Only 16 of the 138 U.S. National Monuments are found in National Forests, and many of those are jointly administered with the Bureau of Land Management (the BLM ones will be covered in a future Top 10 List).  Moreover, ten of them are located in only two states (California and Colorado).  However, that does not mean they are not worth checking out.  We have visited 15 with the exception of Admiralty Island in Alaska (but did read Alone in the Fortress of the Bears by Bruce L. Nelson), so we have an educated opinion in our ranking.  Click here to see all our Top 10 Lists, including our Top 10 National Monuments Managed by the National Park Service.

Learn more about all the National Monuments in our new book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

10. Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains (California)

A gondola ride up into Mt. San Jacinto State Park is the easiest way to access these mountains south of Palm Springs where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs

9. Camp Hale–Continental Divide (Colorado)

During World War II, the 10th Mountain Division trained in this section of the Rocky Mountains

8. Browns Canyon (Colorado)

The only legal way to access these lands is on a whitewater rafting trip

7. Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon (Arizona)

The second newest of these 16 National Monuments includes the pictographs in Snake Gulch, part of Kaibab National Forest

6. Chimney Rock (Colorado)

This hilltop pueblo in San Juan National Forest may have been an astronomical observatory used for ceremonial purposes

5. Bears Ears (Utah)

La Sal National Forest’s Dark Canyon Wilderness has natural arches and cliff dwellings, as does the BLM portion of this sprawling National Monument

4. Misty Fiords (Alaska)

The first National Monument in a National Forest was created in 1978 and is best explored by floatplane from Ketchikan

3. Mount St. Helens (Washington)

The forest is quickly recovering in this area devastated by the 1980 volcanic eruption

2. Newberry (Oregon)

Beautiful lakes, waterfalls, and volcanic features are protected within Deschutes National Forest

…and finally our #1 National Monument in a National Forest

1. Giant Sequoia (California)

Not as busy as Sequoia National Park, there are some impressive giant sequoia trees found here (including the Boole Tree, one of our favorites)

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Honorable Mentions

Sand to Snow (California)

We are mostly familiar with the BLM part of this National Monument, but it stretches up into the San Gorgonio Wilderness of San Bernardino National Forest

San Gabriel Mountains (California)

Trails abound in the peaks that rise up to 10,068 feet above the Los Angeles metropolitan area

Berryessa Snow Mountain (California)

This portion of Mendocino National Forest is less than 100 miles from San Francisco

Admiralty Island (Alaska)

A large population of grizzly/brown bears occupies the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in Tongass National Forest 

Saint Francis Dam Disaster (California)

The site of this deadly dam failure is still under development within Angeles National Forest

Sáttítla Highlands (California)

The newest of these 16 National Monuments was created in 2025 from portions of Klamath, Modoc, and Shasta National Forests

Learn more about all the National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments