Ishi Wilderness, Red Bluff CA

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Information about Ishi Wilderness...

The Ishi Wilderness was named in honor of the last member of the Yahi Yana tribe, which had been wiped out by white settlers.

After negotiating the paved and dirt road from Chico, we headed into Deer Creek Canyon.

We started off hiking through a fire zone, for much of the canyon was charred during the summer of 1990. The aroma of California bay trees, freed by flame and sun, permeated the air along the path. There were volcanic cliffs and lava pillar formations, and Deer Creek wound through the lush canyon floor below. The trail passed beneath a massive face of knobby lava and between two towering lava monuments.

We descended to the creek and looked for a suitable campsite. Because of the dearth of flat ground, the Forest Service doesn't enforce the rule requiring camping 100 feet from water and trails. A further complication is the veritable jungle on the canyon floor; clearings are scarce except high on dry ridges. We found a spot off-trail that had been kept brush-free by winter high water. There was enough horizontal space for sleeping, fine sitting rocks, plenty of driftwood, and a waterfall sonata.

The day is different in canyon country. Direct sun leaves the canyon floor by late afternoon, yet darkness doesn't fall for hours. Rays retreat up south-facing walls until ridge tops are scarlet from the sunset. Then night envelops the abyss. The history of the Ishi Wilderness Area was recently commemorated by an award-winning documentary film, "Ishi ~ The Last Yahi." The Yahi Yana tribe occupied the Ishi's canyons for 3,000 years. Ishi was the last member to emerge from the area in 1911; the rest of his people had been displaced (often killed) by the flood of California-bound settlers. His remaining few years were spent in San Francisco with anthropologists, who recorded the only firsthand knowledge of the Yahi Yana.

The Yahi home exterminated by civilization is now protected from civilization. In 1984, the 41,000-acre area that Ishi once roamed was designated as the Ishi Wilderness.

Ishi Wilderness, within the Lassen National Forest, offers a rare chance to walk miles in the moccasins of the  man for whom the area is named, Ishi, last survivor of the Yahi Yana people.  This tribe of brave and proud Native Americans escaped invading settlers, living free and undetected in the Deer Creek area for many years. In August of 1911, having outlived the rest of his tribe, Ishi, overcome by hunger and loneliness walked out of his wilderness home. He was discovered, emaciated and frightened, in a slaughter house near Oroville, California from which he embarked on an epic journey that eventually led him to UC Berkley where he was an inspiration as well as a living legend.

These days Ishi’s remote homeland remains as it was when Ishi himself walked the trails that we are all free to explore today. The outback, mystical interior of Ishi Wilderness has stunning rugged landscapes and bizarre lava rock formations shaped over the  millennia by wind, water and the powerful eruptions of the Mt. Lassen Volcano. Deer and Mill Creeks have bubbled along in the Ishi Wilderness carving deep canyons since long before the Yahi Yana fished the annually migrating salmon and steel head from their rushing waters. Spanning over more than 40,000 acres, Ishi Wilderness is a mysterious place to explore over and over again.

This is a place to truly walk with the animals as a large variety of wildlife call Ishi Wilderness home. Common sightings include deer, fox, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, wild hogs, rabbits and many, many species of birds from tiny hummingbirds to soaring majestic eagles.  Ishi Wilderness is also home to to a large bear population so visitors should always store food in safe containers and tie it up out of their reach.

One part of Ishi Wilderness that is beyond OUR reach is any artifact that Ishi and his neighbors may have left behind, all are protected by Federal Law and are not to be disturbed. Removal of any native artifact is a felony and strictly forbidden. These rules are  part of maintaining the wild beauty here, leave it for next group of hikers to enjoy. Ishi Wilderness is not for the faint of heart and visits to any remote wilderness should be well planned. Wilderness means no services, anywhere, of any kind. Make sure to bring enough drinking water to last the duration of your stay. Summer temperatures soar in the lower elevations of Ishi Wilderness, and dehydration comes on quickly in hot dry weather. Rattlesnakes like hot weather  as well and sightings are the norm in this wild place. This neck of the woods is as rugged and unforgiving as it is beautiful and enchanting.

Black Rock Campground hosts the only set campsites (no fee) with fire rings, stall toilets and picnic tables but even this area is 20 challenging miles from any main road.   Black Rock Campground can be accessed by following Ponderosa Way just West of Mineral, Ca and East of Paynes Creek, Ca off Hwy 36.