| About Modoc National Forest |
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| The Medicine Lake Highlands |
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Reservation:
No
Season:
Mid-Spring - Mid-Fall
From Newell, Take Highway 139, follow the signs to the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge; then proceed south through the Lava Beds National Monument and follow the signs along Forest Road 49 to Medicine Lake. This route is a part of the Modoc Volcanic Scenic Byway.
Location Information
GENERAL INFORMATION: The Medicine Lake Highlands were formed with the development of a broad shield volcano. The center block collapsed along fractured lines, creating an enclosed basin or caldera, 6 miles long by 4 miles wide. Lava then squeezed up the fracture lines, forming rim volcanoes. The volcanoes discharged lava onto the caldera floor and down the outer edges of the original Lake Highlands. In your travels you will see most of the rim volcanoes, including Mt. Hoffman, Medicine Mountain, Badger Peak, Grouse Hill, Red Shale Butte, Glass Mountain, and Lyons Peak.Medicine Lake Highlands is also an area of moderately sloping to steep mountains. Vegetation consists of sugar pine, red and white fir and at higher elevations lodgepole pine with an understory of bitterbrush, manzanita, and snowbrush. Snow usually closes the Medicine Lake area between mid-November thru mid-June. During this time, an average of 10 feet of snow limited access by all but over-the-show vehicles and cross-country skiing. The Modoc Volcanic Scenic Byway traverses the area and includes Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Lava Beds National Monument, and portions of the Klamath, Shasta-Trinity, and Modoc National Forests. The route leads travelers through a volcanic area in Northeastern California unrivaled in North America for its volcanic features. The Medicine Lake volcano, a broad shield volcano, is the largest volcano in the Cascade Range. Lava spewed and oozed from many vents over a thousand square miles.
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