Castle Crags Wilderness

About this campground

The Castle Crags Wilderness was established in 1984 with the passage of the California Wilderness Act. This 10,500 acre addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System, along with lands within Castle Crags State Park, contains towering granite spires, steep sided canyons, and a few alpine lakes. Most of the area is covered by high brushfields and rocky outcrops with a few wet meadows in the creek headwaters. Mixed conifer forests can be found on the north, east and west facing slopes. Geology Castle Crags is actually a part of the vast Klamath Mountains Geological Province that includes much of northwestern California and Southwestern Oregon. Rocks within the province consist predominantly of volcanic and sedimentary types. However, large granitic bodies called plutons intruded into many parts of the province during the Jurassic around 65 million years ago. Castle Crags is one of these plutons.