Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, National wildlife refuge in Sacramento County, California, United States

Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge covers seasonal and permanent wetlands, riparian forest, and grasslands south of Sacramento, within the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. It holds some of the last remaining freshwater lakes in the Central Valley. Paved walking trails and a natural playscape for children are on site; parking is free.

The refuge was established in 1994 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at a time when rapid urban growth around Sacramento was putting pressure on the natural land nearby. It was part of a broader effort to hold on to wetland and grassland areas that were disappearing across the Central Valley.

The refuge is supported by Friends of Stone Lakes, a non-profit group of volunteers who educate the public about this urban refuge and assist the refuge staff. Their work matters at a site with no visitor education center, where visitor numbers passed 8,500 in 2001.

Access times can vary by zone and season, so it is worth checking current conditions before heading out. The fall and spring migration periods tend to bring the most wildlife activity across the refuge.

Some of the freshwater lakes within the refuge are among the last naturally intact ones of their kind left in California's Central Valley, where most similar lakes have disappeared over the decades. Walking near them gives a sense of what this part of California looked like before large-scale land use changed it.