The Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness is a large federally protected mountain wilderness in northern California, spanning the Yolla Bolly Range and parts of several national forests. Its name joins Wintun words meaning snow-covered high peak with the Middle Fork of the Eel River. Protection evolved from an early twentieth-century primitive area, first established in 1927, narrowed in 1931, then secured under the Wilderness Act of 1964 and expanded in 1984 and 2006. Its rugged terrain, from about 2,700 feet to 8,092 feet at Mount Linn, shelters important river headwaters, varied forests and meadows, notable plant communities, abundant wildlife, and a remote landscape still valued for primitive recreation and preservation.