Mount Saint Helena
| Mount Saint Helena | |
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Mount Saint Helena, viewed from Northern Napa Valley
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 4,342 ft (1,323 m) NAVD 88 |
| Prominence | 1,823 ft (556 m) |
| Listing | California county high points 44th |
| Coordinates | 38°40′10″N 122°38′01″W / 38.669340858°N 122.633487528°WCoordinates: 38°40′10″N 122°38′01″W / 38.669340858°N 122.633487528°W |
| Geography | |
 Mount Saint Helena
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| Parent range | Mayacamas Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Saint Helena |
Mount Saint Helena (Wappo: Kanamota, "Human Mountain") is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall during the winter.
The mountain has five peaks, arranged in a rough "M" shape. Its highest point, North Peak, is in Sonoma County. The second-tallest, immediately east of the main summit, is the highest point in Napa County. The headwaters of the Napa River are on the southeast slope of Mount Saint Helena.
Mount Saint Helena has had an explosive history of pyroclastic flows that resulted in The Petrified Forest.
Mount Saint Helena was originally named Mount Mayacamas, but the name was changed after a Russian survey party ascended the peak in 1841 and left a copper plate on the summit inscribed with the date of their visit. The plate also bore the name of Princess Helena de Gagarin, wife of Count Alexander G. Rotchev, the commanding officer of Fort Ross.
Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne spent the summer of 1880 honeymooning in an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. Stevenson's book The Silverado Squatters includes his experiences while living there. The mount is also described by Ambrose Bierce in his ghost story The Death of Halpin Frayser.
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