The term Marble Mountains is a common term for the northwestern portion of the

Salmon Mountains The Salmon Mountains are a subrange of the Klamath Mountains in Siskiyou County, northwestern California. Geography The Salmon Mountains are a sub-mountain range within the Klamath Mountains System. The Klamath system are of the Pacific Coast ...

range in northwestern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The Salmon Mountains are themselves a sub-range of the

Klamath Mountains The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly populated mountain range in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a mountain system within both the greater Pacific Coast Ranges and the California Coast ...

, which are a constituent part of the greater Northwest U.S. Coast Ranges. The local name derives from Marble Mountain and Black Marble Mountain, prominent peaks and the namesake of the surrounding Marble Mountain Wilderness Area. The term "Marble Mountains" is commonly applied not only to the ridges of Marble Mountain and Black Marble Mountain themselves but as a name for the northwestern ranges of the Salmon Mountains. The Marble Mountain Wildernesshttps://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/cs/recarea?ss=110308&navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&navid=110240000000000&pnavid=null&position=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&recid=59664&ttype=recarea&pname=Marble%20Mountains%20Wilderness%20Area is a forested area and contains 89 lakes stocked with trout. Large streams have steelhead trout and salmon. Bear, deer and other wildlife are plentiful. Long recognized for its wild value, this region became a Primitive area in 1931, a Wilderness in 1953, and a part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. The area where the Marble Mountains now exist was once part of the flat bottom of an ancient, shallow ocean. Millions of years ago, violent volcanic upheavings and the erosive cutting action of rivers and glaciers combined to form the Marble Mountains. Marble Mountain itself is composed primarily of prehistoric marine invertebrates. Almost all the lakes of the Marble Mountains were formed by ancient glacial activity. The

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

runs through the wilderness near the crest of the range for . The Marble Mountain Wilderness features an unparalleled diversity of plant life found nowhere else in the state. More species of conifers (17) live in proximity here than any place else in the world. These trees include the Brewer's spruce,

incense cedar ''Calocedrus'', the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. It is native to eastern Asia and western North America. The generic n ...

Western Juniper ''Juniperus occidentalis'', known as the western juniper, is a shrub or tree native to the Western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of and rarely down to . It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is a wides ...

;

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

, and

Shasta red fir ''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rare ...

;

Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...

mountain hemlock ''Tsuga mertensiana'', known as mountain hemlock, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, found between Southcentral Alaska and south-central California. Description ''Tsuga mertensiana'' is a large evergreen conifer ...

, Pacific yew; and whitebark, knobcone, foxtail, lodgepole, sugar, ponderosa, and

Western white pine Western white pine (''Pinus monticola''), also called silver pine and California mountain pine, is a species of pine in the family Pinaceae. It occurs in mountain ranges of northwestern North America. It is the state tree of Idaho. Description ...

. The Marble Mountains form part of the drainages of the

Salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

, Scott, and Klamath rivers. Marble Mountain can be reached by trail access via State Route 96 between Hamburg and Somes Bar, State Route 3 via the Scott River Road between Scott Bar and Fort Jones or State Route 3 via Salmon River Road.

References

{{reflist Klamath Mountains Mountain ranges of Siskiyou County, California Klamath National Forest California Coast Ranges Mountain ranges of Northern California