Hope Valley Area
Map SatelliteAn outstanding mountain meadow with large treeless areas of grassland and marsh interspersed with forested and scrub-covered slopes, Hope Valley is located just to the east of the Sierran crest at an average elevation over 2,135 meters (7,000 feet). It is the largest extant pristine meadow in the Sierra Nevada not completely under Federal jurisdiction, and it is comparable in scenic, scientific and educational aspects to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park .
The upper slopes and the areas of gravelly soil in the valley are covered with a lodgepole pine forest, Pinus murrayana, interspersed with large groves of quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides. On the valley floor, which is traversed by the west fork of the Carson River, vegetation is primarily that of a moist meadow, with numerous perennial herbs, several grasses such as Agrostis sp., Aira sp., and several sedges, Carex spp. There are willow, Salix sp., thickets along the banks of the river.
The valley is surrounded by moderately steep volcanic ridges. A shallow but large lake filled the valley until approximately 7,000 B.P., well after the close of the Pleistocene.
Integrity: Roads traverse the valley and the area is grazed, portions heavily so, but this has not materially altered the vegetation. There is a campsite in the valley.
Use: Educational, research, observational in public portion. Remainder private.
September 1975
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman