The Lone Volcano in California’s Central Valley

It’s Thursday. What’s that tiny mountain range in the Central Valley? Plus, how to visit the Monterey Peninsula on a budget.

The Sutter Buttes are a cluster of volcanic domes about 55 miles northwest of Sacramento, and the remains of the Central Valley’s lone, and now dormant, volcano.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York Times

On a recent drive north of Sacramento, I spotted a row of knobby peaks that looked more like a children’s book illustration than real-life mountains.

There were crooked domes and sharp crags, ringed by carpets of bright green grass. And it was compact enough that I could see the entire range from beginning to end.

These are the Sutter Buttes, a cluster of volcanic domes about 55 miles northwest of Sacramento and the remains of the Central Valley’s lone, and now dormant, volcano. The U.S. Geological Survey calls the Buttes “a remarkable geographic and geologic feature” emerging from what are otherwise flatlands extending out for miles.

For generations, the Buttes have also been a beloved landmark for locals.

“Coming home from Southern California or Oregon, or Tahoe or San Francisco, there they are, the Sutter Buttes rising mysteriously out of the Sacramento Valley,” one reader, Martha Bunce, who lives in Yuba County, told me. “Around here we say, ‘When you see the Buttes, you know you’re home.’”