Cleveland National Forest

Cleveland National Forest, the southernmost national forest in California, spans 460,000 acres in fragmented tracts across San Diego, Riverside, and Orange counties. Its chaparral canyons, high-desert terrain, meadows, and higher-elevation oak and conifer stands sit on lands long used by Kumeyaay, Payómkawichum, Cahuilla, and Cupeño peoples, whose traditional routes still shape many trails. Created in 1908 from the Trabuco Canyon and San Jacinto national reserves and named for Grover Cleveland, the forest has been profoundly shaped by wildfire, including the devastating Cedar Fire of 2003. It has also been a site of Indigenous land protest and remains a heavily used recreational and managed landscape.

Oak Grove, California · United States