There are 37 National Natural Landmarks in California.[1]
| Name | Image | Date | Location | County | Ownership | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management) | A 6,000-year-old volcanic cinder cone, made up of pahoehoe, just off historic U.S. Highway 66. | |||||
| American River Bluffs and Phoenix Park Vernal Pools | 38.6529°N -121.2167°W | Federal (United States Bureau of Reclamation), state (California State Parks), and municipal (Fair Oaks Recreation and Park District) | Contains vernal pools, and blue oak woodlands.[2] | |||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | One of the largest mainland breeding grounds for the northern elephant seal.[3] | |||||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | The largest desert state park in the nation.[4] | |||||
| Private | The largest known nesting area for great blue herons and great and snowy egrets on the Pacific Coast.[5] | |||||
| Private | A small three-level cave containing a variety of speleothems and some of the best helictite formations in the western U.S.[6] | |||||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | Contains some of the best examples in the western United States of a river drainage regulated by stratigraphically controlled springs.[7] | |||||
| Federal (Mojave National Preserve) | A complex of over 20 large cinder cones of recent origin with extensive and continuous lava flows.[8] | |||||
| Cosumnes River Riparian Woodlands | Private, Federal, State, and County | A small remnant of a rapidly-disappearing riparian woodland community type that once formed a major part of the central valley.[9] | ||||
| Deep Springs Marsh | 37.3333°N -118.0175°W | Private | An example of increasingly rare desert marsh.[10] | |||
| Private | The best example of valley needlegrass grassland in the central valley.[11] | |||||
| State (University of California Natural Reserve System) | A largely undisturbed watershed containing large old stands of Douglas fir, broadleaf evergreens, and deciduous trees.[12] | |||||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | An outstanding example of glacial geology.[13] | |||||
| Federal (Death Valley National Park) | The tallest dune complex in the Great Basin.[14] | |||||
| Mixed- federal (Bureau of Land Management), state, municipal | A large, essentially undisturbed, desert wetland that provides habitat for the alkali mariposa lily and the endangered Owens pupfish.[15] | |||||
| Mixed- federal (Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge), state, private | A coastal dune tract with off-road vehicle recreation, a national wildlife refuge, beaches, and nesting for the western snowy plover.[16] | |||||
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management) | One of the largest dune patches in the United States.[17] | |||||
| Mixed- state, county, municipal | A remarkably complete stratigraphic succession ranging in age from late Cretaceous to the present.[18] | |||||
| Private | A well-decorated Solutional cave that contains a diverse assemblage of calcite cave formations.[19] | |||||
| Lanphere Dunes and Ma-le'l Dunes | 2021 | Humboldt | Federal (Bureau of Land Management, Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge) | Considered to be the largest and best quality sand dune ecosystems representing coastal dunes in the area.[20] | ||
| Federal (Marine Corps Air Station Miramar) | Contains unique soil features called mima mounds, which are found in only three or four locations in the country, and vernal pools.[21] | |||||
| Mitchell Caverns and Winding Stair Cave | State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | Regarded as the most important solution caverns in the Mojave Desert.[22] | ||||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | One of the few areas in the region where geologic strata of Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary age can be seen in an aggregate thickness of 42000feet.[23] | |||||
| Federal (Shasta-Trinity National Forest) | One of the world's largest and most impressive stratovolcanoes, within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.[24] | |||||
| Private | One of the few remaining natural vernal pools containing rare endemic crustacean species such as vernal pool fairy shrimp.[25] | |||||
| 36.5171°N -121.9426°W | State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | An outstanding example of terrestrial and marine environments in close association, and the only known habitat of Monterey cypress and variegated brodiaea.[26] | ||||
| State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | Includes a five step ecological staircase on which a unique forest of low, stunted trees and shrubs is located.[27] | |||||
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management) | Deep erosion canyons with rugged rims with fossil evidence of insects and Miocene mammals.[28] | |||||
| La Brea Tar Pits (Rancho La Brea) | Municipal (City of Los Angeles) | Site of the world-famous natural asphalt tar pits.[29] | ||||
| Private | One of the best illustrations of earth displacement caused by small crustal movements.[30] | |||||
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management), state (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) | A marsh containing probably the last remaining perennial natural desert stream in the Colorado Desert region.[31] | |||||
| Private | A remnant natural area displaying a great diversity of floral species including the Bakersfield cactus.[32] | |||||
| Private | One of the most abundant, diverse and well- preserved fossil marine vertebrate sites in the world.[33] | |||||
| Federal (Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve), state, municipal | One of the finest remaining saltwater marshes on the California coastline.[34] | |||||
| Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve | State (California Department of Parks and Recreation) | Contains a natural Torrey pine forest, high bluffs and sea cliffs, and endangered bird species.[35] | ||||
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management) | A relict landform from the Pleistocene containing unique formations of calcium carbonate.[36] | |||||
| Federal (Bureau of Land Management), state | Contains two mountain sections of entirely different composition.[37] | |||||