Whale Gulch takes its name from the 4 mile gulch that starts from the Pacific Ocean at the south and rises north to the top of Chemise Mountain, an elevation of 2500 feet. This remote unincorporated area is located in the northwestern most section of Mendocino County and is bordered by rural Southern Humboldt County to the north and east. 

The terrain of Whale Gulch is extremely steep, rugged and heavily forested. The contour of the gulch runs parallel with the ocean and divides the two watersheds that run through the area. On the east side all the springs and creeks feed into the Headwaters of the Mattole River including its tributary Thompson Creek, which supports the largest population of endangered Coho salmon in the entire Mattole River watershed. On the west side all the springs eventually feed into Whale Gulch Creek which flows southwest into the ocean. 

The Community of Whale Gulch is at the heart of the “Lost Coast” and is one of the last remaining sections of California coastline with no highway. The main access for the community is the 8 mile narrow and winding single lane Usal/Chemise Mountain County Road. This remote hamlet is bordered by wilderness areas to the north and south and is isolated from the rest of Mendocino County along the coast by the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. A little further inland additional undeveloped land which includes the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness runs along the southern Usal‘s 26 miles of unmaintained dirt road (open in the summer to 4 wheel drive vehicles with a local recommendation to carry a chain saw and shovel) which ends as it meets Highway 1 near Rockport. On its northern end Whale Gulch stretches into Humboldt County’s Chemise Mountain Wilderness Area which borders the King Range National Conservation Area. 

Dotting the hillsides, nestled in among the trees sit the 85 off the grid homesteads which make Whale Gulch a community, one that began when the first new settlers arrived out of the “back to the land movement”, in the late 1960’s. Like other early pioneers, out of necessity, the residents of Whale Gulch have become a very close-knit group of independent homesteaders living on the land without any municipal power or water with telephone as the only public utility with its lines running underground to preserve the pristine nature of the area.

Over the last 50 years, with a great spirit of adventure, love of life and a deep respect for Mother Nature the new settlers of Whale Gulch joined together creating four volunteer based organizations and a school for their children. 

In 1973 out of the aftermath of the Finley Creek wildland fire the community formed the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company. 

In 1978 they created their own nonprofit 501(c)(3), Coastal Headwaters Association Inc. to manage stream and river restoration projects and to parent the Fire Company so they could begin raising funds to build a small firehouse for their first donated equipment. 

In 1983 the community raised the money to purchase a piece of property on which to build two elementary classrooms and a small kitchen. This site has now grown into the two acre K-12 solar powered Whale Gulch School. 

In 2007 the WG community formed its 2nd volunteer nonprofit, the Whale Gulch Community Watershed Council, to preserve the existing 25 acre community owned parcel for the conservation of the watershed and to manage this land in an ecologically sound manner by safeguarding against any development that would have an adverse impact on the flow and quality of water into the Thompson Creek Salmon habitat. 

In early 2021 the Whale Gulch Community once again came together to found the Whale Gulch Fire Safe Council to support the WGVF Company and to educate, empower and unite the community in fire prevention and emergency preparedness by encouraging the implementation of fire safe practices as they continue their efforts to steward these wildlands in honor of its original human inhabitants the Sinkyone People. 

The work of these Whale Gulch organizations represent the heart and soul of the community and hand-in-hand they support, protect and nurture the watersheds, wildlife, wilderness and people that define this rare and pristine section of the planet they call home.