Golden Gate Photo - Klamath Mountains/Trinity Alps Gallery
Fine Art Photography from the Klamath Mountains and Trinity Alps of Northwestern California.


The Klamath Mountains, which extent into southwestern Oregon, are rugged, generally north-south trending ridges from 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) to 9,000+ feet (2,740+ meters) above sea level. They formed over 100s of millions of years (Early Paleozoic Era through the Cretaceous Period) as sections of the seafloor repeatedly slammed into the North American Plate. The episodes resulted in at least seven roughly north-south mountain belts composed of accreted terrane (slices of oceanic continent that stuck to the North American Plate) and/or uplifted blocks of the continent. Each belt is characterized by a unique assemblage, which include a variety of plutonic, metamorphic, volcanic, and/or sedimentary rocks. Some of the eastern portions of this range include the heavily glaciated rugged peaks of the Trinity Alps. In 1984, 513,000 Acres of the Trinity Alps were designated as wilderness. The Klamath Mountains are one of the stops on the Geomorphic Provinces Geotour.

Mount Eddy and Ultramafic Boulders

Mount Eddy and Ultramafic Boulders

Named after Nelson Harvey Eddy, an early pioneer, Mount Eddy is the highest point in the Klamath Mountains at an elevation of 9,025 feet. The boulders in the foreground are ultramafic, a classification of rocks with relatively high iron-magnesium and low silica content. They are more unstable than other rock types exposed at the surface, and are distinguished here by the rind of reddish iron-oxide.

Print No. A99NW-24-4

Check out the View of
Mount Shasta from Mount Eddy.

Castle Crags

Castle Crags

Castle Crags are 170 to 225 million year old granitic spires along the east side of the Klamath Ranges. They formed from silica-rich magma rising through older sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the range, much in the same way as the granitic peaks of the Sierra Nevada. And like the Sierra crest, the granitic rocks were eventually exposed at the surface after much uplift and erosion. During the Pleistocene ice-ages, glaciers carved the domes and masses into sharp peaks.

Print No. A99NW-25-4

Smith River Contact

Smith River Contact

In this view looking downstream, the lighter-colored banded bedrock in the lower left corner are the Jurassic-age Galice Sediments, layers of shallow to deep ocean rock fragments worn round and washed into the ocean by rivers, later to be cemented together. Beneath them, further in the distance, the bedrock underlying the sediments, is basalt of the Jurassic-age Rogue Volcanics which form part of the ocean crust. Both the sediments and basalt were scraped off the top of the ocean crust and thrust onto the continent as the ocean floor was subducted below the continental crust.

Print No. A99NW-4-8

Trinity Alps from Mount Eddy

Trinity Alps from Mount Eddy

Looking southwest from the peak of Mount Eddy is the ridgeline of the Trinity Mountains. The Trinity Alps are barely visible in the distance. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trial closely follows the zigzagging ridgeline to the south, as does the Trinity County/Siskiyou County boundary.

Print No. A99NW-24-8

Brandy Creek Falls

Brandy Creek Falls

Brandy Creek Falls, located in the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, is where Brandy Creek cascades down a 25-foot (8 meter) drop on its way to Whiskeytown Lake.

Print No. A01NW-1-1

Black Bear in Brandy Creek

Black Bear in Brandy Creek

This teenage black bear was spotted heading down Brandy Creek near Sheep Camp in the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Here is a close-up of the bear.

Print No. A01NW-1-4

Shasta Bally

Shasta Bally

Shasta Bally rises to an elevation of 6,209 feet (1,893 meters) to the southwest of Whiskeytown Lake. Shasta Bally is a knob of biotite quartz diorite of Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous age.

Print No. A01NW-1-7

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