Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California. It covers a total area of 27.8 square miles (72 km2), about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 89,833 at the 2020 census.
The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after California Governor Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr., the over 400-mile (640 km) aqueduct is the principal feature of the California State Water Project.
San Jacinto Peak is a 10,834 ft (3,302 m) peak in the San Jacinto Mountains, in Riverside County, California. Lying within Mount San Jacinto State Park it is the highest both in the range and the county, and serves as the southern border of the San Gorgonio Pass. Naturalist John Muir wrote of San Jacinto Peak, "The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!"
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, California, is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world. It was opened in September 1963 as a way of getting from the floor of the Coachella Valley to near the top of San Jacinto Peak and was constructed in rugged Chino Canyon. Before its construction, the only way to the top of the mountain was to hike hours from Idyllwild. The rotating cars were added in 2000.
The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of southern California, in the southwestern United States.
The Colorado River Aqueduct, or CRA, is a 242 mi (389 km) water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border, west across the Mojave and Colorado deserts to the east side of the Santa Ana Mountains. It is one of the primary sources of drinking water for Southern California.
State Route 74, part of which forms the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway or Pines to Palms Highway, and the Ortega Highway, is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs from Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano in Orange County to the city limits of Palm Desert in Riverside County. Stretching about 111 miles (179 km), it passes through several parks and National Forests between the Pacific coast and the Coachella Valley.
Diamond Valley Lake is a man-made off-stream reservoir located near Hemet, California, United States. It is one of the largest reservoirs in Southern California and also one of the newest. With a capacity of 800,000 acre-feet (990,000,000 m3), the lake nearly doubled the area's surface water storage capacity and provides additional water supplies for drought, peak summer, and emergency needs.
The Whitewater River is a small permanent stream in western Riverside County, California, with some upstream tributaries in southwestern San Bernardino County. The river's headwaters are in the San Bernardino Mountains, and it terminates at the Salton Sea in the Mojave Desert. The area drained by the Whitewater River is part of the larger endorheic Salton Sea drainage basin.
The San Jacinto River is a 42-mile-long (68 km) river in Riverside County, California. The river's headwaters are in Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. The lower portion of the 765-square-mile (1,980 km2) watershed is urban and agricultural land. As a partially endorheic watershed that is contiguous with other Great Basin watersheds, the western side of the San Jacinto Basin is a portion of the Great Basin Divide.
Whitewater is a census-designated place in Riverside County, California. It is directly off Interstate 10 halfway between North Palm Springs and Cabazon on the way from Palm Springs to Los Angeles. It is known as the site of the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm. The ZIP Code is 92282, and the community is inside area code 760. The population was 859 at the 2010 census. The elevation is 1,575 feet (480 m).
The Eastern Municipal Water District of Southern California is a regional water district formed in 1950 to secure additional water for a largely rural area of western Riverside County. In addition to water service, responsibilities include sewage collection, water desalination and water recycling.
The Cornelia White House is a historic 1893 wooden residential structure located in downtown Palm Springs, California, and is one of the oldest surviving structures in the town.
Mountain Center is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the San Jacinto Mountains, within western central Riverside County, California.
Lake Arrowhead is an artificial lake located in the San Bernardino Mountains on Little Bear Creek, a tributary of Deep Creek and the Mojave River. It has a surface area of approximately 780 acres (320 ha) and a capacity of 48,000 acre⋅ft (59,000 dam3). It is surrounded by the unincorporated community of Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino County, California.
Canyon Lake, sometimes referenced as Railroad Canyon Reservoir, is a reservoir created in 1928 by the construction of the Railroad Canyon Dam in Railroad Canyon or in the Temescal Mountains of southwestern Riverside County, California. The reservoir covers approximately 525 acres (212 ha), has 14.9 miles (24.0 km) of shoreline, and has a storage capacity of 11,586 acre⋅ft (14,291,000 m3). It is owned and operated by the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
The San Jacinto Valley is a valley located in Riverside County, in Southern California, in the Inland Empire. The valley is located at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in the east and Santa Rosa Hills to the south with the San Gorgonio Pass to the north. The average elevation is 1,500 feet (460 m), with the highest points in the foothills south of Hemet and the western slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains. It is home to two cities, Hemet and San Jacinto, and several unincorporated communities. According to the 2020 census, the valley has a combined population of over 190,000 residents, including more than 143,000 residents within the city limits of Hemet and San Jacinto. The valley is also where the story and play "Ramona" was set; the story was written after author Helen Hunt Jackson visited the valley in the 1880s. The valley is also known for being an area of agriculture, which has given way to more urbanized development.
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the United States. The name was derived from the city of Riverside, which is the county seat.
The San Jacinto tunnel is considered the key link in Colorado River Aqueduct system. The 13 mi (21 km) long, 16 ft diameter tunnel runs beneath the San Jacinto Mountains between Cabazon, California and Gilman Hot Springs in Riverside County, California.
Lake Hemet Dam, located in Mountain Center, California, impounds the South Fork of the San Jacinto River and creates Lake Hemet. The dam and lake are surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. The dam is operated by the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District, which supplies water to parts of the cities of Hemet and San Jacinto as well as the Garner Valley community of Mountain Center.
