The McLaughlin Natural Reserve

A part of the University of California Natural Reserve System, the McLaughlin Natural Reserve is located in a remote and wild section of the inner Coastal Range north of the San Francisco Bay Area. It straddles portions of Napa, Lake and Yolo Counties and encompasses numerous historic mining sites and former ranches.The largest visible feature is the open pit left by gold mining operations that ran from the 1980s to the early 2000s where reclamation and groundwater management continues to this day. Wildfire is also frequent, with large blazes in 2015 and 2020 that swept across significant portions of the reserve.