They extend southward for more than 60 miles (97 km) to where the coastline turns eastward along the Santa Barbara Channel, around the area of Point Conception.

All of the range has been folded and faulted during several periods, with erosion of the softer rock giving much of the current appearance.

[citation needed] The California Ranges had a high production of mercury following the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada.

They run parallel to the Pacific Coast from the North San Francisco Bay Area to coastal Del Norte County.

Clear Lake lies in the southeast portion of the range, and drains eastward via Cache Creek.

Columbian Black-tailed Deer are the most widespread large mammal, after humans, of the Northern Coast Ranges.

The Southern Coast Ranges have a predominantly Mediterranean climate, and are primarily within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.

Isolated groves of Coast redwoods are also found in the Big Sur region of the Santa Lucia Range, making them the southernmost natural occurrences of the species.

Notably, the highest slopes of the Santa Lucias contain small patches of Sierran Conifer forest, including incense cedar, and ponderosa, Jeffrey, and sugar pines.

[5] Riparian species of the coast ranges include sycamore, white alder, willows, and bigleaf maple.

Columbian Black-tailed deer occupy the northern and more coastal portions of the Southern Coast Ranges, and California mule deer occupy inland and southernmost portions of the Southern Coast Ranges.