Modoc National Forest

This is a hidden gem in California. Not many people know about Modoc National Forest, and yet it is beautiful to drive through. You will not find a lot of other people. The Forest roads are very well maintained. Follow our adventures @SLYSTRX

Great camping areas.

This is a great National Forest that is very under utilized. It has many hiking trails and places to camp. Blue lake is also a great place to fish.

Wild horses are a historic and priceless treasure to the people of California and all Americans alike. Yet the Modoc National Forest rounds them up to be sold for ONE dollar without limitations, meaning they end up in the Mexican horse slaughter plants. They are treating treasure as if it is trash. If you are visiting the Modoc National Forest, please, let them know you love wild horses and that you do not agree with how they treat them. Thank you.

Growing up in Modoc was spectacular and the forest is the place where you can take your family or to just to put your mind at ease. As a Forestry Technician for the US Forest Service I love working on the Modoc National Forest. Being outdoors with your family or by yourself is wonderful and a exciting adventure.

I love it here. I have visited many times. It is a place of solitude. Many visits here I never saw anyone but my family. There are many hiking trails and caves nearby. Also, there are petroglyphs here and there. If I stop and think about it I can smell the sweet smell of sage in late spring and hear the wind flowing by the juniper trees and rocks. It can be SO QUIET there. The history is interesting ----- Capt Jack otherwise known as Kintpuash was a Modoc Chief who had his family/tribal land taken from him and he returned hoping to just live out his life on the land his ancestors lived on --- and where he grew up. Instead he did amazing things to fend off the army and ended up hung. If you drive down through the lava beds you will see where Capt Jack aka Kintpuash unbelievably held off a large army with a small group of Native Americans. It is called "Capt Jack's Stronghold." I suggest you hike it early in the morning or late in the evening if it is summer time because I got heat stroke during a 90+ degree day when the lava made it about 110. This is from Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt but the story lines up with what I know. Kintpuash was born about 1837 into a Modoc family in their ancestral territory near Tule Lake. The Modoc occupied about 5,000 acres here, along what became the California-Oregon border after European settlement. In 1864 Jack and his family still lived in their ancestral home near Tule Lake. Due to the pressure of white settlers who wanted to farm the fertile land and were encroaching in this territory, Kintpuash and his family were among the Modoc removed by the United States to the Klamath Reservation in southwestern Oregon. This was primarily occupied by their traditional rivals, the much larger Klamath tribe. The Klamath outnumbered the newcomers, and the reservation was on traditional Klamath land; the Modoc complained of poor treatment and conflict with the Klamath. In 1865, Kintpuash, by then informally called Captain Jack by American settlers, led a band of Modoc from the reservation back to their home in California. In 1869, the band were rounded up by the United States Army and returned to the Klamath Reservation. Finding conditions had not improved, in April 1870, Captain Jack led a band of about 180 Modoc back to the Tule Lake area. Modoc War, 1872-73 In 1872, US Army forces were sent to capture Kintpuash's band and return them to the reservation. On November 29, while their surrender was being negotiated at the Lost River in Oregon, fighting broke out between a soldier and one of the Modoc warriors. The brief Battle of Lost River ensued.

Wild horses Are being rounded up from this national forest to be sold for $1 to kill buyers who will ship them off to Mexico and Canada for slaughter and consumption. Even though horse slaughter is illegal in California and all of the United States and the vast majority of Americans are against it. Thank you Sonny Perdue for continuing the decimation of our wildlife and wild lands that Trump and Zinke have started. You all must be so proud of what you are doing.

Shame on you, Modoc National Forest, for allowing wild horses to be sold without limitation and brutally slaughtered in Mexico. Spend a few extra bucks and rehome these horses or sterilize and release them. No excuses, USFS.

Travesty of Justice, what is being done to those wild horses. Horrible actions are indictive of the type of people in US Forest Services.

Fought fire here. July complex. Hope to come back and see it again after it recovers a bit. Lot's of history and beautiful sights.