Medicine Lake Highlands / Sáttítla Highlands National Monument
The development of a broad shield volcano formed the Medicine Lake Highlands. When the center block happened to fall along the fractured lines it created an enclosed basin 6 miles long by 4 miles wide. Rim volcanoes were then formed from lava being squeezed up the fracture lines. The volcanoes then let out lava onto the caldera floor and falling over the edges of the original lake Highlands. The rim volcanoes are still easily seen, some of which are Mt. Hoffman, Medicine Mountain, Badger Peak, Grouse Hill, Red Shale Butte, Glass Mountain, and Lyons Peak.
Medicine Lake Highlands foliage is comprised of sugar pine, red and white fir and at higher elevations lodgepole pine with an understory of bitterbrush, manzanita and snowbrush. You will not be able to access Medicine Lake from mid-November through mid-June because the weather will not allow. About 10 feet of snow is dropped and only snow vehicles and cross country skiers are allowed in. There is a snowmobile park called The Doorknob Snowmobile Park that is located 1.5 miles south of Lava Beds National Monument. The Snow Park has a parking lot, warming hut and bathrooms. There is a total of 200 miles of trails in all three neighboring National Forests. Please download a trail map.
One of North America’s most unique geological areas is Medicine Lake Highlands which covers over 200 square miles. The most interesting volcanic formations in the Medicine Lake Highlands is the Glass Mountain Obsidian Flow. Medicine Lake has no known outlets and water is still clean and clear. Medicine Lake lies in the volcanic caldera in the largest shield volcano in North America.
In January of 2025, the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California was designated. The monument encompasses 224,676 acres of varied habitat of Siskiyou County on the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath national forests and provides protection to tribal ancestral homelands, historic and scientific treasures, rare flora and fauna, and the headwaters of vital sources of water.
This area is also home to the massive Medicine Lake Volcano. This volcano, one of the two largest volcanos in the Cascades Volcanic Arc, covers an expanse roughly 10 times that of Mount St. Helens, Washington. These stunning and unusual lands have been known as “Sáttítla” in the Ajumawi language, which translates to “obsidian place.” Sáttítla’s obsidian deposits formed by the volcano have long been important to Indigenous peoples, as shown by obsidian tools and sites they left here from their lives and travels.
In addition to the amazing geology, the night skies of Sáttítla are renowned for being among the darkest in the United States where distant galaxies and stars are visible. The area also provides exceptional outdoor recreational opportunities, including hiking, biking, snowmobiling, camping, hunting, scenic driving and canoeing.
images: Sáttítla Highlands National Monument – Wikipedia; Active NorCal; Protect Medicine Lake Highlands
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Medicine Lake, California, USAKeywords
Medicine Lake, national monument, sattitla national monument
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