Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness — Attraction in Willits

A Yolla Bolly’s Wild Adventure, up Indian Dick Road: This place I have history with, but this was way more wild and dangerous than I ever could have expected …

I asked the friendly Native Ranger, located in a Native American Reservation abutting the Yolla Bolly Wilderness, if there were any alerts or things I should be aware of. She smiled, nodded, “no” then pauses, “ah, but there is a heat warning and possible dry lightnight this weekend”. As I discovered that was the least of my worries, though the 90+ degree heat at 6,000+ft was no doubt difficult.

Funny about Indian Dick road, where you can see the “Little Dick” formation in the picts (larger one is a bit of a hike), where this road is full of abandoned burned out cars, and goes for about 40 miles of sunken, damaged, and boulder filled road through a variety of twisted and burned out forests.

The Yolla Bolly’s themselves are not burned out, but after not being there for 28 or so years, I noted that rock slides, floods, lack of forest managment, and climate change had changed the place immensely. The fact that nobody has been hiking there for many years, and the trails and signs are all completely wiped out, it took every ounce of energy to hike in the place. My topo-mapping skills had to do, though unfortunately I followed a feeble guess in the beginning of my backpack trip that pushed me to a dangerous limit away from my destination. Bush whacking, and sliding, down steep hills was just part of the adventure.

The “Welcome Sign-in Kiosk” was my warning sign, where the moment I opened it and reached in I was bit in the pinky by a wasp. I then began traversing the thorn filled hillsides, and river walking through massive boulders and rushing water, the longest 3 miles ever. I never found a trail, and thus the feeble guess I had mentioned prior got me into a bit of a death march. Been there done that …

So it was glorious to find a beautiful camp with one natural pool after another, and it was like the old days with nobody around for miles … clothes not needed. Like me the birds and animals found this place to be paradise; many of the birds were breeding, like the Common Mergansers, Spotted Sandpipers, American Dippers, Canyon Wrens, Lazuli Buntings, Black Headed Grosbeaks and many more. The largest black bear track I had ever seen, very fresh near my camp, along with mountain lion tracks, did make it interesting. Just hang the food, make noise periodically, and cross your fingers.

You can see in the photos that there are some magical rock and lava formations, and as this is the headwaters of the Eel River they are being exposed to intense water, volcanic, and earthquake transformation.

Hiking out today I tapped my intuition again for a better outcome, just a few slips and falls, and wrangling with the unmaintained trail, led me back to Rover (my truck).

If you have not woken up on a Sunday, with the sun rising and birds doing their morning practice calls, along with no reason to do anything other than look up at the sky, jump in the water, and move slow, then I suggest finding a place to do just that...

I barely entered this wilderness on 8/19/2005 to see Archer Cabin built by McIsaacs in the 1950s with a corral before you get to Indian Dick RS. It was a cattleman's line shack for grazing and lost in the August Complex of 2020. There is a picture of it posted under Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. Also flew over on 8/19/04 to see Solomon Pk. and Hammerhorn Mtn. Lookout sites. Sparsely visited wilderness in CA. Mountainous! Learned that Georges Valley is named for George Foster, of a family in the area as well as Potter Valley area. George lived in his valley. Also learned the steel? coils for the Balm of Gilead suspension bridge were brought in by...

This place was awesome. We did a 4 day backcountry hunting trip we didn't see any of the animals we were hunting but the views are absolutely breath taking. The photos I am posting belong to me. I am sharing them to show the beauty of the wilderness. I do not give any person or entity to use the photos for...