The Sonoma Mountains are a northwest–southeast trending

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...

of the

Inner Coast Ranges The Inner Coast Ranges are a long mountain range subsystem of the California Coast Ranges, running generally north–south in western California, from Santa Barbara County north to the Klamath Mountains system. Geography The term ''inner'' is a re ...

in the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. ...

System, located in Sonoma County, Northern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Geography

The Sonoma Mountains range is approximately long. It separates the

Sonoma Creek , name_etymology = , image = Beaver Dam Sonoma Creek, Sonoma Thanksgiving 2009.jpg , image_caption = Beaver dam on Sonoma Creek at Maxwell Farms Regional Park in Sonoma, California, 2009 , image_size = 300 , ma ...

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

from the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds. The highest point of this range is

Sonoma Mountain Sonoma Mountain is a prominent landform within the Sonoma Mountains of southern Sonoma County, California. At an elevation of , Sonoma Mountain offers expansive views of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sonoma Valley to the east. In fact, ...

, elevation . Jack London State Historic Park,

Crane Creek Regional Park Crane Creek Regional Park is a regional park east of Rohnert Park, California, U.S.A. which is maintained by the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department. It covers an area of Crane Creek Regional Park guide, Sonoma County Regional Parks. at . The ...

, and the Fairfield Osborn Preserve are both on Sonoma Mountain. A number of

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of '' critical depe ...

and

endangered species 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 inv ...

are found in the Sonoma Mountains including the fragrant fritillary (''Fritillaria liliacea'').

Hydrology

Many creeks rise in the Sonoma Mountains. From the northwestern slopes, Copeland Creek and

Hinebaugh Creek Hinebaugh Creek (Latitude: 38.35; Longitude:-122.73) is a westward-flowing stream in western Sonoma County within the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. As this watercourse proceeds westerly through the city of Rohnert Park, it has largely been chan ...

flow to the

Laguna de Santa Rosa The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a wetland complex that drains a watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, United States. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued a safe eati ...

, eventually entering the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

just south of Jenner, California. Matanzas Creek and Spring Creek flow north into

Santa Rosa Creek Santa Rosa Creek is a 22-mile-long (35 km) stream in Sonoma County, California, which rises on Hood Mountain and discharges to the Laguna de Santa Rosa by way of the Santa Rosa Flood Control Channel. This article covers both the creek and t ...

, another tributary of the Laguna. Tributaries of

rise on the eastern exposures of the Sonoma Mountains: Yulupa Creek, Carriger Creek, Graham Creek, Felder Creek, and Rogers Creek. These eventually enter

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep wate ...

south of Sonoma, California. The southwestern slopes drain to

by other routes: either Tolay Creek or else some tributary of the Petaluma River such as Lichau Creek,

Lynch Creek Lynch Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 9, 2011 stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which discharges into the Petaluma River. Course Lynch ...

, or Adobe Creek.

References

External links

{{Authority control California Coast Ranges Mountain ranges of Sonoma County, California Mountain ranges of the San Francisco Bay Area Mountain ranges of Northern California

Geography

Hydrology

See also

References

External links