Get to Know Trinity County

Adventure Around Every Turn

Trinity Alps California

Trinity County is a large, rugged and mountainous, heavily forested county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California, along the Trinity River and within the Salmon/Klamath Mountains.

Trinity is best know for our:

The county takes its name from the Trinity River, named in 1845 by Major Pierson B. Reading, who was under the mistaken impression that the river emptied into Trinidad Bay. Trinity is the English translation of Trinidad.

Trinity County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county were given to Klamath County in 1852 and to Humboldt County in 1853.

Trinity County covers an area of 3,207.54 square miles — 3,178.61 square miles (or 99.10%) is land and 28.93 square miles is water. As of the 2010 census its population was 13,786, up from 13,022 at the 2000 census.

We enjoy no traffic lights, freeways, parking meters, or incorporated cities. Trinity County did not have a chain store or restaurant until 1999, when Burger King, Longs Drugs (now CVS/pharmacy), and Subway opened for business.

Weaverville, the county seat with a population of about 3,900 people., housing some of California’s oldest buildings. The courthouse, built in 1856, is the second oldest in the state, and until recently the Weaverville Drug Store had been filling prescriptions since 1852. The Joss House, built in 1873, is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California.

Trinity County is the center of a larger region and has several points of entry including Siskiyou County to the north, Mendocino County to the south, Shasta County to the east, Humboldt County to the west and Tehama County to the southeast. Independently and collectively they offer abundant adventure.

The county contains a significant part of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, home to the Trinity Alps Wilderness, and smaller parts of Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests. The county hosts many visitors, especially during summer months, for camping, backpacking, and fishing. The Klamath Mountains occupy the vast part of the county.

The summers are clear, sunny, warm, and very dry, with little rain from June to September except for some mountain thunderstorms in the highest elevations. The winters tend to have copious precipitation, falling mostly as rain under 3,300 feet in the valley bottoms, and mostly as snow over 3,300 feet on the mountainsides.

December, January, and February are the wettest. There is an extensive wild river and stream system, and the terrain is quite rugged and forested, with the highest points at around 9,000 feet.