Bald Rock is a granite

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in

Butte County, California Butte County () is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville. Butte County comprises the Chico, California, metropolitan stat ...

, in the

Plumas National Forest Plumas National Forest is a 1,146,000-acre (464,000 ha) National forest (United States), United States national forest located in northern California at the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Forest was named after i ...

. Located close to

Lake Oroville Lake Oroville is a reservoir formed by the Oroville Dam impounding the Feather River, located in Butte County, California, Butte County, northern California. The lake is situated northeast of the city of Oroville, California, Oroville, within th ...

, the dome peak overlooks

Sacramento Valley The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...

and coastal mountain ranges.

History

The area was once home to the

Maidu The Maidu are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather River, Feather and American River, American ...

, a tribe of

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. They left the rock with many unique features, such as,

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organi ...

, grinding holes used to prepare acorns and grains.

Recreation

A short trail leads through the woods to the rock, which includes several

crevasses A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

and peculiar rock formations. The area is used for hiking, climbing, and

rappeling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in cont ...

. Camping is allowed but not closer than 300 yards from running water. The site also includes the ruin of a small shelter made from stacked rocks.

Fauna

The area is home to several animal species, including

snakes Snakes are elongated Limbless vertebrate, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales much like other members of ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

, and black bear.

References

Granite domes Rock formations of California Mountains of Butte County, California Mountains of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Plumas National Forest Maidu Mountains of Northern California {{ButteCountyCA-geo-stub

History

Recreation

Fauna

See also

References