page_title: King Range Wilderness
section_title: California Coastal National Monument
hierarchical_section_title: King Range Wilderness / California Coastal National Monument
caption_attribution_description: English: Offshore rock of the California Coastal National Monument near Monterey, California
context_page_description: The King Range Wilderness is a 42,585-acre federally designated wilderness area within the King Range National Conservation Area in northern California, United States. The area was set aside with the passage of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2006. The Bureau of Land Management is the responsible agency and is currently working on a Management Plan for the King Range Wilderness. This section of California's coastline is known as the "Lost Coast", a landscape too rugged for highway building, which forced the construction of State Highway 1 and U.S. 101 inland. The King Range Wilderness is the longest undeveloped coast, outside of Alaska, in the United States.
  The Act of 2006 also set aside an area three geographical miles offshore as the Rocks and Islands Wilderness. It is the smallest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System, with a total size of five acres.
  The King Range is part of the Coast Ranges mountains and has the greatest relief in the shortest distance of all coast ranges in the state. In the lateral distance of three miles, the King Range rises from sea level to over 4,000 feet.
context_section_description: President Bill Clinton established the California Coastal National Monument (CCNM) on January 11, 2000 under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. The purpose of the CCNM, as stated in the Presidential Proclamation, is to protect and manage biological and geological resources by protecting "all unappropriated or unreserved lands and interest in the lands owned or controlled by the United States in the form of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and
  pinnacles above mean high tide within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the shoreline of the State of California." The proclamation also functions to elevate California's offshore lands to a national level of concern and focuses management on protection of geologic features and lifeforms. The CCNM has more than 20,000 rocks and islands and extends more than 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) along California's coast.
caption: California Coastal National Monument
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