Ukiah Valley is a valley located in Mendocino County, California, United States. It contains the Mendocino County seat of Ukiah. It also is home to the unincorporated towns of Redwood Valley, Calpella, Potter Valley and Talmage. Lake Mendocino and the headwaters of the Russian River are located in the greater Ukiah valley. The river flows southeast through the valley, passing through a rocky constriction into the

Sanel Valley The Sanel Valley in Mendocino County, California is a valley along the Russian River containing the town of Hopland. The river flows through the valley for approximately from the northeast (where it connects from its headwaters and the Ukiah Val ...

to the south. While part of the greater Ukiah area, Willits is located to the north of the Ukiah Valley in Little Lake Valley, part of the Eel River drainage basin. It is connected to the Ukiah Valley by U.S. Route 101 over

Ridgewood Summit Ridgewood Summit is a low mountain pass in Mendocino County, California, traversed by U.S. Route 101 at an altitude of . It crosses the Mendocino Range, connecting Ukiah and the watershed of the Russian River, on the south of the pass, to Willit ...

. Linguistically, "Ukiah Valley" is redundant: "Ukiah" comes from the

Central Pomo Central Pomo is an extinct Pomoan language spoken in Northern California. Pre-contact speakers of all the Pomoan languages have been estimated at 8,000 all together. This estimation was from the American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. "The Cent ...

word ''yokaya'', meaning 'south valley'. The northern part of the valley was originally inhabited by the Northern Pomo, while the southern part was inhabited by the

. The Central Pomo village of Yokaia, south of Ukiah, existed until the 20th century.

References

Valleys of Mendocino County, California Valleys of California {{MendocinoCountyCA-geo-stub