ...
to the east; this protected area was created in 1984.
References
* Gagnon, Dennis R. ''Hiking the Santa Barbara Backcountry.'' The Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena, California, 1974.
* Charles W. Jennings and Rudolph G. Strand. ''Geologic Map of California, Los Angeles Sheet.'' State of California, Division of Mines and Geology. 1969.
Notes
External links
Wildernesses within the Los Padres National ForestDescription at Wilderness.net
{{Authority control
Los Padres National Forest
Wilderness areas of California
San Rafael Mountains
Protected areas of Santa Barbara County, California
Protected areas established in 1968
1968 establishments in California